I've never forgotten to remove the pitot cover and never taken off with it blocked. I may well in the future though as I am just as fallible as the next guy. I have however managed to get caught out with on a longer journey home than planned and had to land at night with no instrument lighting. There wasn't very much in the way of outside references for horizon and there was no runway lighting or papis. It worked out fine, and I'm sure its because I knew the aeroplane and regard good piloting to be about good stick and rudder skills above and beyond good nav and coms skills. This is also why I'm a crappy navigator.
Edited to say that I had no instruments at all for the last 10 minutes of the flight. If I was a better pilot I would have had a torch in my flight bag but I had taken it out some weeks previously and forgotten to put it back.
Last edited by FleetFlyer; 19th May 2015 at 13:12.