Elevator horn alignment, fix or ok?

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My vote is disaster needing to be fixed.

With that much off the trailing edges right vs left can't be straight.

My 2 cents worth.

Jim
RV9a flying

alignment

I am not know if the alignment is that critical, I simply have nothing to compare with. I do, however, have an appreciation of steel. The weldment can be filled by welding and filed flat. Then re-drill in an appropriate spot.

The only issue is that the plastic finish on the weldment is going to be ruined in the heat affected zone. I just ground it off, feathered it with sandpaper and finished it with rattle can of choice. Someone else may have a better idea.

My vote is that you need to sight along the trailing edge to determine if they are aligned or not. The horn attachment has its own issues, and you can have elevators that are in perfect alignment, but the counterweight horns are a bit out of alignment. For what it is worth, the horns on my elevators are worse in terms on non-alignment, but the trailing edges are lined up, and it flies fine.

Mine was off at least that much if not more for about 20 years.

A few years ago I decided to "fix" it. After the fix, I noticed absolutely no change in flight characteristics or speed.

If the cosmetic aspect bothers you, then fix it. Otherwise, build-on!

shoot, mine are twice that bad.... but the trailing edge of both my elevators are perfectly straight., because i clamped them to an 8' piece of aluminum angle before drilling the horns.

I think only a repeat offender could have the wherewithal to have perfectly aligned counterweights AND trailing edges. I would surmise that misaligned trailing edges would induce a corkscrew like flight characteristic moreso than offset counterweights. And since I never park with my H-stab/elevators aligned, nobody will ever know