It's extremely common to think the plane is closer than it actually is and about the only way to solve this is to practice with lots of landings and fly-byes as has been suggested.

It even confuses really good experienced flyers, especially of larger models, as size is all you really have to go by.

There are three main ways we all normally judge distance, stereo vision, size comparison and absolute, remembered size, and the first two aren't available with something that is in clear sky, and is so far away that the tell- tale angle difference between the eyes is too small to give stereo vision distance.

All that's left, then, is the remembered size, and this only comes with experience.

It gets particularly noticeable if you move to a large scale model from a smaller one when it seems a lot closer than it is

(doesn't it Basinbum?)

It'll get better (a bit!!)

Good luck!

-David C.