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I had packed for this four-day trip the same way I pack for every four-day trip. I never want to bring more than necessary. I wore my captain’s uniform—jacket and pants—and in my pilot’s “roll-aboard” carry-on, brought three clean shirts, three pairs of underwear, three pairs of socks, my shaving kit, running shoes, an umbrella, an iPod, my laptop to check e-mail, and four books to read. I also had my American Express SkyGuide, which lists the complete North American flight schedule for all airlines. In a shirt pocket I had a US Airways trip sheet, with a full itinerary for the four days. Since my travels would take me to Pittsburgh and New York, where the weather would be cold and possibly snowy, I also brought a long winter overcoat, gloves, and a knit cap.

I enjoy listening to music on an iPod when I am in a city for an overnight. I always try to make a point of leaving the hotel to go for a walk, with music in my ears. Lately, I’ve been partial to Natalie Merchant, Green Day, the Killers, and Evanescence. I also find myself listening again and again to the works of Fritz Kreisler, the legendary Austrian violinist. He composed and recorded Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow) and Liebesfreud (Love’s Joy), which is an inspiring sound track on a walk or run around a city, lost in your own thoughts.

In recent years, I’ve also been spending more time on the road focused on my future up the road. I am fifty-eight years old, and I face mandatory retirement from the cockpit when I turn sixty-five. What will I do then? Since September 11, 2001, the airline industry has been ailing, and as a result of cutbacks, I’ve lost 40 percent of my salary. Meanwhile, the US Airways pension I thought I could count on was terminated in 2004, and a government-backed replacement plan is a very weak substitute. As a result, I’ve lost more than two-thirds of my pension. My story is a familiar one across the airline industry.

Trying to earn money elsewhere, I’ve bought some real estate over the years, with mixed results. I own a property in Northern California that used to house a Jiffy Lube oil-change franchise. The operation didn’t renew its lease, however, and I’ve been unable to find a new tenant. So as I sat on that flight to Charlotte, I went over some of those details in my head.

About a year ago, I also started my own side business, a consulting company called Safety Reliability Methods, Inc. It seemed like the right fit for me as my flying career winds down. Long before the landing in the Hudson, I’d been passionately involved in matters of air safety, dating back to my days as an Air Force fighter pilot. And so I brought three books on this four-day trip that were related to issues I want to address as a consultant.

I’ve been slowly building my firm, designed to help those in other occupations benefit from the airline industry’s tactical and strategic approaches to safety. Pilots have extensive checklists that we follow in the cockpit. My firm encourages initiatives, such as those now under way in medicine, that mirror pilots’ checklists. For instance, the World Health Organization now suggests the use of surgical safety checklists, requiring hospital teams to make certain that a patient’s known allergies are checked, and instruments, needles, and sponges are counted to make sure none are left inside a patient.

I think commercial aviation is ultrasafe. Given the number of passengers we deliver safely to their destinations each day, and the relatively low risk associated with flying, our record so far is commendable. But airline companies must remain diligent, especially in the face of all the economic cutbacks plaguing the industry, or our good record could be compromised.

One of the books I had with me on that trip was Just Culture by Sidney Dekker, borrowed from my local library. Dekker writes about the balancing act between accountability and learning when it comes to people reporting safety issues. I have long believed that we can make a company culture, government, or community