This paper experimentally investigates the flow field development and unsteady loading of three force-mitigating pitch manoeuvres during a transverse gust encounter. The manoeuvres are constructed using varying levels of theoretical and simulation fidelity and implemented as open-loop kinematics in a water towing tank. It is found that pitch actuation during a gust encounter results in two important changes in flow topology: (i) early detachment of the leading-edge vortex (LEV) and (ii) formation of an LEV on the pressure side of the wing upon gust exit. Each of the pitch manoeuvres is found to mitigate a significant portion of the circulatory contribution of the lift force while only manoeuvres with accurate modelling of the added-mass force are found to adequately mitigate the total lift force. The penalty of aerodynamic lift mitigation using pitch manoeuvres was a twofold increase in the pitching moment transients experienced by the wing for all cases. By quantifying changes in the vertical gust momentum before and after the encounter, lift-mitigating manoeuvres were found to reduce the disturbance to the gust’s flow field, thereby reducing the momentum exchange between the gust and the wing.