I mean...the last time I caught myself high and hot on final I kicked her into a beautiful slip and lost airspeed and altitude. I was able to flare and arrive at my desired touchdown point and made a serviceable landing and rollout. I didn't consider using flaps because I was in a 1940 Aeronca Chief. Y'all should try slips when you need to lose altitude and airspeed!
I did my private in a very beat up 1974 M model. My CFI was a retired USAir (via Henson Airways) pilot who had got his start at 9 years old flying gliders in West Virginia. The DPE he sent me to was in Elkins. We flew over there a few days before my check ride on a XC flight so I could practice the profile where I was taking my check ride once and after flying the PTS maneuvers, the only advice my CFI gave me about the DPE was that he likes slips, so make sure I have those down cold.
Check ride day rolls around, and I get signed off for a solo XC flight as a student pilot over there (not sure what the plan was if I failed... who was going to sign me off so I could get home?) and off I go. DPE is an hour late getting there and I spend the whole time hanging out with the briefer at the FSS station on the field, watching a huge line of thunderstorms rolling towards us.
The DPE finally shows up, says if we hustle through everything quickly, we can get finished before the weather gets here. So we rush through the oral (at one point he says... "I think you understand the concept, but that is the strangest way I've ever heard it explained...") and get out to the plane. We get up and he starts linking items in the PTS together like I've never done before. Steep turn directly in slow flight directly into a stall... while flying the downwind leg of the pattern for a short field landing. All the while with this massive line of weather visible to the southwest.
Anyhow... (POINT OF THIS WHOLE STORY), he gives me a power off 180, and I go into my normal flow of things, but for whatever reason, I just keep hearing the words of my CFI saying "he really likes slips" in my head, and in the moment, I totally forgot that you can use flaps on a power off 180 and just slip the thing all the way around the corner to the runway. I roll out on final right on target and flare over the numbers (which is a bit of a miracle) and get told to go around. Which I do, but get totally confused because when I go to put up the flaps, there are no flaps out. We do one more loop around the pattern and do a normal landing just as the first rain drops start hitting the windshield. On the taxi in, he says I did good, but he wasn't sure why I didn't use flaps for my power off 180.
Best part of the whole thing was that after he signed my paperwork and headed for the door, I asked him if he thought I should wait out the weather (which was mostly still to the south of us and keeping things VMC where we were) before flying back home (about a 30 minute flight) or go now before it got bad. He looked at me, shrugged, and said "you're a pilot now... figure it out," and left. Fortunately the FSS briefer felt bad for me and spent a few minutes talking things over before telling me it was absolutely fine to go then.