145,

My comment about not flying a transport category aircraft in full flap, gear down configuration, level flight is based on 25 years of flying both Airbus and Boeing aircraft for 8 different operators across the globe. Not one of them would ever consider that level flight in such a configuration was an acceptable situation to be in, due to the very high drag involved. Of course you are correct in stating that it's not a limitation, but responsible operators and pilots will not allow such manoeuvres. Imagine the problem when you lose an engine in this config.

Unfortunately, after many years of sim instructing, I have also seen the best and worst of pilot abilities, and worse still, attitudes. There is still no substitute for basic IF skills regardless of which aircraft you may be flying. Every aircraft I've flown flies fine, even on one engine, in a go-around, provided the configuration is changed and the gear is retracted as per the manufacturer's recommendations. Try to do it some other way and you're simply asking for trouble. Just about every jet aircraft needs to have Takeoff/TOGA thrust applied, be rotated to approx 15 deg N/U, have the gear retracted and it'll fly just dandy - it may not be exactly as the FD would command for a given weight but it'll get you climbing away from the ground in a safe configuration. Get any of these basics wrong and you're asking for trouble. This applies in a 320 same as in a 747. All the other bleating about illusions etc only become relevant when the basics have already been well and truly f*cked up. Keep up your basic IF skills and handfly your aircraft on a regular basis. If your company's SOPs do not permit this, get out, because sooner or later, either yourself or one of your colleagues will kill you.

Why the F/O [PNF] never comes to the rescue
 

Somatogravic illusions (such as the pitch-up illusion) are proven in a US Navy study to affect both pilots simultaneously and that's why it's such a dangerous illusion. If the conditions are there, it will manifest itself equally to both. As a mass illusion, it's a ready-made explanation of why pilots never rescue each other from such situations.
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The USN has lost scores of airplanes accelerating off cat-shots. The catapult's acceleration is very powerful and the phenomenon has caused there to be built-in safeguards in modern carrier-borne aircraft.