AI Helicopter type Movement

I'm trying to get an AI aircraft to tilt in the direction it is moving and face the player. However I'm running into two problems I can't seem to solve. The first one is that the if statements aren't checking the increments correctly, so sometimes it will tilt left but will also tilt left if it's moving right. I'm not sure how to check for the direction it is moving in otherwise. The other problem is when I add in the lookAt function the rotations for tilt don't work at all. I also don't like the way it instantly moves to always look at the player, it should move slowly.

This is for a top down scrolling game where the environment moves beneath to give the illusion of speed.

 #pragma strict
 
 var player : Transform;
 var distance : float;
 var rotationLeft = Quaternion.Euler(0, 0, -30);
 var rotationRight = Quaternion.Euler(0, 0, 30);
 var rotationForward = Quaternion.Euler(-30, 0, 0);
 var rotationBackward = Quaternion.Euler(30, 0, 0);
 var rotationCenter = Quaternion.Euler(0, 0, 0);
 
 
 var moveRightLeft : float; 
 var moveForwardBack : float; 
 
 
 
 
 
 function Update () {
 
 
     distance = Vector3.Distance(transform.position, player.position);
     moveRightLeft = transform.position.x;
     moveForwardBack = transform.position.z;
 
     
 
     
     if((player != null) && (distance >= 45)){
     transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(transform.position, player.position, Time.deltaTime * 0.4);
     transform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(transform.rotation, rotationForward, Time.deltaTime * 4);
     }
     else{
     transform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(transform.rotation, rotationCenter, Time.deltaTime * 4);
     }
     
     
     if((moveRightLeft ++) && (distance >= 45)){
     transform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(transform.rotation, rotationLeft, Time.deltaTime * 4);
     }
     
     if((moveRightLeft --) && (distance >= 45)){
     transform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(transform.rotation, rotationRight, Time.deltaTime * 4);
     }
             
     //var targetPosition : Vector3 = Vector3(player.position.x, player.position.y, 0);
     //transform.LookAt(targetPosition);
     
          
 }