With a majority of the runways that are in use today there probably is a “fudge factor” that will allow slower reaction times or less aggressive application of wheel brakes. Certainly the technology can now be depended upon for a lot – and autobrakes is just one of the many such techno-gems available for aviation consumption.
But, if you go back and read the accident reports, talk to some of the guys who have experienced it, for real, the other side of the where-do-you-put-your-heels discussion becomes clearer, at least to me - perhaps just to me. Admittedly, the times when you need full rudder and full brakes simultaneously are very few and very far between. And I’m sure that there are many pilots who have retired after a full career and never had to reject a takeoff. Good on ‘em.
Intruder, not to pick on your 747 sim session, but there are two issues that jump out at me. First, you sound like you’re a pretty good-sized chap and therefore probably able to “man-handle” (is there such a word as “foot-handle?”) the brakes and the rudder without too much trouble. Unfortunately, many of us are, shall I say, physically challenged in the height (and maybe not so challenged in the weight – I remember that I do have toes; saw them in the mirror just last week) department – but you know what I mean. Second, in your practice session, I would presume (yes, I know what happens when I do that, but…what the heck) that you were probably not at a runway/gross weight/pressure altitude that put you in a balanced field circumstance, and with a V1 speed of 149, rejecting at 120+ is attention getting – but not riveting. Jack up the weight, use a shorter runway, run up the temperature, and have the world disintegrate at V1 – 2 knots. Throw a reasonable crosswind in from the failed engine side and remove the “I’m-only-in-the-simulator” comfort factor and it just may be that you, too, would become a believer.
I know that my rantings are likely not going to change a career’s worth of habit patterns, but I honestly don’t know why anyone would presume that if you put your entire foot on the rudder pedal that you would be any more prone to mis-apply the brakes when making a rudder pedal input, than you would be to bank when pulling back on the yoke to rotate. You learn to not do that. Like I said earlier, to me (and, again, perhaps only to me) it would seem to be a “cop-out” to put all my trust in a series of automatic systems and lazily rush down the runway, counting on all the auto-systems to keep my butt outa trouble. Maybe one day we’ll get to that point. But, when we do, I’d submit that the pilot would be deemed surplus weight and eliminated from the equation. What could possibly go wrong…go wrong…go wrong…go wrong…