Finally got the plane to take off, and after that, the High Perf endorsement was a breeze. I think as others said, the key is the trim. I set it at up 10 degrees, and the takeoff was not bad this time. Interestingly, the trim is on the virtual cockpit (bottom right), but I could not find it on the avionics displays.
General feeling - not a fan of this plane at all. Way too sensitive on take-off, with a strong desire to yaw left unless you keep on constant right rudder. I also needed to flatten the rudder sensitivity 60% to calm it down.