Elevator Installation

[pilot28906]

Hello All,
I have drilled the elevator horns and places the elevators back on the HS with temp pins and will do some balancing.

My question is, when do you permantly install the elevators? If you do it now you will have to remove to paint. Is it better to keep them off untill they are painted (way down the road) or do most do the fly off period unpainted (if so, why). I am thinking the it would be easier to paint with all the surfaces off then put them on permantly one time.

Please let me know how you did it.

John Johnson
Murphy, NC
RV7(A)

[TSwezey]

Some paint beforehand and some wait until later on. The down side of waiting is that you will have to take your plane out of flying status for two or more weeks. If you are going to paint before you fly wait until after the painting is done to do the final install. The painting might throw off any balancing done now.