I can see how laning at a distance can be a problem. It definitely much harder to judge you rate of descent and airspeed from a distace and I have learned this the hard way with some bad deadsticks ealy on in my RC flying career. The one thing that helped me more than anything has been intentional deadstick landings. This is not to be done with a plane you care to much about. A old trainer works well. I used my Tower Hobbies trainer.

I started out by pulling to idle at some point in the down wind and just practicing hitting a pre determined spot. I still hd the engine if I needed it but tried not to use it. When I could land right in front of me consistantly I started killing the engine in the downwind and putting in the same spot. Pretty much the same but no insurane if I misjudged the glide slope. After I got comfortable with that I started killing it much higher in the sky so I had to make some S turns, spirals, or slips to judge my energy to still hit the spot. Once I got a handle on that I had my buddy fly the plane and a random he would kill the engine and hand me the radio. From there you have to think quickly and make good decision to use the engergy you have avaible to put the plane safely down on the runway.

I now do a slightly less dangerous (for the model) version of this with all my planes. When I first get a plane I spend a great deal of time doing touch and goes and deadsticks just to get a good handle on the glide slope and slow speed hadling for each plane. Keeping the plane closer to you as the pilot is critical in the take off and landing phase of flight.

I really dont think people spend enough time practicing landiings. It is easy to see everytime I go to the local field to fly. So really it just comes down to PRACTICE!!!!!!