Actually, most of them are probably not pointing "straight down", since most boats don't sit level in the water. But, I don't know as it makes all that much difference in the image you're seeing on the screen to have the transducer tilted a few degrees forward. At least I haven't seen any noticeable distortion of my screen image when I kick my trolling motor into high gear, even though I know my trolling motor shaft will flex forward a couple of inches during a "rabbit start".