Elevator weights and pushrod assembly

I have empennage nearly completed and noticed that the weights on my elevators might not quite be enough.

If I pull the pushrod assembly all the way forward so the plane would be in a sharp nose up (trailing edge reaches for the ceiling) they will sit there just fine.

If I position it so that it would be in level flight, they will ever so slowly drop into a nose down position. (trailing edge reaches for the floor)

Its very slow. And that little bit of weight discrepancy might be completely lost once the rest of the elevator assembly is hooked up with the rest of the plane. But, for safety reasons I thought I should ask. Do I need to add a little more weight to the elevator tip counter balance weights or is it fine how it is?

Elevator balance

The elevator is not fully balanced. There is a procedure in the final assembly section to check that all is OK.

Gary Specketer

Building the tail for the RV-10 I too noticed the elevator weights were not large enough to fully counterbalance the elevator. I also knew from my RV-8A that this would only get worse after paint.

I talked to Van's and they told me that my observation was correct, and that the weight was chosen to avoid flutter, not to be a perfect balance. The last statement was along the lines of "do what is called for in the plans".

300 hours on the plane and all is well.

Carl

Awesome. Thanks guys =)