Sully didn't do anything hard from a piloting standpoint. He made the right decision to ditch in the Hudson. Once that decision was made, it was just a long glide. Plenty of room. He had the full Airbus flight control system doing most of the work. Read "Fly By Wire", by Langewiesche, which goes into this in great detail.
The Ethiopian Air pilots faced a very tough problem. They were nosing down for an unknown reason, the standard recovery procedure didn't work, and they didn't have much altitude.
A Sully level pilot is one with extensive experience, particularly in edge cases. There are many such pilots... They have decades of experience that include pre-automation days.
Don't underestimate the accumulated knowledge and experience that gives one the ability to make a series of very important decisions in an extreme stress situation.
Sully didn't do anything hard from a piloting standpoint. He made the right decision to ditch in the Hudson. Once that decision was made, it was just a long glide. Plenty of room. He had the full Airbus flight control system doing most of the work. Read "Fly By Wire", by Langewiesche, which goes into this in great detail.
The Ethiopian Air pilots faced a very tough problem. They were nosing down for an unknown reason, the standard recovery procedure didn't work, and they didn't have much altitude.