Does anyone know the reason that the side-slip card has left and right designations on it????? The card appears to have you go straight forward, no turning involved.

Check the FAQ for the answer to this question. It's also been discussed is previous threads.

heres the link:

http://www.csrealms.com/forum/showth...=&threadid=281

When i play i have been placing my nav cards face down, facing the direction that the first movement token would be placed on the nav card's diagram.

Through the way i play it, that means i place the side slip card directly facing either the left or right of my plane. This makes the side slip card the only one that faces that exact direction (all other turning cards begin on a diagonal left/right direction). This means that my opponent can tell when im using the side slip, defeating the purpose of the fake move.

Am i laying down nav cards wrong? am i just supposed to place cards in a "general" direction?

just a general direction is correct, left right or straight