...there's lots of room
The Trainstar has a very roomy fuselage, so there's bags of room for your equipment. The battery is housed under the nose, held in place with velcro and a velcro strap. The supplied ESC also gets mounted to this tray, alongside the battery.
Under the wing is a huge cavity for locating your, um, receiver and satellite reciever, if you want. The picture is taken from the underside as I have the wings attached.
As I said there's lots of space...
..but still got the wing cam to go
Well, after a Herculean effort, the Walrus is assembled, packaged, tested and ready to go.
Apart from the usual head-scratching over servo orientation, the cockpit proved the biggest challenge of all. Despite the generous appearance of the fuselage, it doesn't really provide a good packaging.
Yes it is wide; I eventually installed the battery and receiver in a tandem layout. However the the cockpit is only just long enough to fit the 1800mAh battery - it literally butts up against the motor at the front, which is not optimal for cooling, and narrowly misses tail servo arm travels at full stretch.
I also had to make up a battery tray to allow a space for everything and provide a secure mounting for the battery. After having installed the tray for the second time (I removed it to swap out ESC's during my no-power troubleshooting session), I discovered that there was insufficient space for the bundle of servo cables going to the receiver.
So I removed the battery tray again, and cut a large slot through which the cable loom could pass from underneath, now running alongside the ESC under the tray, with the battery velcro'd onto the tray and the Orange R620 receiver velcro'd to the side wall of the fuselage in the canopy area. The R100 satellite receiver I stuck to the rear bulkhead.
But that's not all, with all this kit crammed into the cockpit the canopy wouldn't fit. So, I had to do extensive modifications to the canopy, cutting out the lower section, as well as a small cutout to clear the satellite receiver at the back.
However everything is now installed and working, control surfaces trimmed, flap travel set etc etc. Just the wing cam that now needs a home - external mount or internal canopy installation - some deliberation still required. I reckon the Walrus cockpit layout would qualify for a packaging award...
...and dental surgery for the Phoenix
Having had to fight for parking at the local shops, I returned to the car victorious carrying a long parcel containing a Walrus, a spare propeller and a diminutive RD32 video camera. Additionally, although entirely unrelated, a loaf of crusty bread to be enjoyed with a glass of wine and some lovely lamb stew that evening.
Unpacking the box reveals the portliness of the Walrus is not overstated - I'm actually unsure how people with small hands launch it? The quality of the parts looks very good and having the decals applied gives the kit a nice finished look. I recall the Phoenix assembly being described as taking fifteen minutes - I think it took me longer than that just to apply the decals...
On the subject of the Phoenix, I was wondering how the removal of the aileron servos would be accomplished. I first tried levering them out with a blade without success, soon restoring to my shift-grips (I have no idea what they are actually called...). I found that holding the servos at one end, they could be twisted out in a matter of seconds with no apparent damage to the wing cavity. A technique I think remarkably analogous to dental extraction, except quicker, cleaner and without the pain...
As regards the video camera I am yet to discover how it works, although I have installed the flash card and put it on charge. I have also fiddled with the control buttons but have no idea what they do. I will download the installation manual now and figure out how to drive it.
So, with a little luck, tomorrow I'll have the Phoenix airworthy and a charged camera ready to fly? Maybe...
