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Elevator Horn Alignment

miyu1975

miyu1975

Well Known Member
I am presently finishing the tail section. I have the elevators attached to the HS. I am noticing the two horns do not exactly line up. With the elevators straight in trail one horn is slightly more turned than the other. Are they suppose to be exactly the same. Can't see what would have gone wrong if so.?? I want to make this is correct before I start drilling the pilot holes in the horns..

thx
 
Yup, it's normal.
That is why (I think) the instructions tell you to measure for the pilot hole on the aft most horn and then drill through to the other one. This will prevent you from being short on edge distance on one of the horns.
 
miyu1975 said:
I really nervous about drilling the holes in the horns.
Click to expand...

If you're nervous, it won't hurt to wait until you have the tail mounted. Once you get the tail in position, along with the control tube. You'll see how everything works.....takes about 5 minutes.
 
agreed...After looking at some other builder sites I see they also waited on drilling the horns until they were at the fuse stage and putting the tail on the fuse..I too will wait..thx for the advice.
 
another thing to watch

Another point to watch is that the hinge distances are correct as it is possible to get the elevators slightly out of alignment which changes the alignment of the horns, I have some photos of this on my original web site as this happened to me. Make sure the elevators are parallel to the stabilizer and the counterbalance arm is parallel to the end of the stab and then recheck the horn alignment.
I got everything aligned and clamped together and drilled the hole with the stabilizer assembly separate from the fuselage as there is not much working space when it is mounted, the final alignment is when everything is in place and bolted together to the elevator tube with the spacer washers.
Look here under empennage
 
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If you go to flyins where there are RV's and check the elevator alignment you will notice about half of them are not aligned. Mine came out misaligned and I did it exactly as per instructions.
I later found out that there is available drill bits that only cut at the point and not the sides. I was told that I used the wrong drill bit that caused it to walk. Good luck. DH
 
Another Caution

Take care to move the elevators sufficiently aft of the HS so the horn hole winds up forward of the horn weldment fillets enough that the hex of the bolt and nut don't ride up on the fillet.

The manual is pretty good at this point. Clamp the counterbalances to the HS. Set the gaps and alignment, then drill. It's way easier with the assembly fully exposed on the bench rather than attempt to work with it mounted on the fuse. There's nothing to be gained by waiting.

John Siebold
 
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