On the matter of speed for height, just how much speed are you going to trade off? You're going to be looking for green dot aren't you?
According to the NTSB report
... the green dot speed would have been about 223 kts.
The report also states that
... the airplane reached its highest altitude of about 3,060 feet at an airspeed of about 185 kts calibrated airspeed (KCAS).