If you take one of the first flights out in the morning, typically the airplane and the crew have arrived the night before. When you're not waiting on an inbound flight, there are fewer delays.

I had never been so challenged in an airplane that I doubted the outcome.

After high school in 1969, I was appointed to the Air Force Academy. In '73, I studied for my postgraduate degree and became a USAF pilot in 1974. After my discharge in 1980, I became a commercial pilot and flew my first airline flight at Pacific Southwest Airlines in 1980.

It's almost an out of body experience to see things that First Officer Jeff Skiles and I said in the cockpit together, played by actors.

I'm less shy now than I was as a kid. After Flight 1549, my family and I had to become public figures and more complete versions of ourselves. I had to teach myself to become an effective public speaker.

It's an important job to be the public face of something that gives people hope, and I take that seriously.