Poll: What rudder trim does your RV-14(A) need in cruise?

Now that there are enough RV-14s and -14As flying to get a meaningful statistical trend, I'm curious what rudder trim each model typically needs in cruise to center the ball. Generally I've seen more -14s with tabs for left rudder trim, and more -14As with tabs for right rudder trim, but I've seen some with no external tab and a few with a tab opposite to the above.

Please vote only if you've got all the fairings installed.

Update: just to be clear about semantics, you need 'right rudder trim' if the ball is displaced to the right with your feet on the floor. You need to step on the right rudder pedal to center the ball. This action displaces the rudder to the right, and swings the nose to the right. If you're using a wedge on the rudder to center the ball in this example, it would applied to the left side of the rudder which results in 'right rudder trim'.

The lack of external tab does not mean that they don't need anything. Both of my 14As needed a bit of tab on the left side but I have installed rudder trim which eliminate the need for a trim tab.

Tom023 said:

I may be the only one ignorant to the correct terminology but Mehrdad's post made me realize it could be a problem with your poll. When flying, the ball on my plane is slightly to the right needing right rudder to correct, so I voted right trim. However, I added a small trim tab on the left side of the rudder to give it right trim. Mehrdad said he added a left trim tab as well but voted left trim. So perhaps an explanation of what is the correct response would ensure consistent results. Like I said, I may be the only one who doesn't know this.

Click to expand...

Yeah I wasn't sure how best to word it. When I say 'right rudder trim' I mean that you need to step on the right pedal to center the ball. If you're using a wedge on the rudder, it would indeed be applied to the left side of the rudder in this case, but some people use internal rudder trim as well (springs, bungees, etc), so I wasn't referring specifically to what mechanism is being used for the trim solution.

Tom,
You are correct and need to correct my vote as that I need right trim tab as the ball is slightly to the left

Well, I think I need a brain trim.

Mine needs no rudder trim but I clicked on the 14 not the 14A, which is what I'm flying.

So +1 on 14A and -1 on the 14

Effect of nosegear fairings on yaw trim

So based on the poll results so far, the majority of RV-14's don't need any rudder trim, whereas RV-14A's are pretty much a toss-up with equal numbers needing left trim or right trim, and almost as many that need no trim. This would seem to confirm that variations in the alignment of the nose gear leg fairing and/or nosewheel fairing have a measurable impact on yaw trim. Makes sense...

Has anyone noticed that the direction or amount of yaw trim needed was different before vs. after installing the gear fairings (if you did initial flight test without fairings)? Anyone tried adjusting the fairings on the nose gear to tweak yaw trim before putting a wedge or tab on the rudder?

Before I got the nosewheel breakout set correctly I had a need for rudder trim. Now that it isn’t loose no rudder trim needed. I was surprised how sensitive the plane was to the nosewheel fairing. The breakout was set but after the early hours it loosened some. After a few adjustments it’s been great.

I flew the first 50 hours without fairings and needed no trim on my 14A. After all fairings in place it was the same for the next 50 hours.

At 100 hours I noticed that I was starting to need some rudder in cruise. I readjusted the breakout force of the nose gear and I was back to flying with no trim needed.

I'm at 525 hours and have needed no further adjustment to the breakout force on the nose gear.