I incorrectly thought the measurement point would be the aft tip of the tail. That point is substantially higher than the forward section that actually strikes.

I would have thought the contact point is the belly of the fuselage, not the tail.

As erj and puck pointed out, we are given a generic flight director cue to "fly up" when on the ground.

In the 767 (certified in the very early 80's), this command pops into view as soon as the inertial units (gyros) are aligned and the flight director is turned on as part of the preflight. During rotation it will give you guidance to climb out at calculated initial climb speed, V2. That is why it is important to gently but positively climb up to the FD cue because I have seen it indicate upwards of 25 degrees of climb for pilots who lollygag their rotation and speed up past the calculated speeds. Also, per our, and I assume Boeing's procedures, we cannot engage autopilot on the 767 until 1000 feel AGL when we can turn on one of the vertical modes of our flight guidance.

Given the state of tech at the time and also Boeing's assumption that pilots are smart enough and well trained/experienced enough not to yank the plane off the ground, it seemed a reasonable way of doing things.

It depends , are they squawking ?

Another "side effect" of the longer 737 airframes (800 and 900 series) is that since they cannot pitch-up as high when rotating, they have a significantly longer take-off roll.

Because of that, I can't do my '6000 and airborne' dance during a departure rush.