Perhaps most interesting is that it pivots in the middle of the palm for pitch (controlling nose up or nose down).
Moving the stick is a bit unusual because it requires only small wrist movements. The shuttle is remarkably stable to fly as I suppose would be the case with any brick featuring stubby wings. My airspeed was around 290 knots as I turned to line up with runway 15 and pass through 12,000 feet. "The sight picture is a lot different," he said, "but it's a pretty easy task for an experienced pilot to make a safe landing with just a little bit of information," Commander Ham said, adding that a perfect landing is very difficult. According to Commander Ham, this is probably the biggest challenge facing the average pilot. An airliner typically follows a 3-degree glide path when approaching the runway.
I don't have a lot of glider experience, but I know that pitching nose down at 20 degrees and a descent rate of more than 10,000 feet per minute isn't considered good. It turns out the shuttle is a terrible glider.
My flights began with the shuttle heading east towards the Atlantic passing over KSC at 50,000 feet and 240 knots (equivalent air speed or KEAS). So I was given the chance to fly several approaches into the Kennedy Space Center, landing on runway 15. Still I was eager to try flying the heaviest and most expensive glider ever built.Ĭomputers control much of the flight until the last 4-5 minutes before landing. Sadly, even with the extension, this was as close as I would probably get to my astronaut dreams.
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