It sounds to me as if your idle is too high. What engine and prop are you running? What is the RPM at idle? If you have a reliable idle that's low enough, you may find that your airspeed will actually be lower than dead stick. A prop spinning slower than the plane needs, will act as an air brake of sorts.

I'm 60 and have been flying and instructing for 45 years. Time and time again, I'd get beginners having trouble with landing and the solution was to get the engine idling reliably and at low RPMs.

I fly mostly 1/2A as in Norvel .049s and 06s. Engines this small were once regarded as almost impossible to get a reliable and low idle. Much effort and research has shown that any engine, no matter the size can have a low and reliable idle. The trick is to get the fuel mixture exactly right at all throttle settings. Most 1/2A engines don't have a throttle with any means to adjust the mixture at idle. It's been shown that you don't need a fancy, two needle throttle for this. Just a simple, adjustable airbleed will do.

Here, http://www.youtube.com/user/hopeso#p/u/8/CDcXLzJ6XbY you can see a Fora .020 with a throttle and muffler. You can hear the idle is solid and while the top end sounds a bit gnarly, a bit less nitro took care of that. And while 5K seems high compared to a typical .40, it's quite low for an .020. You'll land your 12 ounce plane easily at even 7K on this engine.

Here, http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...ter+minisport# you can see how much fun a reliably throttling engine can be. Note that this is a diesel, running in winter.

When I'm training new pilots, I have them trim the elevator and throttle so that their plane is doing a mild climb. Gentle turns spill just enough lift to maintain altitude. When I want them to go up, I tell them one click up on the throttle and continue to coach their turns. When I want them to descend, I ask for one click down on the throttle, again, coaching them with gentle turns. As they get comfortable, with making right and left hand turns, I have them do passes over the runway. Most times they're concentrating so much on the plane and my instructions, they hardly know they're over the runway. As they make these passes over the runway, I have them get lower and lower. Over the space of many flying sessions, they get more and more comfortable flying the plane low and slow. On one of those low passes, I'll tell them to chop the throttle and do nothing else. When the plane touches down, pretty as you please, at first they're in shock but immediately, that big ole grin from ear to ear comes on. This first landing is never announced ahead of time. No stress or fearful anticipation is involved. Avoiding white knuckle situations is the key.