[shmoo]

So here's the story, im 25 and have roughly 23 hours of flight time logged. I have already solo'd a few times now, and am currently doing cross country. However, one thing i have yet to get a hold of, is landing. My landings always completely suck. In fact I was surprised my instructor even let me solo they are so bad. My biggest problem seems to be a very poor flare, and little to no directional control over the runway, i drift and sway about unable to get the plane to do what i want. When I flare, i either balloon too high, or dont flare enough at all and almost do a flat 3-point landing right on the ground. I try putting in lots of trim, medium trim, little to no trim, nothing seems to help. And i cant figure out for the life of me why i cant determine which direction the plane is facing in ground effect. When it feels like it's pointed to the right, it's really center. When it feels center, it's really to the left, and so on. I've had a few lessons like out of pattern solo and such cancelled on me because my instructor always flies with me for a few landings before I solo anything and has to scrub the lesson if I'm flat out sucking that day. The times i do land well are just total luck.

There have been a few instances of planned and executed landings that went well on my part by trying to land the plane between the centerline and edge of the runway. My instructor called it "avoid the ditches!". Pretend the centerline is a ditch, and the edge of the runway is a ditch, and that you have to land between the two. If the wheel goes into the ditch, it's game over. I found this to be really helpful because now instead of using the centerline as my reference, i was using the edge of the runway and the width of my landing lane to squeeze the plane into. I know i cant rely on this method because im cutting the runway in half and need to be able to land on the centerline to be safe.

Any help? Need more info? Im flying Cessna 172 SkyHawk's by the way. Both myself and my intructor(s) agree that my control in the air is flawless, and my approaches through the pattern and even to final are all very good. It's just the moment i have to flare, i lose it and everything falls apart and instead of controlling the airplane, i'm along for the ride.

P.S. Is anybody familiar with a little window mounted dashboard rectangle that some people have against the cockpit glass? Looks like a little picture frame in front of their vision right against the glass. Almost like a HUD, but without any information in it of course. Is this some kind of landing or other coordination aid? If not, is there any such thing as a landing aid? Some type of instrument or visual sticky you can put on the glass to kind of steer the airplane for and insure a successful landing?