"I think the maneuver is to roll the plane on its side and unload the wings into something like a sideways 0 g condition. This drops the plane quickly and doesn't build up airspeed like a dive would."
I think that's called a side-slip.
Sue
Nit picky correction: The maneuvers are similar but not the same. Side-slip doesn't unload the wings.It's the unloading that gets the plane down in a hurry.
Sideslip is used to create drag by putting the fuselage a bit sideways in the airflow. (Or as I used it- to move the passenger's head out of the way so I could see the runway on final from the back seat of the training glider)
Reconsidering- there's not a clear demarcation between where one ends and the other begins. But a side-slip is generally considered a normal flight maneuver used routinely for landing. The other is a highly radical flavor of similar control inputs.
Kind of like the difference between a racing turn on a dirt track and a bootlegger's turn on the highway (or something like that).
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