Adrian, The interview you link to has the following diagram for the tail slide maneuver:
Don’t get me wrong…. I absolutely love the Su-27 family of fighters. However the logic that western fighter pilots have regarding maneuvers like the one above declaring them to be of little use in an actual combat situation seems to be well illustrated in the above picture. If the opposing aircraft simply pulled into a high yo-yo instead of a flat pushover, he would have an altitude advantage against an opponent out of inertia and being forced to dive away to regain speed and controlability. The opposing fighter simple continues over the top and into a tail aspect shot agains an opponent likely to be bending the throttles trying to get back to best maneuvering speed or trying to extend. It does seem trainable tactics can be used to overcome a maneuvering disadvantage.
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