Well, I guess its obvious that I’m not going to convince many (if any) of those here – and equally obvious is that a pilot’s personal preferences are about as personal as it can get. Centaurus refers me back to his post citing the pilot that “over-ran the runway during an abort because he was unaware during the take off run he was applying intermittent brakes” in response to my rhetorical comment that I couldn’t understand why someone would presume that a properly trained pilot would be prone to mis-apply brakes when making a rudder pedal input. He further asserts that he “wouldn't be at all surprised if it happens every day somewhere around the world – i.e., shoes touching the top of the brake pedals.”
I know Centaurus, and I certainly don’t challenge his background or his expertise when it comes to aviation matters. I am positively sure (uh, that would make it surely sure?) that the situation he quotes happened just the way he described it. Now, however, after saying that, I, too, went to a simulator last week. Actually, I wangled the use of three different simulators – for three different aircraft types (CRJ200, B737-800, and B767-300). I convinced three other pilots to join me in my activities. We did as Centaurus had done, except I asked the simulator technician to print out the brake pedal pressure and relative brake pedal position for each takeoff. I made a series of takeoffs and each of the three pilots along with me made a series of takeoffs in each of the simulators. I did not ask any of the pilots what “technique” they used when taking off, I merely asked them to takeoff, but I advised each of them to anticipate a relatively strong crosswind, and mentioned that they might “expect” an up-wind engine failure very close to V1. None of them knew that the brake pedal pressure or position was being recorded or printed.
The results were that in no case did any one involved mis-apply brakes during the takeoff run. That knowledge from the rudder pedal pressure/position print-outs. I will say that Centaurus is correct in that it IS difficult to see where the pilot has his feet positioned on the rudder pedals if you just look at the rudder pedals. But what was obvious, was the seat position relative to the control column. In 2 cases, the pilot was positioned “rather close” to the column, to the extent that I don’t believe any further forward movement of the seat would have been possible and still allow for an adequate space for aft movement during rotation. The other obvious thing I noticed in both of those cases was that after V1, I could see each pilot move his feet toward the floor of the simulator; apparently moving his feet to a “heels-on-the-floor” position. The third pilot (a rather tall chap – 6 feet 2 inches) did not have his seat positioned as close to the column as did the other two pilots. Also, I did not notice an overt movement of his foot position after takeoff during any of the times we actually took off. For information, about 70% of the takeoffs were uninterrupted, and about 30% were interrupted with an abort at very close to V1 speed. The weight in each case was very close to max gross for the conditions.
At the end of the morning, I did de-brief each of my “subjects” on what I was doing, and why. The third pilot (the big guy) told me that his procedure was to put his feet on the rudder pedal with the rudder pedal “bar” (located at the bottom of the pedal and around which the pedal rotates) at the top of the heel of his shoe. His opinion was that he had adequate leverage to apply maximum braking from that position without having to move his feet, and that he maintained his feet in that position until the airplane was accelerated and cleaned up for climb, at which time he moved his heels to the floor as well. We never ventured that far into the takeoff profile, and I never saw his feet move. In each of the other cases, the pilots told me that they placed their feet higher up on the rudder pedals because they were anticipating a high speed abort with a strong crosswind. One of these pilots told me that he did not usually place his feet that high on the rudder pedal unless the crosswind was rather stiff.
The point here is that I know these 3 pilots were properly trained initially. Two of them had been my students (one almost 30 years ago) and one was the student of a very close colleague of mine. They didn’t have to be told where to place their feet. They didn’t have to be told to remember to make rudder corrections with their heel. They flew as I would have expected them to fly – ready for an occurrence on the runway during takeoff, that no one really expects to see.
Yes, I know this is a very limited “research” event and therefore, isn't valid much beyond personal opinion. However, what happened is what happened. And I would surmise from the postings here that the group of pilots I used are not in the majority; at least if one can presume that a representative sampling of pilots are members of this forum and have voiced an opinion on this thread.
I also acknowledge Centaurus’ statement that a really serious event causing an abort to occur just prior to V1 is a very remote possibility. But it does happen. It’s happened to me twice. The first time caught me unaware – and I vowed to never to let that happen again. When an even more serious event occurred a couple of years later, I was ready. Please understand that I have no intention of getting involved in a “one-upsmanship” discussion (You think that was bad? Let me tell you about the time that I…), because I’m sure I would get buried by the experiences had by many. But in my very own situation, had I not been ready, there is little doubt in my mind that the consequences would have been quite grave. The deed was reviewed by a series of major command authorities and the conclusion was that “any delay beyond that which the crew took would have most probably resulted in the aircraft departing the departure end of the runway, and possibly beyond the 1000-foot overrun area, down the embankment, and into the small business district in that location.” A fully loaded KC135 can carry a lot of JP4 and the fire would have been spectacular. I am glad that it didn’t happen. I’m glad I learned from an earlier abort. What I do is what I do. What I teach is what I teach. The students I’ve had learn what I teach and then they are free to fly the way they best know and feel and function. At least I know I’ve given them the best information I could, and I’ve determined that they CAN and DO function correctly when required to do so. For that I am very grateful and somewhat humbled by that understanding.