On a 737 they are retracted early in the climb, typically between 1000 and 1250 feet. If the slight stick movement the pilot is accustomed to to bring the elevation down 2-3* fails to do so cause MCAS does not engage, there's not a whole lot of distance to recover from a stall then.
> If the slight stick movement the pilot is accustomed to to bring the elevation down 2-3* fails to do so
This is completely unrelated to MCAS, though? Since the goal of MCAS wasn't "bring the nose down" but instead "increase the pressure on the stick required to maintain a certain nose-up attitude", I'd be really flabbergasted if it was supposed to operate in a normal takeoff environment.
