So I've come across a few different ways to approach keeping a plane on the center line while on final approach.

1. Use aileron to do all of the steering, and rudder to merely stay coordinated.

2. Use rudder to maintain runway heading, and if you find yourself too far to one side, use aileron to slip back to the extended center line.

3. Use rudder to stay on the extended center line, as though you were taxiing down it, and use aileron merely to keep the wings level.

Is one of these techniques "correct" and the other two "incorrect"? Are different ones used at different times? Is it just a matter of pilot preference?

I'm gonna go ahead and post this as a real question.

Oh wait, I found the original question which almost asks this. aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/39375/…

That one asks between 2 (sideslip method) and 3 (taxi method). The answers pretty much all suggest using number 2.

Number 1 appears to be something I pretty much just made up.

Although, obviously, coordinated banked turns are the usual way of doing things in the pattern and in cruise (right?)

Here's an unrelated question. Is there a common term for an aircraft's direction of travel relative to the air (not the ground)?

In coordinated flight (zero slip), this is the same as its heading; and in calm air, this is the same as its track.

Ah, I've found the term for the opposite direction—the air's direction of travel relative to the aircraft. Relative wind.

I don't think the steering is any different on final to any other time

@TannerSwett Ailerons do not steer as a primary effect. They cause bank - which then leads to other effects including turns.

Right, that's what I meant by "use aileron to do all of the steering". Use the ailerons to bank, and thus produce banked turns.

So what would normally be used for, say, just flying along a road? Ailerons to make banked turns, rudder merely to coordinate?