For anyone interested, there's a shuttle landing simulator at the Space
Museum in Alamogordo, NM. Landing the shuttle is not terribly difficult
for a glider pilot - performing an aileron roll on final is a different
story...

On 11/27/2016 7:45 AM, wrote:
Many years ago, NASA sent a group of future shuttle pilots to Ridge Soaring Gliderport for some actual glider flying. The Shuttle is - after all - a glider.

We taught them the TLAR (That Looks About Right) technique for making decisions and using the spoilers / dive brakes for accurate glide slope / touch down control.

Doris and I were later invited to Houston, Texas for an opportunity to do some landings using the space shuttle computer simulator.

They began by offering to tell us how to do it. I suggested they only tell us how fast to fly. Otherwise it is a glider after all, and using the dive brakes would be very similar to the gliders we fly.

The suggested airspeed was 250 knots. Doris and I both made three perfect landings.

Tom Knauff






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Dan, 5J