A long infight about the neccessity of priming went on – including the ususal research, talks to fellow builders and finally to my inspector – before arriving at the decision to prime but use the least hazardous method.

The main reason for the pro-priming decision was driven by the fact, that aluminum corrods easely and quicker than someone may naivly assume. ALCLAD is a very good protection – subject all parts remain unscratched which is difficult to achieve during the manifold construcution steps. For all non ALCLAD is a must as VANs advice and instruct.

Finally I decided to follow the product line of Stewart Systems https://stewartsystems.aero/ using EkoClean (1:30 diluted with distilled water), EkoEtch (1:2 diluted with distilled water) and as primer/filler EkoPrime. For spraying I used my SATA minijet 4400 (1.3mm nozzle) operated at 2 bar and dilluted the EkoPrime (after careful stirring) with 10% distilled water before filling (filtered) into the cup. Room (tent) temperature was abount 18°C while spraying. I tried to follow as close as possible (or doeable as non-spraying expert) the adice from Stewart Systems during preparation/cleaning/etching/scuffing and finally spraying. The results are far from perfect and definitely not suitable for covering the outside of the plane – nevertheless as always practice and experience is building up.

• Sufficient rinsing and rubbing with clear water after cleaning with EkoClean and etching/scuffing with EkoEtch is very important – in case of water stays and dries on the surface little stains are building up (darker than the scuffed aluminium surface). Obvious that is a residual which might impact the adhesion of the primer.
• I applied the primer less than 5 hours after preparation (Stewart Systems recommends not more than 10hours due to build-up of the oxidation layer)
• The smaller parts on the xxxxx were fixed with double sided tape on the back to the painting table
• Spraying at all is not complicated in case a tucky coat is sprayed first – followed by a wet coat after a couple of minutes – as EkoPrime dries fast this induction time is by far less than with epoxy based coatings
• Providing a little more space between parts on the spraying table allows to cover the flanges first before doing the wet coat on the horizontal surfaces
• Scuffing the Primer does require some effort – I had to do it on the top surfaces of the leading edge wedges to allow for covering the inside holes of the wedges

My workshop does not allow me to spray so I need to wait for ambient temperatures above 16°C (65°F) to start priming outside. As this is expected not before April/May I went on preparting parts – rudder next.

As per plans construction starts with the vertical fin. Having read the instructions many times and respective builder logs identification of parts and the first steps turned out to be more easy and handy as expected. Nevertheless deburring is time consuming – and appropriate technique looks to become key to work progress and a quality built ….

after completion of the training project and tool box the construction finally starts on Dec 23rd 2019 with section 06 – the vertical stabelizer …

Preparation for the RV-14A build consists first of all arriving at the „go“decision after numerous hours of internet research and encouring reports of our IEC club members, digesting the quite numerous and very informative builder logs and VAF, getting the kit order and import in place, organizing tools and workspace, communication with authorities to retrieve approval for the build, …

My current workshop is a 8 x 3 m Box inside a camp in the vicinity of my home. Walls and roof are isolated with 10cm styrofoam blocks providing me the considerable nice working conditions even in winter time having low or minus grad celsius outside. I will use this workshop for starting the build and will move to a larger box (similar to the one for temporarely storing the PH-RJH) providing a space of about 8 x 5,5 meters.

First thing mechnically done for the RV-14A was the construction of 2 EAA-worktables with dimensions as indicated in the attached plans. The idea of making it „height adjustable“ and fitting the DRDT2 was inspired by the Steve Hicks RV-14 build log (https://vansrv14project.uk/the-build/).