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