I've read a number of posts where builders have noted that they removed too much lead when balancing the elevators. I was not sure why this would happen so often until balancing mine tonight. I decided to do this off the airplane, particularly so the left elevator would not be influenced by the trim cable (manual) which is difficult to get out of the way unless I remove the horizontal stab and pulled the cable back out, then later removed it again to put the cable back in, as the cable is too stiff to remove/reinstall with the stab mounted.
Easy enough. I made two brackets to simulate those on the stab and mounted the right elevator to it. Started drilling lead. Was surprised at how much I had to remove. Probably in the neghborhood of 8-10 oz. At the end, the right elevator was perfectly neutral.
Took off the right elevator and installed the left elevator. Put on trim tab, access plate and the nut to hold the cable in place so everything would be just as it was installed on the airplane. I even waited until after painting to make sure that didn't influence it. Only problem now- there's not enough weight on the left elevator before removing any
I can only assume that the weights are calculated so that the total of both elevators are balanced when the elevators are mounted and connected, acting as a single unit. In other words, you can only balance them connected together and not individually???
Can I get some confirmation on this from others? At this point it appears I need to fix them together and then add some weight back to the right elevator to balance the elevators as a unit. Another option would be to add additional weight above that in the as supplied configuration to the left elevator, to balance that one individually.
Looks like the manual would mention you could not balance them individually. I missed this if anyone ever pointed out that conclusion.
RV-6A Elevator Balancing
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Linear Mode
