The forward slip will change the heading of the aircraft away from the down wing, while retaining the original track (path over the ground) of the aircraft.

A forward slip is useful when a pilot has set up for a landing approach with excessive height or must descend steeply beyond a treeline to touchdown near the start of a short runway. Assuming that the runway is properly lined up the forward slip will allow the aircraft track to be maintained while steepening the descent without adding excessive airspeed. Since the heading is not aligned with the runway, the slip must be removed before touchdown to avoid excessive side loading on the landing gear, and if a cross wind is present an appropriate side slip may be necessary at touchdown as described below.

In the United States, student pilots are required to know how to do forward slips before embarking on their first solo flight. The logic is that in the event of an engine failure, the pilot will have to land on the first attempt and will not have a chance to go around if the aircraft is too high and/or too fast.

The sideslip also uses opposite aileron and rudder, In this case it is entered by lowering a wing and exactly enough opposite rudder so the airplane does not turn (maintaining the same heading), while adding airspeed as required.

In the slideslip condition, the airplane's longitudinal axis remains parallel to the original flightpath, but the airplane no longer flies straight along its original track. Now, the horizontal component of lift forces the airplane to move sideways toward the low wing.

A sideslip is also one of the methods used by pilots to execute a crosswind landing. In order to land crosswind using the sideslip method, the pilot puts the airplane into a sideslip toward the wind to maintain runway centerline position while maintaining heading on the centerline with the rudder, touching one main landing gear, followed by the second main gear, and finally the nose gear (or tail gear if employed). This allows the wheels to be constantly aligned with the track, thus avoiding any side load at touchdown.

A sailplaneThe slideslip method for cross-wind landings is not suitable for long winged and low sitting aircraft such as sailplanes, where instead a crab angle (heading into the wind) is maintained until a moment before touchdown. However glider pilots regularly use side-slips to increase their rate of descent while landing, particularly in the case of older sailplanes not equipped with high drag devices (spoilers or flaps).