It really DOES boil down to how well you land it. How well you land it depends on the setup, and your abilities. The setup is critical, and an engine/motor running at a high idle will screw your landing up more often than not. Learning to gauge your speed and bleeding it off is just as critical; and that takes time and experience. Knowing what it takes to stall your plane, knowing whether you can throw it into a fairly steep bank at a low speed, and at just how low a speed it can be done; knowing your planes tendencies is all a part of it.

I took shortcuts to get to my "happy place" for landing. I paid extra and bought Saitos, They tick-tick-tick at idle, and don't pull your bird past the field. Any good four-stroke can do the same for you.

Angle of attack and all that is integral, but not really something you're going to be able to use/ factor/formulate on approach. Once your plane is set up right (that means everything from C.G. on up is dialed in), your angle of attack will take care of itself.

For instance, a factor that can be "added in" for landings is flaperons, which I personally like, because most of today's radios allow you to not only set the degree of flaperons, but dial in simultaneous elevator as well. So, say you set up flaperons and they're set for 15% flaps. Great, but the flaps usually cause the nose to angle up. Not great, right? So, set in some down elevator, and it pushes the nose down, which gives you a change to your angle of attack AND the lift and speed reduction. Adjust the elevator down until you like where the nose is. Keep it "up" a little bit for a good flare on landing.

Most planes that handle great and land beautifully are no accident. Diligence and attention to detail are the reasons. In time, all this stuff becomes second nature. You know what it is, you know why you're doing it, but for the most part it's automatic in your building and setup, and the other guys lucky enough to fly them will covet them. I promise.

~ Jim ~[8D]