“bit of both” as Starlord would say…
Whilst I do not think Mooney pilots using speed brakes to dive WWII Stuka/Helldiver style at the numbers before pulling out at the last minute like Hans Solo in the Millennium Falcon and doing a butter landing after just 300’ was ever feasibly a real life thing - fairly short landings in a Mooney are definitely possible:
Did anyone read the thread title or the first post? So, how do you descend in the space shuttle?
What do you mean by “on time”? I don’t remember reading anything about an EFC time. He asked a very simple question. The answers are getting more bizarre by the minute.
referring to the reason for descending in the first place…typically to go from cruise altitude down to pattern and landing altitude. Pilot wants to manage the descent rate based on the distance to the waypoint or airfield and the difference between his current altitude and the target altitude below.
so if you’re at 10,000’ and 10 miles from the airfield you need to lose 9,000’ of altitude over a distance of 10 miles. If your airspeed is 120kts into a headwind of 10-15kts you might be making 100-120 mph ground speed (i forget the formula exactly so this is approximate for lets say a Cherokee) so you have about 10-12 minutes to lose 9,000’ of altitude - so a descent rate of around 800’ per minute would get you there on time and under control. no stress on the airframe, no steep diving spiral.