Has this ever happened to you? You’re in the traffic pattern and trending high on final. The throttle is at idle and the airplane is fully configured to land. Initially there may be a temptation to push the nose down, but the extra airspeed will probably lead to significant float. Staying on the current approach path will lead to a landing farther down the runway than we would prefer. Going around is always an option, until it isn’t.
If you are already one step ahead of me, give yourself a gold star; yes, we’re talking about slips. The first time I attempted a forward slip, I had to fight the voice in my head that was upset the ball was not centered. When I was first practicing the steps of a crosswind landing, I knew that aileron needed to be into the wind and opposite rudder was required to align with the runway. It took a bit of ground instruction to make the connection that this was also a slip. Let’s hop into a quick refresher on slips and their much less useful friend, the skid.
