Originally Posted by
TheHardWay
The elevator is hinged at the leading edge, so the servo tab mounted at the trailing edge has the mechanical advantage or leverage to force the elevator to move up or down.
The stabilizer is hinged at the trailing edge with the actuator at the leading edge, so the position of the elevator mounted at the trailing edge of the stabilizer is going to have little or no effect on the position of a free floating stabilizer.
The stabilizer hinge line is slightly forward of the point where its trailing edge meets the fuselage. Due to stabilizer sweep angle, its hinge line is close to the center of lift such that horizontal tail angle-of-attack does not have a significant impact on the load applied to the jack screw. Due to the stabilizer sweep angle and the location of the elevators, deflection of the elevators generates a rotational torque on the stabilizer in the opposite direction. Note that all for the elevators are located aft of the horizontal stabilizer hinge line. The outboard end of the elevator is significantly aft of the stabilizer hinge line.