RV-7 Rudder trim

[jask]

I was looking at installing a rudder trim from Steve at Skunk Works. He said it was his biggest seller. What is interesting is the feedback from users. Some of the aircraft are so far out of trim that the friction adjust has a difficult time but he attributes that to a rigging problem. His system works great for most customers. He also mentioned that he changed engines on his RV6 and it altered the yaw in cruise to about a half ball out. Would that be an engine mount problem? Any comments appreciated. How many have installed metal trim tabs for cruise and how much adjustment was needed.

[Raymo]

My -7A rudder has the riveted tailing edge and was about 1/2 ball off in cruise. I used my hands to gently bend the rudder trailing edge very slightly. The next flight, the ball was way off to the other side so I worked it back to look as straight. It now flies centered in cruise.

It doesn't take much to make a big change and you can't tell I did anything to my rudder.

[RV7 To Go]

One of the guys on our field with a 6A installed a single non adjustable lever and spring to correct his rudder trim issue so he didn't have to add an external tab. Worked great for him so I thought I would try it on my 7 which was out about half a ball. After installing the arm and spring I tensioned it so the ball was centred at cruise. This solved the issue in cruise but I found that on TO I now had to put in left rudder to keep it straight...very un-natural feel. I reduced the tension by half or so and added a small 3" long x 1/2" high x 1" wide trim wedge. Ball centred in cruise and standard right rudder for TO. All is good now. I think the adjustable trim would work out OK on a 7...just remember to centre for TO or you may have a big surprise. FWIW.
Al