Mutt, that was excellent thanks. J.T. and Quid, thank you also. Quid you have a very valid point when talking about long runways. My concern when teaching new pilots is that I do not want to confuse the troops by giving potentially ambiguous information.
Perhaps I need to change my thinking, but I would not like to see a flight crew get into a discussion on each and every take-off about the merit of continuing versus stopping when V1 has been called. The Captain may think it suitable to continue and the F/O may think he is wrong. Stalemate, followed by a possible breakdown of communication and lack of confidence. Now the situation has become potentially unsafe.
If we drill the troops that at V1 we go flying, I believe we are making our job a little easier. I think there are plenty of pilots who would tell you that on a 4000 metre runway, they may well stop after V1 if a major problem ocurred, but the company would not mandate such a procedure, nor would they support the pilot, if as a consequence of stopping, a disaster ensued.
Balanced field or not, I think continuing has to be the safer option in most cases.
There are just so many variables that my brain hurts when I try and think of all the possibilities! There are certainly some valide points on both sides of the argument.