There's one departure I used to do into pitch black that was one of these somatogravic thingys. Every time I did that departure I'd sit on the end of the runway for a minute or two for last minute checks and run through how I was going to perform it.
Some of the fellas used to get the autopilot on as soon as possible after departure, I didn't trust myself to look away from the A/H (and the others) to flick any switch let alone the autopilot. No power reductions til everything was sorted.
Poor bugger