I should reinforce the comments about correct approach speed. My home field is 5000 ft long, 400' ASL. The rented plane's instructor insisted that I approach at 85 mph...yes, 85 mph. That was WAY too fast and the float was atrocious. The book said, if memory serves, 85 with NO FLAPS, then 82 first notch, 79 second notch, and 76 full flaps. Well when I flew solo I soon tossed aside my instructor's instructions and flew it by the book (as I did my own Cherokee when I had it), maybe adding a couple of mph for gusty conditions. Landings and landing distances improved remarkably.
In my current bird, approach is 80 knots (92 mph) flapless and first notch, then 75 knots second notch, and 68 knots full flaps. The Sundowner is notorious for being a "fly by the numbers" type on approach. Those who don't have gotten gotten into some pretty nasty porpoising and wheelbarrowing situations. Even 75 with two notches is too fast I find; I slow it back to 70 just over the fence; full flaps, I use 70 knots max.
Today was an interesting situation, nice day, about 22C when I was flying, light and variable crosswind. The Sundowner likes to land with the stall warning honker blaring away; you flare, hold it off, and when the honker starts honking, pull full back on the stick and plonk it on; do this and a smooth touchdown is almost guaranteed. I came over the fence in a variable crosswind. The first clue was some windshear on final that caused me to suddenly pick up 10 knots of airspeed, which I bled off before crossing the boundary. Then on landing, the stall warning honker started blaring, and I made what I thought was a nice, normal and fairly smooth landing, but the wind shifted again, and the plane literally bounded back up into the air; I was low, slow and in ground effect. Instinct would have been to shove the nose down and try to force it back on. I have a friend who did that with a Sierra (retractable gear version of my plane) and promptly took off the nosewheel and bent the prop. I kept it in ground effect, applied full power, got the speed back up, and did a go-around, which I believe was the right thing to do.
I made sure I landed right on the book speed the second time around. I was a knot or two fast on the first attempt, and I did a two-notch landing as the taxiway was at the departure end of the runway, so no need to come in short. I used full flap the second time, speed smack on 68 knots.
While the Sundowner flies differently than the Cherokee, my point is that the book was written after hours and hours of flight testing. When all else fails, read the instructions! Some planes will forgive fudging approach speed on the high side (assuming you're not on a performance limiting field), but others, like mine, thrive on precision. At the end of the day, even if your plane will accept fudging like the good ol' forgiving Cherokee, it will reward you if you fly it with precision.
Beech