Approach Control had vectored me onto what seemed like a wide downwind leg to Washington Dulles International. My problem was he still had me at 5,000 feet. When I was abeam the numbers, waiting for an answer to the mystery, he turned me over to the tower controller who said, “cleared to land.” I replied, “That’s a long way down;” to which he responded, “Roger.” Since I wasn’t flying a Stuka dive bomber at the time, it took gear extension, full flaps and an extra long downwind leg to get me down in the same time zone as the airport.
Being in Washington’s sensitive airspace, I assumed the approach controller had his reasons for hanging me high like that; and as it was a warm summer day, I wasn’t excessively concerned about shock-cooling. But there have been several other times I’ve had to prompt a controller to grant his blessing to start my descent. Vertical navigation in the IFR environment is a bit of a touchy issue; but there are some guidelines.
