When I got converted to a C172, it was at an airfield with an 800m (later extended to a whopping 1200m) runway. The club instructor drill was to fly the approach with full flaps at 70 kts. This obviously often resulted in a lot of float, and the occasional urge to force the aircraft down (during one of which occasions I had the same experience as Shumway).
Then I had long hiatus from C172 flying and when I took it up again, it was from an airfield with a 400m runway. The drill with this operator was to fly the approach at 60 kts.
This seemed inordinately slow to me, based on my previous experience.
The aforementioned exercise showed me the full envelope of the C172's performance and proved very visibly that flying the approach at 60 kts is perfectly safe, with (more than) the required margin (1.3 x Vs) about the stall speed. After that experience I never let the speed creep up on approach more or less subconsciously on approach anymore.
In the weather conditions you mention I would of course consider adding a bit. However, in my neck of the woods we seldom have more than 10-20 kts down the runway, and on the really good flying days, no or very little wind at all. On the latter occasions, maintaining the appropriate approach speed is imperative for a nice landing on our short runway.
In other words, minimizing braking and stopping distance is usually rather important to me. I don't consider a long float neither elegant nor safe either.
Last edited by EDMJ; 31st May 2013 at 13:29.