First of all, I really like flythebike's forum name.
I relate to flying the bike.
Helicopters and fixed gear bikes have more in common than I can possibly explain in this context.
Except: I have more of a sense of flight and freedom on my fixed gear bike than I do in my helicopter.

That said, I would like to talk about using back pressure on the pedals to slow the bike.

When I first rode my Pista and attempted to use my legs to brake going downhill the pedals almost launched me into space.
Talk about flying.

Since then I have realized that I will probably never have the strength and coordination/organization going backwards that I do going forward.
If I practiced for a thousand years, I would never have the strength, acceleration and overall grace going backwards that I have going forwards.
Just think about all the mechanics, weight distributions and articulations and it becomes clear: we have more power, acceleration and gracefullness forwards than backwards.

So, then I started looking for a neutral pedaling going downhill, just to feel all the monkey motion involved and make some sense of it.
I found that if I tried riding my pedals instead of the saddle, going downhill, something happened.
Now, I mean just riding the pedals, not trying to pedal forwards or backwards, but riding the pedals so that I took almost all of the weight off of my saddle but remained in contact with it nonetheless.

Lightbulb!
How cool.

Then I found that if I pointed my heels down just before the pedal started to rise in the back part of its circle, something else happened.

Double Lightbulb!
Extra cool.

How could it get better?

Well, then I found out if I did this ride-the-pedals thing before building up some critical speed, I could very comfortably control my speed all the way down the steepest hills.
However, if I went over a certain rpm, it quickly became too difficult and required more strength than I had.
Still, I could almost spin the cog off, backwards and I had a long heart to heart with my lbs about this; and, we put some torque to both the cog and the lock ring.
Hope I can get 'em off, now.
In any event, under a certain rpm I can control steep hills by properly riding the pedals instead of the saddle, and, above that rpm, I can do a long deceleration, but the issue remains in doubt and the process threatens to launch me into space.

By the way, on the day I fell, right before I fell, I spun the rear wheel backwards on the ice.
Talk about a sick feeling in the tummy.

Anyway, all of the above represents the words of a very new newbie.
I remain all ears and learning.