Verticle Stab. mounting.

Does anyone know if the vertical stab. can be mounted slightly off center to eliminate the need for a trim tab on the rudder? Or does violate all that is holy in the aeronautical theory??

Just curious,

Steve :confused
:

Hey Steve,
There are others on this list that know more about this than I do, but I'll take a shot at giving you an answer.

The vertical stabilizer already is mounted off center per the plans! About 1/4" at the front if I remember correctly. This is the amount Vans has determined to be "about" right.
It will need to be different at every power setting, so trying to adjust it by moving the stabilizer would be a real pain.

I'm not flying yet but I think most folks just glue on a small trim tab after making test flights to determine what they want.

I have seen at least one person who had devised a spring biased rudder trim that could be adjusted inflight easily.

Hope this helps ,
Mark

The RV-7 design has a 'built in' 1/4" left offset of the leading edge of the VS. This is implemented by a 'jog' in the front VS attach plate.



The RV-6 design was originally spec'd at zero off set, but some builders have changed this and built in a left offset. I just recently corrected the offset on my purchased RV-6A.

Thank you.

I appreciate the input, I was working off of old 6 memory and I had not looked at my 7 plans to see the 1/4" offset. Thanks again for the quick response!

Steve