Originally Posted by Lookleft
What in my mind demonstrates Captain Sullenberger's professionalism aside from his flying of the aircraft is that he knew, from studying and knowing his aircraft, that the correct ditching attitude was 11 degrees. A very small note in the QRH states this. Any more than that and the aircraft would have slammed down on the water, any less and the engines would have "bit" into the water and caused a break-up.
You may read the report first as well ...
The 11 degrees attitude was refused to the pilot even if adequate margin in the AoA before attaining alpha max was available ...
He could not pull more than 9.5 degrees attitude in the flare due to obscure system restriction.