Now I could be very wrong, but I have had two of these planes and still have one. If you only shorten say the top cable to raise the elevator half all you will do is increase the cable tension but if you LOOSEN the bottom cable at the same time the elevator half will raise and the tension will remain the same since it is the opposite cable that it is pulling against. That is how I adjusted both of mine and it worked very well. Try it. You will see.