Definition
A pitch attitude in which the airplane's nose is lowered below the horizon, or a control input or trim setting that moves the nose toward a lower pitch attitude.
Plain English
The nose of the airplane is pointing downward, or you are moving it that way with the controls.
Context Anchor
Used when discussing pitch control, trim, descents, stall recovery, and what the pilot sees from inside the airplane.
Why Pilots Care
Determines whether the airplane will climb, descend, or maintain altitude and directly affects airspeed and control response.
Intuition Check
Nose-down does not mean the airplane is diving straight at the ground. It means the nose is lower than before, or the controls are being set to lower it.
Example Sentence 1
The pilot applied forward pressure on the control wheel to establish a nose-down attitude for the descent.
Example Sentence 2
A slight nose-down attitude was used to increase airspeed in the descent.