Side Slips VS Forward Slips and an old school drift exercise to learn the flying skills required

Try THIS exercise and it will help you develop a feel for side slips and forward slips. A little old school drill that's been used for years to help pilots with these cross coordination skills.

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[epretorious]

I always remember the difference between Forward & Side Slips this way:

Forward Slip for falling.
Side Slip for Center Line.

HTH!

[hefeibao]

Not sure which is more magical - him doing this in the flare or the empty traffic pattern at this airfield.

[robgannon]

Nice. Learned to fly at an airport with a 30 foot wide runway and a constant crosswind. Side slips were essential to getting in there.

[melvinhathorn]

The clearest explanation of slips I have heard

[mikefrom]

Great exercise to recommend, but the front-only camera (while demonstrating aileron input nicely) isn't really showing the subtlety of the rudder action. I think it would benefit any students to also have a visual representation of yoke and rudder inputs as you are doing the exercise. Either a set of sensors for a digital recreation, or maybe a couple of pic-in-pic cameras.

[michaeljohn]

I learned at an airport that was 2000 feet and 75 ft trees on one end and water on the other. My CFI taught me all about slips . I love em. I use them all the time. Nobody today teaches these in my experience

[CaptMoo]

Beautiful!My instructor years ago didn't know the difference.

[alaazka]

Oh man how I wish I have an instructor like you, so much knowledge to absorb

[blancolirio]

Excellent demo and explanation of the Finer Points between these 2 maneuvers Jason!
I always got the terms mixed up, just called ‘em all sideslips....
Nothing finer than a turning forward slip from downwind in an old taildragger without flaps all the way to final and transition to a side slip for the crosswind landing....if I got my terminology correct. ;-) Juan. ( lets do a collab on this!)

[Peacewind]

Side slips have been my bane. My CFI explained it well, but I still was not understanding the difference between crabbing and side slipping. Then she had me follow her on the controls for an approach. I don't know what it was... maybe the fact that she was actually controlling the aircraft so I didn't have to worry about actually flying the thing, but the next approach around it all suddenly clicked. My CFI's glee that I frigging got it was so rewarding.

[bruce]

I started flying in gliders and was taught slips by my instructor primarily as a skill to use in case the dive brakes failed, the glider also had no flaps.
When I took my private check ride the last thing the examiner did to me was simulate an engine failure on downwind and told me I couldn't use flaps.
I'm not sure I would have passed if I wasn't so familiar with using slips to get down.
Runway was only 3, 000' long and surrounded by houses so I stayed a little high because I didn't want to come up short and I knew I could lose the altitude.

[btomlinson]

I'm going to practice this. Had a 14kt crosswind the other night and really had trouble lining it up. This is great timing/advice. Thanks!

[luvdrum]

I didn’t really learn how to sideslip until training for CFI. This video describes and shows it perfectly!

[michaeldent]

Very timely. My CFI and I were just working on this yesterday. I had a tendency to use more rudder and less aileron to straighten myself out after rounding out instead of the opposite. But this led to the crosswind still moving me off of centerline as I flared and touched down. Now I'm working to use more aileron and just a touch of rudder. Love the channel!

[richardfuller]

Excellent explanation!
Learn this first then cross wind becomes much easier.
Wished all instructors taught this way!

[deanmiles]

Great video,
A friend of mine introduced me to the forward slip in a Kit Fox. He kicked the rudder to the floor, and I was looking out the side door at the ground. What a feeling when it's done without any warning. I was impressed...I'm going to have to try the side slip.
Thank you
Be safe,
Take care

[derekroulston]

Best instruction on the internet. I love trying these skills to improve now that I have completed my PPL

[ParrtheCourse]

Great and "SIMPLE" explanation of the differences/similarities between forward-slip and side-slip and "application" for both!

[tdkeyes]

My CFI was drilling me on the two slips and I really had forgotten what I had read. The next week I told him that I wanted to start practicing them. We intentionally came in high on final and performed my first really good forward slip. Burned off the altitude without gaining airspeed, straightened out for the round out and set it down. I was pumped. Next to work on the side slips!

[lechstryzewski]

LOVE watching you do these every time. I have been applying this method in the sim quite a bit, even doing a low approach for the entire length of the runway. The sim is much more squirrelly than the real aircraft, obviously but, ... I have always said - "if you can get the procedure down in the sim then you can certainly do it live". Thanks Jason !!