Yep, you only get one shot when you're dead stick... actually the only time I succesfully used one of our cross strips was on my last lesson when I was going for my Bronze Wings (Australian solo flight qualifications). I'd just taken off and the instructor's plane flamed out as I turned onto the downwind leg. I made the call "Deadstick. Landing on the cross.", turned it onto the strip fairly tight onto the cross trip approach to bleed off some height, put it down about 1/3 the way along the cross and was slow enough by the time I came to the end of it to turn onto the main and finish my roll-out. My instructor just looked at me and said "Congratulations. You just earned your wings." You think I've been able to hit that dang cross strip square on since then though?