The only times I've been really scared during practice Autos/EOLS are the few times I've done them to a hover recovery. It all goes way too wild far too close to the ground for my liking! Flare, flare, flare, check level, cushion. None of this hauling in power, dancing on the pedals, checking RPM (yup, a couple of them in pre-governor R22s). And I know just how far the damn' things skid on snow when you haven't flared off enough forward speed!
Towards the end of my CPL course, my instructor used to suggest a competition at the end of dual sorties, to see who could perform an EOL to stop astride a couple of paving slabs in the middle of the field. He'd have control, I'd call the entry, I'd have control, he'd call the entry: straights, 180's and a couple of 360's. He nailed it every time. Me? Short, long, wide, the works. By the end of the course, though my misses were only by a matter of a few feet, so the exercise worked. I still owe him several crates of beer, though!