The controls do work sliding backwards. For the longest time when IAC and CIVA pilots and judges talked about a wheels down or wheels up tail slide they described it from a pilots point of view. What this means is that the slide was ether "STICK FORWARD" or "STICK BACK TAILSLIDE" if the slide required the wheels up during the flop, you put the sick full forward during the slide. If the slide was to be a wheels down during the flop, you pulled the stick all the way back at the moment of slide. Back in 2000 the IAC and CIVA wanted the judges to refer to all figures in terms of what can be observed from the ground
and not to what the pilot has to do to perform the figure. This was to eliminate possible bias based on saying something like, "I know what he did, and that's the wrong input" it's the judges job to score based on what is observed, not to second guess the pilot.

As for how this correlates to models, I would suggest as many unlimited pilots do, (especially those with full-scale experience) set a very high elevator and rudder rate on one of the spring return type buttons on your TX, so during the slide you have more control of the direction of the flop.

Tom Wheeler
IMAC President