Dudley Henriques writes:

As you know, lift increases with airspeed, so actually, the pilot, by
applying back pressure at rotation, is simply helping a natural process
that would lift the aircraft off the runway as the airspeed produces the
needed lift for the gross weight and at the same time controlling that
natural process in both direction and pitch.

I haven't actually noticed the behavior of the 182 in the simulator so I
can't comment on that, but if I recall, you said something about it
being too flat???

It doesn't seem to pitch up in the way that other aircraft do. I pull back on
the stick and it rises a little bit, but not like other aircraft.

Watching videos of these Cessnas taking off, it also appears that they don't
pitch up much as they leave the runway, or before leaving the runway.

I figured it might have something to do with the high-wing design (?).

As far as I can tell (I just compared again), the videos match the sim, or
perhaps I should say the sim matches the videos, and I tried two different
Cessnas (one by Carenado, and one by Flight1).

You don't want a lot of pitch input at rotation in most airplanes as it
is possible if you lead the lift a bit to drag the tail. If you have the
needed lift, as soon as the wing senses the increase in angle of attack
the airplane will leave the runway. The trick when this happens is
actually to keep the nose down in some airplanes rather than raise it
because if the aircraft is accelerating (and it is), it "wants" to go UP!

Cessnas seem eager to fly. But I'm still rotating at too high a speed (around
80 KIAS), which could have something to do with that.

A B52 is a perfect example of a flat rotation. Watch a video of a B52
takeoff and you will notice that the aircraft just seems to "leave the
runway". This is a normal take off for the 52. In the cockpit, the
actual yoke pitch input is quite small in this airplane.

I've read that the angle of incidence on the B-52 is so severe that it can
take off with the fuselage level, and it can land with the fuselage nose-down.
Videos seem to confirm this.

For a 182, you should be getting a normal rotation with just a little
yoke pressure at lift off causing that as the airplane reaches the
airspeed where lift is being created that allows the airplane to fly.

That seems to be what is happening. In the Baron I need to be more brisk
about pulling back the yoke.

If you are seeing a flat rotation in the sim for the 182, try simply
using a bit more yoke pressure but not enough that you exceed Vy. Just
rotate and then find the nose attitude that produces a Vy airspeed for
you as you clean up the airplane into climb settings.

I will keep practicing. Right now I'm wrestling with the AFDS on a 767 (VNAV
on the FMC isn't very good at respecting altitude constraints on a descent
profile), but I'll probably fire up my 182 just to take a break (something
_completely_ different).