Yeah, that familarity thing can easily affect you, espeically when flying somewhere that doesn't have much landmarks.

I flew at Nats last year, and it was really strange feeling flying in a big open area like that, I'm used to having close in tree lines or other objects around. It didn't cause me to crash, but I could see how it could cause someone with less experience to go in.

As you get more experienced, you will develop a "feel" for the airplane in flight. While you don't get real feedback from the airplane, your fingers start telling you things, like a certain amount of stick deflection should result in a certain movement at certain speeds, so you start to "feel" your airspeed, and landmarks start to matter less.