You hit the nail on the head Tom ...FLOP... that is what you will be seeing a lot of in this maneuver. It is also a moot point to mention that the Wind plays a more than significant factor in the Slide. Double the wind Factor for the Scale of the Plane. IE 15 mph to Full Scale which translates to about 25-30mph for models, and if there is a cross Wind of 15+, I will guarantee that no pilot will meet the criteria for a score on this maneuver. Everything does work going backwards, but what is missing from all of you explanations is the fact that the Mass of the back of the model being moved is roughly 1/15 that of the Full Scale Counterpart. All you are moving is very very light Balsa or Carbon Fiber, not heavy wood wrapped in many Layers of Carbon Fiber on full scale Airplanes. The lightest Full Scale Ulimited Aerobatic Airplane still weighs 1000 lbs., opposed to our 40. Sheer Fact of the matter is that Full Scale dislike the Slide as much as Modelers. There is always a moment of No Control. No Matter how you justify your explanation, sitting in the aircraft and cheating the slide with a three dimensional view of your aircraft in space is much different than having the two dimensional view from the ground. Center Box is hard enough to Cheat the Slide; End Box makes it that much harder. It doesn't really sound like, from the aspect of Unlimited Pilots replying to this post, that any of them want to see the Slide in the Sequence.
Mark Leseberg Jr.