I started out today by heading to the hangar with the intent of installing the elevators first and then heading back to my shop to knock out the weight and balance of the ailerons.  Alas, between not having all the tools on hand that I needed, helping Guy with some stuff on his Long-EZ, and generally BS’ing with some fellow EAA’ers, I didn’t get back to my shop until very late afternoon.

I then did a few hours of final research in the original LEZ plans, on the COBA forum and in my Central States Association searchable newsletters to ensure I was armed with the all the knowledge I could cram into my head regarding balancing the ailerons.

Here’s the skinny from a CSA article on what the parameters and final goal is in balancing the ailerons.

Are my ailerons, like so many other builders, represented by the one in the middle? (note: “sarcasm”).

In one CSA article Joe Person was relaying a statement by Valerie Jarret where she noted that 9 out of 10 canard aircraft they worked on did not have balanced flight controls.  IN MY OPINION, it is quite likely that both in the building and original design features of the ailerons it is near impossible to see anything near an aileron as shown in the middle picture without possibly having missed a layup ply when built.

To drive this point home, even Klaus Savier, who is maniacal when it comes to weight, noted that his original Vari-Eze ailerons were well over 6 lbs. a piece.  As there is no aileron weight parameters identified in the plans, the only other official weight reference we have is out of the Canard Pusher Newsletters that list Mike Melvill’s aileron weight at 5 lbs 2 oz before paint.

How about my ailerons?  Here is my left side aileron.  Pic 1 is the better representation of the angle vs pic 2, which the camera itself is at an angle.

I will set up a level just under the bottom surface of the aileron, but the bottom line is that my ailerons are NOT balanced, and will need added weight attached to the top of the leading edges to bring them into balance.  The max allowable weight to add per plans is 0.3 lbs.

Now, I ordered adhesive backed lead tape to use for this purpose, but I didn’t account for the total weight possibly required when I ordered this one roll many moons ago, as it is only a bit over 0.25 lbs total and I’ll need at least double that to get my ailerons balanced.

Thus, I pulled the trigger on another roll of adhesive lead weight and called it a night.

Inching forward . . .