Well, since I'm just now working on my CFI and starting to pay closer attention to things, I very well could be wrong here (and please somebody correct me if that's the case).
I would agree that it might me better to slip in the direction from which the wind is coming (i.e. point the nose into the wind) because it would require less opposite aileron to maintain the aircraft's flight path alignment with the runway, but I wouldn't say that as a rule necessarily. I suppose that it would depend on the velocity of the wind. What are you doing landing with a 30 knot crosswind anyway?
In fact, the Airplane Flying Handbook doesn't specifically mention one direction over the other, but they do show a figure of an airplane forward slipping with the nose to the left (page 7-8). I don't want to start a flame war over the validity of the AFH or its lack of detailed explanations on some subjects, but it seems to me that if it were a big deal, they would have mentioned it.
I think that the main idea is to keep up enough speed so as the airplane doesn't get into an uncoordinated stall. I just got back from my stall/spin awareness flight in the Zlin and let me tell you, uncoordinated stalling (i.e. spinning) in the base to final (power off/power at approach setting) or go-around stalls (power-on stalls) happens
VERY quickly. There is almost no hope of recovery when you are at 300'.
Sorry, I'm not to try to scare anybody. It usually takes a lot for a stall to become a spin in most airplanes, namely uncoordination prior to the stall, but we should be aware of the possibility and factors involved and avoid them like the plague (in every-day non-acrobatic flight that is
).
Knowing that we are putting the airplane in to a very uncoordinated condition on a forward slip should really bring up a big "DON'T STALL!" flag in our heads.
Personally, I like to see more out the front and side window so I slip accordingly depending on what side of the airplane I'm sitting on. But, I make sure that my speed is well above stall speed and I don't try to make any abrupt movements with the controls, because as we all know "a stall can occur at any airspeed or power setting". Also, I'd still rather be a couple of knots fast if that's what it took to keep that safety margin.
Flippin' that beeatch over at 7,000' is a whole lot funner than at 500'. Not that I can prove that. I don't imagine that there are too many people around who could give an opinion on the lower altitude.
Dave
Doug, you ever forward slip the old MD88 just for kicks?