Tip: Elevator Balancing

Hi all,

This is actually a simple question, but i an in doubt so here it goes :

I am building an 7 taildragger and I just attached the elevators to HS and fuse. Hoe to balance the elevators? Whats the most practical way to check ballancing? . Painting is not in plans before the first 50 hours of flying. If anyone could help me with this procedure i'll appreciate.


Henrique Castro

Elevator balance

When the elevators are attached to the stab, without anything else attached, they should stay close to level all by themselves. If you're going to paint later, they should probably rest TE high a bit unpainted.
Mine currently rest about 30 degrees TE high unpainted. Van's doesn't specify a tolerance for how close they need to be. It is not super critical, but of course we all strive to be as close as possible.
After painting, you can add or remove counterbalance weight as required until you are satisfied. Removing is easy (drill). Adding is one of those execises left for the builder to figure out

Elevator Balance

And don't forget you will be adding the weight of the electric trim servo!!

Elevator Balancing

Using an existing tooling hole, I installed a 1/4" floating nutplate and the opposite side contains AN970 area washers stacked in combination to fine tune the balance of the elevators.....before and after paint. I don't recall where I got this idea and can't claim to be the original designer, but this technique proved to be a clever way to balance the elevators.

For those of us with manual trim, do you balance the left elevator with or without the trim cable in place?

jlfernan said:

For those of us with manual trim, do you balance the left elevator with or without the trim cable in place?

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I balanced mine without the cable attached. The cable offers resistance due to its bending when the elevator is deflected so there is no way to accurately balance it attached. It will always put pressure one way or another on the elevator.
According to a trusted source at Vans, people tend to get carried away with balancing. It is just not that critical to have it "perfect". Pretty much like most of the build process with RV's.

Why do some overbalance the elevators ? Is this better ?

Rick6a said:

Using an existing tooling hole, SNIP

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hey Rick, I did the same thing, but my nutplates on the other side. How do you plan on adding/removing washers after the fiberglass tip is on?

Paint

rv72004 said:

Why do some overbalance the elevators ? Is this better ?

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Hi EJ,
They try to compensate for the future paint that will make them underbalanced. We did this but only a tad more lead than what it took to balance them to a neutral position. As Jonjay said, "It just ain't that critical". That said, I did test to redline airspeed but won't go there again. Safety margins y'know.

Regards,

G-force said:

hey Rick, I did the same thing, but my nutplates on the other side. How do you plan on adding/removing washers after the fiberglass tip is on?

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Very simple....I routinely install all tips with screws and nutplates.....I know, I know...overkill!