Re: The most dangerous phase will be approach to landing and impact
Yes, the horizontal and vertical vectors can be considered independent of one another. However, together they result in a combined impact velcity that would be higher than the vertical or horizontal component by itself.
This probably won't work but here's an attempt at an illustration:
Vertical only
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|
|
|
V
Horizontal only
----->
Combined
|
|
|
|
V----->
The resultant vector would be the distance from the origin (near the 'C' in combined) to the right arrowhead. That would factor into the kinetic energy on impact. I couldn't think of a way to draw the diagonal line that would represent the resultant vector but it could easily be calculated with a little trig.