I really don't understand why so many can't do this this yet can fly and land ships so well..

Scottmanly for example.

Excellent at spaceships, horrible at airplanes. I however have the opposite problem. I make and fly airplanes very well, but suck at landing landers.

There most be something many people be mis-understanding about airplanes.

So here are some things I make sure I do.

1 - Dedicated pitch, yaw and roll. No combining yaw and pitch as many people do. (This confuses the game a bit)

2 - Keep centre of mass slightly in front of lift. Keep mass slightly in the back so the nose tends to pitch up naturally.

3 -Keep fuel near center and open some fuel tanks. Plan for future changes of weight as fuel is used.

4 - Have roll as far from centre as possible, this smooth things.

5- Authority limiter does wonder to reduce rough turns.

6- Do not put too much lift in the tail, try to keep most of it in the wings.

7- It may seem minor but I did test. Keep your experiments inside service bays. Those things do hell on aero dynamics.

8- Try to use parts that have lifting surfaces. The teir 1 cockpit does not have this. This is just dead weight.... This includes structural and fuel tanks. (There are in the game, and are the best thing ever)