Friday night two hours were spent installing the grommets in the fuselage front and riveting the doublers and front together with the forward fuselage. The first attempts to align the rear and front fuselage were also made. The flaperon stop fabrication was finished and a few initial holes were made to join the firewall to the bottom fuselage skins.

Sunday night we finished joining the forward and rear fuselage halves along the the bottom seem. This took a great deal of time adjusting making sure that the front and rear were straight with each other.

To make the job easier we raised the entire fuselage up using steel beams and then drilled several holes on each side with the angle drill after the alignment was completed. The fuselage was then pulled forward off the table ( still using beams to support it ) so I could reach under and drill all the remaining holes.

While preparing the start work with 7F12-1, I got out the new engine mount that Zenith provided along with the remaining steal tube frame and started test fitting them. While the engine mount mostly fit on the firewall, much to my horror the middle side mounts are below the flange of the channel by about 10mm. My first thought was that the channel was up too high, but the gear strut is in perfect alignment and length with it, I measure carefully AND the other flange interferes with the engine mount. The upper tubes of the mount descend relative to the fuselage, but in order for the tubes to clear the channel they would have to ascend.

Hopefully Roger or Caleb will have an answer. My advice for the moment would be to make sure you have the engine mount before starting the firewall and to use it to confirm clearance, fit and placement of all the firewall parts before drilling.

Update:

So before contacting Zenith I realized I should check the builder's area of the 701 site. Right there was a new updated builder's manual section for the new engine mounts. It turns out that the middle mounts are not intended to join the firewall at the channel, and the bottom mount needs to be trimmed to an angle so they attach below the longerons, which should place the middle mounts exactly where they should be.



PROGRESS:
Fuselage ~124h ( 3h, 3h, 2h, 3h, 7h, 2h, 5h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 2h, 3h, 6h, 2h, 2h, 1.5h, 2.5h, 1h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 3h, 4h, 1h, 2h, 1h, 3h, 4h, 3h, 3h, 4h, 3h, 4h, 4h, 6h, 3h, 3h, 4h, 2h, 2h, 2h, 4h, 2h, 2h)
Wings: ~157.5h ( 1h, 1h, 0.5h, 2.5h, 4h, 1h, 1.5h, 1h, 1.5, 4.5, 1h, 1h, 2h, 4h, 1h, 3h, 1h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1h, .5h, .5h, 2h,3h, 1h, 3h, 3h, 4h, 2h, 3h, 7h, 3h, 1h, 4h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 4h, 2h, 2h, 2h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 3h, 2h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 1h, 1.5, 2h, 2h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 3h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 1h, 5h, 2h, 1h, 2h, 4h, 2h )
Flaperons: ( DONE! ) 23.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 1.5h, 3h, 6h, 3h, 4h, 1h )
Paint Design: 2 hours spent ( 1h, 1h )
Elevator DONE!: ~31.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1.5h, 3h, .5h, 3.5h, 2h, 4h, 1.5h, 2h, 4.5h, 1h, 6h )
Horizontal Stabilizer DONE!: ~28 hours spent, 3 pieces replaced ( 3h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 3.5h, 1.5h, 5, 4.5, 2h, .5h )
Rudder DONE!, minus horn : ~16 hours spent, ( ~8h, ~8h )
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Total Done: ~386h