Mounting Horizontal Stabilizer

Finished the process of drilling the elevator horns for the pushrod rod end bearing. This process took longer then expected due to questions I had with elevator alignment. The plans call for duct taping the elevator counterweights in the neutral or trail position and then match drilling the 2 horns. Because the steel elevator horns are welded together there are minor differences between the 2 horns. The plans clearly state that the horns probably won't be aligned and that's OK. Just mark and drill the aft most horn first to achieve proper edge clearances for the holes. My two horns had about 5 mm of offset with both elevators secured in the trail position. What gave me pause was when sighting down the trailing edge the 2 elevators were not lined up. The right one was about 4-5 mm higher then the left one. This made sense since the right horn was the more aft one. The elevators are self jigging and aligning when you build them and don't appear to have any twist or warp. This trailing edge difference isn't addressed in the plans so I was reasonably sure all RV-14s have that to a certain degree. A check with my buddy who's RV-14 is flying revealed his elevators were off too. But it bugged me. It seemed like something that should have a much tighter tolerance. To be sure I emailed Vans Tech Support asking some questions. They got back and in a nutshell said it's normal, common and doesn't adversely effect the flying qualities. OK then. Building on. After match drilling both horns using a drilling jig I disassembled it all and started the process of mounting the stab to the fuselage.