On my solo XC (and not at all senior) took off from second airport and realised on climbout that I had never even looked at checklist.
More recenty pulled Citabria out of hangar on cold day; so, left engine blanket on while fuelling and doing preflight in deliberate manner. Got in, strapped up, pulled out checklist, started engine, checked oil pressure, right mag and alternator on, looked forward to taxi and found engine blanket still on
Mixture very quickly off.
First flight in third type of single seat glider. Everything worked normally, except sent up with handheld radio. Heard garbled message while slowly sinking but unable to establish comms. Headed back to field and found I had set myself up for landing on reciprocal runway I had took off from 12 minutes ago and not enough altitude to change my mind
So had to accept the ignominy of continuing as planned
Got a big lecture, but better a good approach into a poorly selected field than a poor approach into one that suddenly looks better. There's a number of fatal accidents to back that one up.