Varga to Vans
I'm New Here
Building RV-8A. Started looking at steel aileron counterweight's possible interference with Garmin GMU 11 magnetometer. Questioned if a solid aluminum rod screwed in place instead of the steel pipe would be OK. Told by VAN's the weight would have to match the steel pipe exactly. Then I wonder why a counterweight is needed?? I figure an unbalanced aileron would produce about 5 lbs of force in the aileron control rods. Since ailerons are attached to each other at the control stick they would counter act each other so the control stick requires zero force. In other words the right aileron counterbalances the left aileron. It would be an extra 5 lbs of force on the control rods but is that not insignificant in comparison to the load when banking at 200mph? Has anyone dared to leave the aileron counterweights off, or replace them with an aluminum tube to provide some stiffness to the ailerons leading edge??