I have taken many up. I do a full check to make sure everything looks good and is tight. I then do a high speed taxi and if it doesn't have any adverse ground handling issues, I add power to take off. I never take off at full throttle and I have refused to fly two planes that I was asked to maiden over the past 5 years. One flew successfully by another person, the other crashed due to either an aft CG or pilot error.