Crab, I can't remember what my Army QHI taught us in the Gazelle. However, I clearly remember doing this from 500 feet hover in the 206 to support aerial filming qualification on my OPC some 25 years ago. We definitely had to "push" continuously to get the nose down enough to make a viable EOL at the bottom.
I don't do flapback! My hands have coped with that before my brain reacts so I am unaware that flapback is occurring. Hence the steady progressive push until the nose is down enough to accelerate. In the 206 I can't remember the nose down value but no need really as it was VMC procedure and more "feel" than numbers.
Like I said, stuffing the cyclic forward (or indeed, in any direction) is the root of all evil.
Anyhow, what do I know, I am just beginning to fly my B412 without the nose going the wrong way every time I move the collective after 12k hours of my MRH going the other way round my head had "hard wired" my feet to dance to a French tune! Don't even get me started on the standby AI which looks like a pissed scarecrow in a whisky glass! Or maybe the start procedure which involves 8 independent switch selections and the lottery of the motorcycle throttle thingies on the collective. Thus far I have achieved the "Holy Trinity" (open the first fuel valve, motor the second engine, open the first throttle but looking at second engine ITT, wondering why it won't start). Loads and loads of those pully-out things in the roof that make the electrics a randomised option also.