A Book Signing with Sully

Diablo intern Allie Schratz gets up close and personal with Danville's pilot/hero at Rakestraw Books. Sully to appear at Danville Costco this Saturday.

I figured a book signing and discussion featuring Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in Danville would pack the house, but what I didn’t expect to see was a line of people waiting clear past the front doors of Amber Bistro twenty minutes before the start, most of them ticket-less and hoping they’d be let in.

Fortunately, just about all of them made it through the doors of Rakestraw Books just in time to see their smiling local hero make his way to the front of the room.

“It's been an amazing year of firsts,” Sully said before his audience, many of whom had to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the back just to catch a glimpse of him. “Never did I expect to be famous, never did I expect to land in a river, and never did I expect to be an author.”

His book Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters came out last week, providing a way to get to know the man under the pilot cap. Through 352 pages, Sully and co-author Jeffrey Zaslow describe Sullenberger's childhood in Denison, Texas, where he discovered his ambition to be a pilot at age five and earned his pilot license as a teenager. Readers will be charmed by his family-oriented values and blown away by personal reflections on his 29-year career with the airlines, as well as his insights into the 208 seconds he spent guiding the Airbus A320 into the Hudson River.

Sully climbed back into the cockpit on October 1 for his first publicized flight with US Airways, and it was double deja-vu: his first officer from Flight 1549, Jeffrey Skiles, sat beside him as they successfully completed the flight from La Guardia to Charlotte, N.C. and back again. Since returning to the skies, Sully said his routine address to passengers now generates much more applause than it used to.

“I’m a fast learner,” he said. “I’ve learned to wait three or four seconds after telling them who I am.”

Most of the evening was driven by questions from the audience, which ranged from the technical to the emotional. Others were downright humorous: when asked what was easier, landing a plane on the ground or in the water, Sully quipped, “Well, I’ve only landed in the water once.”

The second half of the evening was dedicated to Sully’s book signing, and although I didn’t arrive at his table until about 25 minutes after he started, he was still as cheerful as he’d been during his discussion. “Do you still have the model airplane you received from your parents for your eighth Christmas?” I asked him, in reference to the first photograph published midway through the book while he signed his nickname on the title page. He smiled. “Unfortunately, no.”

If you missed his Rakestraw appearance on Monday, don’t worry—you have another chance to meet the heroic pilot at the Danville Costco this Saturday, Oct. 24 at 1:30 p.m.
 

Posted at 05:19 PM in News and Community | Permalink