Use throttle to control speed and pitch to control rate of decent.
?I've always done it the other way around... pitch for speed and throttle for rate of descent...?
ended up doing a good impression of a helicopter
Oh! Me! Pick Me! I've done that too!!!
Takeoffs in that sort of wind are fun too..
My flying? There's a front coming up the coast today, my one day off work/uni this week... guess who's not flying today either!!
Now I'm REALLY suffering withdrawals... Think Mazzy said it earlier, "get used to the wx or move to another country"... methinks I'm in the country that's supposed to have close to the best weather for flying. This may be so, but
never where I am, if there's an aeroplane involved!! 
Ahh well, you guys keep me interested... at least SOMEONE's doing something!
Cheers,
Adam