Rudder Counterweight Alternative?

[FlyGuy]

Thinking about possibly installing a strobe driver to R-912 instead of the rudder counterweight. Anyone know of a driver with a footprint and weight similar to the counterweight? Good idea or bad?

 

[Kevin Horton]

A strobe driver would have lower density than the lead counterweight, so its CG would be closer to the rudder hinge line. So, to have the same protective benefit as the lead counterweight, the strobe driver would need to be heavier. And, any counterweight replace would need to have very strong attachment points, as the forces between the rudder and the counterweight could be quite high if you inadvertently approach the flutter speed. All the strobe drivers I have seen have relatively flimsy mounting tabs, and those tabs would fail if the the "counterweight" was being called upon to prevent flutter.

Given that a counterweight is there to prevent flutter, and flutter could cause a fatal accident, and flutter prediction is a bit of a black art, this is probably not the best area to exercise creativity.

 

[FlyGuy]

...this is probably not the best area to exercise creativity.

Thanks, Kevin. I suspected it might not be a good idea when my search came up enpty.