hi jack
i hit a 1 iron about 220 and do hit it down the middle pretty good. i play links courses and its always windy so that is why i dont carry a 3 or 5 wood.
i do try and only ever hit the 1 iron at 80/90% and think it more inportant to hit through crisp and have a high finnish. that seens to work good for me, some of my friends have hit with my 1 iron and all seem to try and kill it and never end up on fairway, so think its more about controling the club face than hitting with power. try swinging slower and hitting on sweet spot, you'll end up in fairway more and the 1,2,3,4 irons do run lot more on fairway and dont in the rough
hope this helps a little
bill