There are other moments in Sully's personal life that he feelshelped prepare him for Flight 1549. Sully and his wife struggledwith infertility, then endured the arduous journey of trying tobecome adoptive parents. 'The challenges Lorrie and I faced made mebetter able to accept the cards I've been dealt,' Sully says, 'andto play them with all the resources at my disposal.' The coupleeventually adopted two daughters, now ages 16 and 14.

　　萨伦伯格认为，自己个人生活中的其它经历也帮助他使1549次航班中化险为夷。萨伦伯格和妻子无法生育，随后经过了试图收养孩子的艰苦历程。他说，我们夫妻面临的困难使得我能够更好地接受现实，尽我所能地去打好自己手中的牌。萨伦伯格夫妇最终收养了两个女儿，现在分别是16岁和14岁。

　　He first yearned to fly at age five. At 16, in 1967, he begantaking lessons from a no-nonsense crop-dusting pilot named L.T.Cook Jr。

　　萨伦伯格5岁那年萌生了对飞行的向往。1967年，16岁的萨伦伯格开始从一个言简意赅的农药喷洒飞机驾驶员库克(L.T. CookJr。)那里学习飞机课程。

　　萨伦伯格准备登上一架军用飞机，开始平生的第一次飞行。

　　Sully was an earnest, hard-working student who paid closeattention. One day he noticed a crumpled Piper Tri-Pacer at the endof Mr. Cook's grass airstrip. A friend of Mr. Cook's had tried toland the plane and didn't realize that power lines stretched acrossa nearby highway. The plane slammed into the ground nose first. Thepilot died instantly。

　　萨伦伯格是一名认真刻苦的学生，做事全神贯注。一天他注意到库克草地跑道的尽头有一架扭曲的PiperTri-Pacer飞机。那是库克的一位朋友试图驾驶飞机着陆，但却没有注意到附近公路上的电线。飞机头部先撞到地面，飞行员当场死亡。

　　Sully peered into the blood-splattered cockpit. 'I figured hishead must have hit the control panel with great violence,' he says.'I tried to visualize how it happened -- his effort to avoid thepower lines, his loss of speed, the awful impact. I forced myselfto look into the cockpit, to study it. It would have been easier tolook away, but I didn't.'

　　萨伦伯格察看了血迹斑斑的驾驶舱。他说，我想飞行员的头部肯定猛烈撞击了控制台，我试图在脑海里设想当时的情况──他努力避开电线，他失去速度以及可怕的撞击。我迫使自己看着驾驶舱，并仔细研究。我本来可以不去看它，但我没有那样做。

　　That sobering moment taught Sully to be vigilant and alert.For a pilot, one simple mistake could mean death。

　　这个沉重的时刻教会了萨伦伯格提高警觉。对一名飞行员来说，一个微小的失误可能就意味着死亡。

　　He went on to the U.S. Air Force Academy, then a militarycareer, and continued to study accidents. Twelve of his fellowmilitary pilots died on training runs. 'I grieved for my lostcomrades,' he says, 'but I tried to learn all I could about each oftheir accidents.'

　　萨伦伯格后来进入美国空军学院(U.S. Air ForceAcademy)，开始了军队生涯，他继续着事故研究。他有十二位飞行员战友死于训练飞行。萨伦伯格说，我对失去战友感到悲伤，但我尽可能地研究他们的每一起事故。

　　As an airline pilot, he helped develop an air-safety courseand served as an investigator at crash sites. He'd page throughtranscripts from cockpit voice recorders, with the last exchangesof pilots who didn't survive。

　　他后来成为了一名民航飞行员，萨伦伯格协助编制航空安全课程，出任坠机现场的调查人员。他翻阅驾驶舱通话记录器的抄本，了解没有生还飞行员之间的最后交流。

　　Since childhood, Sully has been fascinated by CharlesLindbergh. In 'We,' Lindbergh's 1927 book, he explained that hissuccess was due almost entirely to preparation, not luck. 'PreparedLindy' wouldn't have had the same magic as his nickname 'LuckyLindy,' but his views resonated with Sully。

　　从孩童时候起，萨伦伯格就一直崇拜查尔斯•林德博格(CharlesLindbergh)。林德博格在1927年的自传《我们》(We)中说，他的成功几乎完全归功于事先准备，而不是运气。虽然对公众来说，“充分准备的林迪”可能没有他的绰号“幸运林迪”(LuckyLindy)那么有魔力，但萨伦伯格非常赞同林德博格的观点。(注：林德博格是首位成功驾驶飞机横跨大西洋的飞行员，林迪是他的昵称。)

　　One aspect of preparing well is having the right mindset, hesays. 'In so many areas of life, you need to be a long-termoptimist but a short-term realist. That's especially true given theinherent dangers in aviation. You can't be a wishful thinker. Youhave to know what you know and don't know, and what your airplanecan and can't do in every situation.'

　　萨伦伯格说，准备有素的一个方面就是拥有正确的心态。他说，在如此多的人生领域，你需要做一个长期的乐观主义者，但短期要做一个现实主义者。考虑到飞行的内在风险，这一点尤其重要。你不能一厢情愿，必须了解自己知道什么和不知道什么，了解你的飞机在每种状况下能做什么以及不能做什么。

　　萨伦伯格和本文作者共同撰写的新书《最高职责：我如何寻找生命之重》

　　Sully has always kept in mind the air-crew ejection study helearned about in his military days. Many pilots waited too longbefore ejecting from planes that were about to crash. They eitherejected at too low an altitude, hitting the ground before theirparachutes could open, or they went down with their planes。

　　萨伦伯格一直牢记着在部队服役时学的飞行人员弹射研究。很多飞行员会等很久才从即将坠毁的飞机中弹射出来。他们要么因为弹射高度太低，降落伞没打开就已经坠地，要么就和飞机一道坠毁。