During transition to forward flight, after ETL, the purpose of adjusting attitude to 8-10 degrees nose down is to accelerate to which speed?

• A. To Reach Hover Altitude
• B. To Accelerate To The Desired Climb Airspeed
• C. To Align With Runway Centerline
• D. To Reduce Rotor RPM

Answer: (B)

During the hover-to-forward flight transition, you use a modest nose-down attitude (about 8–10 degrees) after ETL to start building forward airspeed. This small pitch reduces rotor response time while turning lift into forward motion, allowing you to accelerate to the desired climb airspeed. Reaching that speed puts you in the translational flight regime with adequate translational lift and controllability for a stable transition.

The other options aren’t the goal here: hover altitude is set during hover or before transitioning; aligning with a runway centerline is an approach/landing task; reducing rotor RPM isn’t the objective of this forward-acceleration step.