If I needed to lose altitude quickly in a single-engine airplane, I would forward-slip the airplane; opposite aileron and rudder and no power but remember to maintain the proper airspeed or you will get a really nasty aggrevated stall.

In a multi-engine piston or turbo prop, simply making the props flat, gear down, flaps down, flight spoilers (if you have them) and engines idle is enough to get a good descent rate, but again, watch your airspeed.

Finally, we don't typically do forward-slips in the jet. Instead we crap all the way down to the flare, then side-slip the airplane, aligning the nose with the centerline and a bit of aileron into the wind. Ideally, one main down (upwind main), next main down, then nose wheel down, full aileron into the wind.

In the CRJ200, the wingtip is only 5 feet off the ground, so you have to be very careful when banking into the wind...and watch out for wind gusts, that is usually when you get a wingtip strike, ironically on the other wing from over-correcting! Go figure!

If we have to lose altitude quickly in the CRJ, usually idle thrust, gear down, flight spoilers (till 30 degrees of flap) and full flaps down will get you down...fast! If you can't make the runway in that configuration, it is time to do a go-around anyway.

Good question!

Jeffrey