Elevator counter balance weight

[Paul 5r4]

A couple weeks ago I finished building the 7A tail section and have set it aside. One question kinda playing in the back of my mind. In the book it states the lead weights will "overbalance" the elevator at this point. This is to allow for painting. I suppose they mean the elevator will be in the UP position. Anyway.... I have not removed any of the lead yet in either the left or the right elevator. The right elevator does just like the book says, It's in the UP elevator position as expected. The left one, (with the trim tab) is heavy and is in the DOWN elevator position. Wondering if I'm going to need to add some more lead up there? Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[pierre smith]

Yes

Hi Paul,
The elevator should at least be horizontal. We placed a paper cup on the front end of the arm and added lead shot/balls until the elevator was neutral or slightly up. On the -6, we melted the lead and poured it into the elevator. The paint shouldn't add a noticeable amount of weight.

Regards,

 

[L.Adamson]

The paint shouldn't add a noticeable amount of weight.
Regards,

Perhaps it shouldn't; but mine did. About 5 oz. between the two halves. That's all the lead I drilled out originally, and perhaps a bit more.

Mine's yellow, which is hard to get away with less than five or six coats, and then I added a bit of light weight filler to blend in the fiberglass tips since it was originally balanced.

Note: the yellow takes a lot of coats, but they must be lighter coats with less pigment, because in the end, I didn't use as much as I thought I would. I heard that once they removed the lead, it just no longer covers easy with just a few coats.

One more note. Until the plane is getting close to flying, and deciding whether it's going airborne with paint or not, I would no longer worry about getting the elevators balanced at this stage. Just make a written note on the "to do list".
For me, I drilled it out, only to replace it, And it's harder to replace it!

L.Adamson

 

[Flying Scotsman]

On the my neighbor's -8, and we plan to do this on my -7A, we put platenuts on the inside of the end rib (IIRC) so that we could add weight later if needed using a bolt + washers + whatever. Didn't need to do it, but the option was there.

 

[G-force]

On the my neighbor's -8, and we plan to do this on my -7A, we put platenuts on the inside of the end rib (IIRC) so that we could add weight later if needed using a bolt + washers + whatever. Didn't need to do it, but the option was there.

I did that as well. There is a tooling hole right there in the perfect spot.

 

[Paul 5r4]

Thanks

Thanks for the replys. I will at least get them to a neurtal or slightly "up" elevator position.