Narrative:

I just think this is worth reporting because in nearly 16 years on the 737 I have never seen the aircraft do this before and had just heard the same story from a different first officer (first officer) about another high altitude airport. Initially we were looking at an intersection departure; bleeds off; but we ended up almost 3000 pounds lighter than planned. We ended up flaps 5; bleeds on from the intersection with a reduced power of 98.9 (max 100.7). Winds were 200 at 16 kts with a gust. I believe it was less than 20 kts. We elected to use the reduced setting. Aircraft accelerated normally with no airspeed deviations. V1 145; vr 146. First officer noted groundspeed 180 kts near the end of rotation.I usually rotate to about 5 deg; hesitate and let the aircraft break ground then continue the rotation. The aircraft did not break ground until somewhere between 7 and 7.5 degrees. Once we broke ground; it did not climb. As I felt the end of the runway was getting too close; I continued the rotation to about 10 degrees. The aircraft recorder recorded 9.8 departure pitch similar to what I thought I did. That was when the aircraft started climbing.the first officer and I discussed this at some length and felt we did everything correctly. He also said he noted nothing abnormal with the departure; power setting (it actually settled on 99.1- 02 above reduced) or any part of the takeoff roll except that he noted I kept pulling back farther and farther on the yoke and the aircraft was not climbing. Although we are aware of no mistakes we made on this takeoff; it is worth noting that had the aircraft not started climbing within a very short time after it did; I probably would have been firewalling the throttles and risking a tail strike with increased pitch.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: During takeoff roll at a high-altitude airport; B-737 crew experienced an abnormally slow start of the aircraft climb after rotation. Crew felt that it took more nose up pitch than normal for the aircraft to break ground.

Narrative: I just think this is worth reporting because in nearly 16 years on the 737 I have never seen the aircraft do this before and had just heard the same story from a different FO (First Officer) about another high altitude airport. Initially we were looking at an intersection departure; bleeds off; but we ended up almost 3000 pounds lighter than planned. We ended up Flaps 5; bleeds on from the intersection with a reduced power of 98.9 (max 100.7). Winds were 200 at 16 kts with a gust. I believe it was less than 20 kts. We elected to use the reduced setting. Aircraft accelerated normally with no airspeed deviations. V1 145; VR 146. FO noted groundspeed 180 kts near the end of rotation.I usually rotate to about 5 deg; hesitate and let the aircraft break ground then continue the rotation. The aircraft did not break ground until somewhere between 7 and 7.5 degrees. Once we broke ground; it did not climb. As I felt the end of the runway was getting too close; I continued the rotation to about 10 degrees. The aircraft recorder recorded 9.8 departure pitch similar to what I thought I did. That was when the aircraft started climbing.The FO and I discussed this at some length and felt we did everything correctly. He also said he noted nothing abnormal with the departure; power setting (it actually settled on 99.1- 02 above reduced) or any part of the takeoff roll except that he noted I kept pulling back farther and farther on the yoke and the aircraft was not climbing. Although we are aware of no mistakes we made on this takeoff; it is worth noting that had the aircraft not started climbing within a very short time after it did; I probably would have been firewalling the throttles and risking a tail strike with increased pitch.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.