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Elevator counterweights hit the horizontal stabilizer. What happened?

bob865

Well Known Member
Started mounting the elevators to the horizontal stabilizer today and found a problem. The counterweights overlap the skin for the horizontal stabilizer. I reviewed the plans over and over and could not find any error. Has anyone seen this? Any idea where I went wrong?
 

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Have you drilled your elevator horns to center bearing holes yet? If not, go back and check to make sure your elevator rod ends are adjusted to final spec before trimming anything.

If you've already drilled the horns for the center bearing, any adjustment to those elevator rod end bearings are going to cause a misalignment. And, it makes a surprisingly large difference in the tip weight to HS clearance.

I did learn that chromoly can in fact be plug-welded though. ;-)

After fixing my elevator horns and setting the specified length on those elevator rod end bearing, I only had to adjust the clearance between the tip weights and HS by a very slight amount.
 
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I did trim that area, I thought the pans called for it but I don't have my plans with me. As it was said above make sure it's adjusted first and the elevator horns are drilled.
 
Started mounting the elevators to the horizontal stabilizer today and found a problem. The counterweights overlap the skin for the horizontal stabilizer. I reviewed the plans over and over and could not find any error. Has anyone seen this? Any idea where I went wrong?

You missed a step in the plans -- In DWG 3 for the RV-7 it shows the section to remove. RV-8 is similar.
 

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Just a hint, which is probably becoming obvious - take time to read all the plans carefully when you are taking on a task. Think of it as a treasure hunt. There are important details spread all over the place, and it's up to you to find them. Missing a small thing can bite you in the rear down the road. The plans for the empennage are the most detailed and descriptive. The next kits require to you figure out more and more on your own.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I see it in the plans now. I never expected I would have to trim the stabilizer skin, or at least that much. When I saw the overlap I assumed I assembled something wrong in a previous step and only looked backwards in the plan and not forward.
 
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Highlighters on the plans have helped me a lot. And lots of notes on the plan sheets. Green when completed as it, yellow if modified, orange if not applicable.
 
You dont have to trim them just yet.

Perfectly normal for the elevators to overlap the elevator if you don't trim the HS skin. I didn't do this step at the beginning, but this came in very handy for setting the elevators perfectly level when mounting the empennage to the fuse. There was no guessing the neutral elevator position and if they were even. Now that everything's drilled and the control rod is cut and fit. I can trim the HS skin.
 
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