[miyu1975]

In balancing my right elevator I seemed to have trimmed to much off of the weight thus making it not heavy enough to be in proper balance to the HS..I ran across a website somewhere that had a fix for this, but of course now I can't find it..can anyone assist.?

 

[rvator51]

One way I have heard of is to drill a hole in the elevator counterbalance arm or fairing and mix some lead shot with epoxy and pour it in while arm pointed down and let epoxy/shot mixture harden up.

 

[jsharkey]

Question for Others?

My LH elevator with electric trim motor seems a tad light and I haven't touched the weight yet. The RH elevator is heavy at the moment. I was planning to balance them as a pair since they are connected at the horn. Does that make sense?
Jim Sharkey

 

[rwshooter]

Ryan...Jim

I'm pasing on the advice I got when at your stage........DONT BALANCE ANYTHING UNTIL AFTER YOUR AIRPLANE LOOKS LIKE AN AIRPLANE AND IS READY TO FLY!.....was that subtle enough

Robb....7A...2nd wing almost done...fuse on the way

 

[RV3 Pilot]

Please feel free to file this as useless information but a very well known test pilot I know says that some very knowledgable people believe that having a slight difference in balance with controls surfaces is a good thing. This way flutter shouldn't happen at the same speed on both control surfaces.
ymmv
Tom

 

[N131RV]

Paint changes balance.

Bear in mind, painting the assembly will alter the balance by few ounces.
This from personal experience. The weight of the paint on the elevator will be higher than the weight applied to the counterbalance arm.

As for adjusting: If you drilled holes, melt some lead with a propane torch and fill some of the holes. If you trimmed the weight, new ones are not very expensive.

YMMV

 

[Danny King]

Elevator balancing

Don't balance your elevators until your aircraft is painted, assembled, and ready for flight. Then level the fuselage in both axis, (level flight attitude).
If you do it before this, everything will change when painted and assembled.

 

[carguy614]

second that

One lesson I learned was to not worry about the elevator balance until all is ready for final rigging. OK to balance the elevators as an assembly per Vans. No matter what you do, it will all change when you are ready for the final rigging, so I think it is best left until last. Lesson learned.

Good luck,
Chris

 

[Kevin Horton]

Please feel free to file this as useless information but a very well known test pilot I know says that some very knowledgable people believe that having a slight difference in balance with controls surfaces is a good thing. This way flutter shouldn't happen at the same speed on both control surfaces.

Hmm. This would lower the flutter speed for one of the elevators. Given that even single elevator flutter would probably lead to HS failure, and loss of control, I'd prefer the keep the flutter speed as high as possible.

Ideally, each elevator would be balanced individually. This way any small flexibility in the structure that connects the two elevators together does not enter in the equation, and the airspeed at which flutter starts will be the highest. But, many RVs have been built where the elevators were balanced as a unit, after bolting them together, and RVs are not falling from the sky due to flutter.

I balanced my elevators individually, but I would have no concerns about flying an RV that had the elevators balanced as a unit.

 

[miyu1975]

ok I will wait. Just wanted to finish up the fiberglass and rage filling, guess that will wait too.

 

[Rick6a]

Why Mess With Lead?

Another way:

 

[jtrollin]

When I was building a pinewood derby car for my daughter they sold lead wieghts for the car to help it go faster. They also had a tungston putty that you could use. I wonder if the tungston putty would work to add weight in places as it was a very dense material and you could stick the putty anywere (it was even paintable). Just thought I would share.

 

[RV3 Pilot]

Hmm. This would lower the flutter speed for one of the elevators. Given that even single elevator flutter would probably lead to HS failure, and loss of control, I'd prefer the keep the flutter speed as high as possible.

Ideally, each elevator would be balanced individually. This way any small flexibility in the structure that connects the two elevators together does not enter in the equation, and the airspeed at which flutter starts will be the highest. But, many RVs have been built where the elevators were balanced as a unit, after bolting them together, and RVs are not falling from the sky due to flutter.

I balanced my elevators individually, but I would have no concerns about flying an RV that had the elevators balanced as a unit.

Not my cup of tea either.
Not so sure that the underbalanced surface will be the first to flutter tho. If that were true than we should just all overbalance all the control surfaces and not worry about it
Tom