Balancing Flight Controls

[johneeb]

Gary, this is anecdotal at best, I have heard of a 172 that was being used as a test mule for some modification and part of the flight testing required diving well past the airspeed red line. The people doing these tests wanted the flight controls balanced to 0" to eliminate as much chance of flutter as possible. I do not know how much feel would change closer to the overbalance end of the range but would guess better.

[n2582d]

Thanks John. In thinking further about this, for the ailerons, I'm guessing that it makes little difference (as far as lightness of roll feel) where in the range they are balanced. Assuming they are under-balanced alike, the weight of one aileron helps "lift" the opposite one. I will be reskinning my ailerons and epoxy priming the interior of them. Hoping I don't have to add massive amounts of lead to get them balanced near 0".