I imagine that most of us use Wikipedia from time to time - I certainly do.
I was curious to read in its account of the Gimli Glider <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider>, that the pilot executed a "forward slip" to lose height rapidly on approach to his selected "outlanding site ".
I had never heard of "forward slips" before, however Wikipedia goes on to deal with aeronautical slips in greater detail on another page, including a not terribly helpful or convincing explanation of this manoeuvre, as well as a marginally more reasonable explanation of side slips at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slip_%28aerodynamic%29#Forward-slip
Sideslips were of course, a common, almost mandatory practise on approach with the early ES52's and especially with the ES57 Kingfisher. They were lots of fun, but fell out of favour (and properly so) when gliders with serious airbrakes came along. I have been occasionally asked to demonstrate a sideslip in more recent check flights, a curious request given the excellent airbrakes in most gliders these days - especially in the AS-K21 in which the directive was uttered. ("You want me to do a what??! .... Oh.... OK, here we go .....(sigh)"). Personally I think they are best left alone in most - if not all - modern gliders, unless of course it's a B-767. Would any of the numerous exponents of aeronautics in this worthy group care to comment on what they make of this "forward slip" thing?
Regards, Terry.
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