The St. Louis Admirals R/C Model Boat Club

Transcription

1 The St. Louis Admirals R/C Model Boat Club UU BROADSIDE 20 February 2018 Commodore Jane Benefield (636) Secretary Bob Keeler (314) HH Vice-Commodore Kent Morgan (314) Asst. Secretary John Ziemer (636) Asst. Vice-Commodore John Ziemer (636) Editor Jane Benefield (636) Treasurer George Kirby (636) NOW HEAR THIS YOUR COMMODORE FROM THE BRIDGE Glenn Hensley Years WWII Combat Photographer China-Burma-India Theater of Operations Fair winds, following seas and our heartfelt warm regards to our long-ago former member and friend, Glenn Hensley. He was a consummate master craftsman and some of his highly-skilled works are exhibited even today in the Smithsonian and Mystic Seaport museums, and in our own Mercantile Library. Michael and I paid our respects on behalf of the Admirals by attending his military funeral on 16 February 2018 at Jefferson Barracks. A three-volley gun salute in tribute to Glenn and his exceptional WWII military combat service echoed across the rolling hills of the Barracks, laid to eternal rest down by the river, and under the shade of the trees NOTES Attention: Please keep in mind our unique weather conditions -- if the weather is hazardous, do not take chances - - stay safe. Scheduled Events Wednesday, 7 March 2018 Wednesday, 4 April 2018 Wednesday, 3 May 2018 Meeting and Show-and-Tell Wednesday, 7 June 2018 Demonstration at the Wicks Residence Next Gathering: Wednesday, 7 March 2018 Prior to our 5 PM monthly 1 st Wednesday-of-the-month dinner-meeting, sailing is from 2-4 PM at our usual St Ferdinand Pond, Florissant, MO weather permitting. Dinner set for 5:00 PM at our Handel s Restaurant, 599 St Denis, Florissant, MO 63033, followed by our 7:00 PM meeting at our meeting place at the Old St. Ferdinand Shrine, the Old School House, 1 St. Francois Street, Florissant, MO. 3 rd Sunday every month (2-4 pm), March thru November: Sailing at St Ferdinand Pond -- weather permitting. Gratefully, Jane Commodore *************************************************************************************

2 Secretary s 7 February 2018 Meeting Minutes Call to Order / Pledge of Allegiance: Commodore Jane opened the meeting at 7:08 P.M. at Old St. Ferdinand School house in Florissant. There were 11 members present. Former member Jeff Seemiller joined us, and we hope he will rejoin the club. Bob Shissler and Dave Thomas joined the club after making a special point of seeing us at Westport last Sunday. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Commander Jane. Reports, Administration -- Segment 1. Commodore s Opening Comments: A. Commander Jane was just informed that a former Club member, Glenn Hensley, passed away and funeral arrangements have been made. Please contact Commodore Jane for specific information. In our March 2018 Club meeting, Commodore Jane will present a proposal to the Club membership to posthumously award Glenn Hensley our Club Emeritus Award Member and Exceptional Master Craftsman. B. Commander Jane, Bob Keeler, Kent Morgan and Kent s friend Bob Shissler attended the Gateway Mid- America Toy Show at Westport Plaza on Sunday, 4 February 2018 representing the St. Louis Admirals R/C Model Boat Club. A special thanks to all and to Roy Baker, Mid-America Toy Show organizer, who kindly invites us every year and who always provides us with a great venue to display our models. This year we had several people who were interested in possibly joining the club. Bob Shissler did in fact join our club as did David Thomas who visited us during the show. C. Ed Gant is scheduled to have his ankle surgery this month and while being immobilized he will write some articles for our newsletter with his wife Janet s assistance. Thank you, Ed, and we are wishing you a speedy recovery and we look forward to your articles for the newsletter. D. Greg Rocklage graciously agreed to write an article soon about his experiences with his on-going scratchbuilding of a replica of our very own St. Louis Admiral paddle-wheeler boat. E. The BlueSky Apparel shop t-shirts with our logo in one color will cost $10.00 each. There will be a one-time set-up fee of $ There is no minimum purchase requirement. Still working on the color design and onecolor design approval. Shirts can be short or long sleeved, XL and larger will have price differences. F. Commandeer Jane updated our website showing the Emeritus Award recipients and our meeting/sailing dates. G. Russ Wick and his wife Clare invited Commodore Jane and club members to hold the Club s June 2018 meeting at the Wicks home in Ballwin, MO, on Wednesday, 7 June. Commodore Jane will conduct the meeting. Russ kindly agreed to do a Show-and-Tell demonstration of his battle cruiser Lexington in his home swimming pool during our June meeting Show-and-Tell segment. The Wicks generous offer also includes enjoyment of cheeseburgers at their home and they will provide iced tea and water if you like other beverages, please feel free to bring them with you. Please let Commodore Jane know if there are any transportation issues. H. I really appreciate everyone for providing highly interesting and coordinated presentations for our meetings and articles/information for our newsletters. 2. Secretary s Meeting Minutes Report Bob Keeler: The January 2018 minutes were published in the Broadside newsletter. Motion to approve minutes as printed was made by John Ziemer, seconded by Paul Kirby. Motion approved.

3 3. Treasurer s Report George Kirby: Treasurer George Kirby presented the reports for November 2017, December 2017 and January Motion to approve his reports were made by John Ziemer and seconded by Emil Wolfshoefer. Motion approved. 4. Vice Commodore -- Comments/Actions Kent Morgan: None. 5. Commodore -- Comments/Actions: A. Amendment of By-Laws: Commodore Jane is working on amending our By-Laws to include spouses as associate members for them to participate in club functions (affirmative Club voting in 2017). Other amendments are being drafted by Commodore Jane for eventual Club-member consideration. B. 7 June 2018 Club Meeting arrangements at the Wicks home: Commodore Jane solicited club-member thoughts and votes in connection with a proposal from Russ Wick about our 7 June 2018 Club meeting place, venue and demonstration. Russ and his wife Clare have graciously offered their home in Ballwin, MO for our June 2018 club meeting. This is to facilitate Russ Wick s suggestion that instead of the scheduled June 2018 Club meeting presentation, Ship/Boat Weight, Volume, and Shape Factors for Propulsion (see Section 3X Presentation Topic Schedule below), that he instead will conduct a demonstration of his battle cruiser Lexington in the swimming pool at his home on 7 June This will fit into the June meeting Show-and-Tell demonstration segment followed by the meeting s Round Table segment. Members present voted and agreed to the change of the June 2018 club meeting venue and proceedings. Commodore Jane will conduct the June meeting at the Wick home according to the following general-level agenda items: 1. Members will complete their St. Ferdinand Pond boating and by no later than 4:00PM rendezvous at the Wicks home by no later than 5PM. 2. Upon arrival at the Wicks home (by no later than by 5PM), Russ and Clare have graciously offered to treat us all to Cheeseburgers made in Paradise. 3. At 6PM Commodore Jane will officially gavel the meeting to order at the Wick s home. Commodore Jane will conduct no more than 30 minutes of official Club business, voting, etc., to be completed by no later than 6:30 PM. 4. At 6:30 PM, Commodore Jane will invite the Wicks to conduct their scheduled 7 June 2018 demonstration during the Club s Show-and-Tell segment. Their demonstration is specific to their battle cruiser Lexington. Upon conclusion of the demonstration, Commodore Jane will close the meeting-agenda Show-and- Tell segment and open the meeting-agenda Round Table Discussion segment. 5. Commodore Jane will gavel the meeting to adjournment at 8:30PM. Members who wish to stay on at the Wicks home will do so at their and the Wicks pleasure. Boat Club Items and Notices of Interest -- Segment: 1. Fleet-Event Notice, Preparation and Fleet Activity Information. Regatta 2018: Commander Jane will be contacting the Boathouse again this coming year for our 2018 Regatta to be held 29 and 30 September 2018 at the Boathouse in Forest Park. Bob Keeler and Kent Morgan agreed to co-chair the 2018 Regatta again. Any others who may be willing to help, please contact Commodore Jane. 2. Commodore at Homeport: Special Notes. None 3. Dues are $30 per year if you receive newsletter by ; $40 if you receive newsletter by mail. Dues were due pay 31 May and are now past due. Commodore Jane requests all to keep dues current. 4. SSMA: A. Bob Keeler has received Club SSMA registration conformation and copies of the Insurance for 2018 B. SSMA Individual Membership Renewal Information: Bob Keeler discussion: Check to see if your SSMA membership is due for renewal. Note new Membership Director: Heinz Ricken, SSMA Clubs/Membership Director, 514 Cranford Avenue, Cranford, NJ 07016

4 Show-and-Tell -- Segment: 1. The floor is open to anyone who may have brief Show-and-Tell thoughts, comments or demonstrations to share. However, this month we will reserve open extensive discussions about your thoughts and comments for future Round Table Discussions. For this meeting, the Round Table Discussion will be incorporated as part of the Show-and-Tell demonstration period in A. below and for Bob Keeler s Electric Motor presentation in the Presentation Segment (2.) below. A: Current: Jeff Seemiller: Jeff brought his tugboat Paula Ann which he built using a Loyalhanna hull. The Paula Ann is very well detailed, and the model demonstrates masterful wood and metal craftsmanship. Mike Alligood, Jeff Seemiller and Emil Wolfshoefer admiring Jeff s Paula Ann from a Loyalhanna hull B. Scheduled: Russ Wick: June 2018 Club Meeting: Demonstration of the Battle Cruiser U.S.S. Lexington R/C model. Articles Segment: 1. Admiral s Club Newsletter Voluntary Articles (as of 7 February 2018, updated monthly): Completed and submitted voluntary articles to be published in an appropriate month of the Admiral s Club Newsletter. Please contact Commodore Jane if you have any ideas, thoughts or wishes for future articles topics. A. Scheduled: Ed Gant: History, reminisces, activities, and a scratch-builder s experiences in observing St Louis (and other) towboat traffic river runs. In turn, converting real-world towboats and barges (from observation and full-scale plans) to smaller (but true-to-scale) scratch-built R/C towboat (and barge) models. B. Scheduled: Don Taschner: He indicated he might also write an article for the newsletter. C. Scheduled: Greg Rocklage: He graciously agreed to write an article in the near future about his experiences with his ongoing scratch-building of a replica of our very own St. Louis Admiral paddle-wheeler. Presentations Segment: 1. Volunteers: Who would like to give an R/C-topic presentation? Any and all volunteers for presentation topic consideration are highly appreciated. We welcome new presentation topics or topic ideas for consideration. 2. Current Presentation for This Meeting: Electric Motors and Servos Bob Keeler. The Presentation question and answer period constituted the Round Table Discussion Segment below for this meeting. This presentation was limited to electric motors only; Servos will be addressed at a later meeting. See Bob Keeler s presentation in this Broadside newsletter. Commodore Jane and attending Club members hold Bob Keeler s presentation in high regard. Bob s exemplary electric motor theory and application research in both depth and scope was clearly evident in the results of his presentation. He masterfully included segments within his presentation to include electric-motor innovation and development history; the various electric motor development technological advances to the present; and a comprehensive exposition of the types and varieties of electric motors for use in modern R/C boat modelling. In addition, he included a superb compilation of approaches to appropriately apply motor size and power considerations to boat-model

5 representations based on full-size ship data and to include considerations for boat-model powertrain inefficiencies. A fine presentation. Our thanks and gratitude to Bob Keeler for a masterful and exemplary presentation. 3. Past Presentations: Propellers October 2017 Kent Morgan Sailing/Sail Boats -- January 2018 meeting: Mike Benefield Electric Motors -- February 2018 meeting: Bob Keeler 4. Presentation Topic Schedule (as of 7 Feb 2018): All topic presentations are temporarily held in abeyance, and in the interim, they will be individually conducted on an ad hoc basis. In addition, during this temporary period, topic presentations and presenters will be announced whenever practical. Batteries, Servos and Electronic Speed Control (ESC) Transmitter/Receiver and R/C System Ship/Boat Hulls Ship/Boat Weight, Volume, and Shape Factors for Propulsion Ship/Hull Static Stability and Trim Ship/Boat Dynamic Stability and Trim 5. Presentation Ideas List (as of 22 Oct 2017): Suggested ideas for future Admiral s club-meeting presentations. Please feel free to suggest to Commodore Jane additional ideas that a club member may want to have added to this list: History of SS Admiral History of Eads built Civil War Gunboats History of the USS St Louis Special Mississippi and Missouri River boats Unusual barge loads and boats (i.e. aircraft and submarines) Barge Designs Lock and dam operations Round Table Discussion Segment: 1. Bob Keeler s presentation was the subject of tonight s Round Table discussion as he masterfully answered many questions about electric motors. NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 7 March 2018 at 7 P.M. The meeting was adjourned at 8:06 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Bob Keeler ************************************************************************************ Bob Keeler Electric Motors Presentation

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9 Bill Kammermeyer, President Howie Smith, Sec y January Meeting Highlights: Meeting: 15 February 2018 Gather at 6:30 p.m. Meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. The Workshop of Bill Kammermeyer 1533 Carman Rd Ballwin, MO The ice storm in St. Louis limited shipcrafter attendance to this meeting but those who participated enjoyed some unexpected hands-on ironclad modeling activity. First Dr. Mike brought his recently completed excellent brass machinings of the paddlewheel bellcrank arms and the axle pillow block bearing support fittings (Photo 1). Bill then demonstrated how to silver solder the thin structural webs to the more massive pillow blocks by first tinning the web and the mating surfaces of the pillow block fitting. We then proceeded to perform our second dry-fit of the recently painted paddlewheel assembly using these machined parts in place of Bob s previously 3D printer versions and our previously completed Pittman Arms in our ironclad model wheelhouse cavity. We were somewhat surprised to find that, when using Dr. Mike s extremely close toleranced new machinings, the Pittman Arms could not be properly positioned to make a future attachment to the main engine piston rod clevis. (Photos 2 & 3) The reason for this is that the ramps on which the engines are mounted were not perpendicular to the paddlewheel axle by about 3-degrees, which we know is correct because the lower portions of these ramps were recovered with the USS Cairo in To properly make this connection both ends of the Pittman Arms would have to be fitted with self-aligning spherical (monoball) bearings (Photo 4) that we found were in use around 1840 to support (low speed) line shafts in mills and machine shops. We will simply simulate these bearings by loose fitting Pittman Arms. We also successfully performed dry-fits for two of the 4 fireroom coal bunker door assemblies (Photo 5 & 6) which are counter-weighted for manual opening. USS St. Louis Project Status: As we recently continued to define the fireroom and boiler room walls and hatches on the gun deck it became more obvious that due to severely limited access to the ironclad lower hull coal bunkers (one 2-foot square hatch in each of the 3 bunkers) led us to doubt the original ability of crews to load any significant amount of bulk coal. This issue was therefore broached on the NRG/ModelShipWorld Forum for a technical discussion and resolution, from which we have concluded that, during the ironclad era, the primary method of loading coal was in bags or sacks and that Steamboat coal was about the size of present day Barbeque brickets. This would clearly permit coaling thru the small gun deck hatches and much higher stacking once inside the bunkers. It would also minimize the amount of associated coal dust which would be extremely dangerous on a gun deck. A certain amount of bulk coal would still exist in the bunkers from make-shift river-side coaling facilities or that un-sacked after loading. We will therefore be adding sacked coal to our model (Photos 7 & 8) We have now completed structural framing (Photos 9, 10, & 11) of the Captain s Quarters on the gun deck immediately aft of the paddlewheel and Tim & Vince are making a mock-up of interior furnishings for this cabin. They have also started making simulated armor plates for the pilothouse by covering thin Formica strips with copper foil tape and chemically blackening it to represent iron. Bill & Dr. Mike have developed a more efficient method of attaching the paddle-board Buckets to the paddlewheel spokes which should soon complete this assembly. We have recently installed the profiled stern deck aft bulwark closure beam (Photo 12) and have fabricated additional profiled beams which were apparently intended as a Bumper for pushing a stalled/ grounded ironclad. We also dry-fit a mock-up (Photo 13) of the port side stern casement which will define the intersection between the side and stern casements. The stern casement originally consisted of a solid 12.5 thick un-armored wood composite of vertical beams, horizontal exterior planking and thin interior horizontal ceiling with two 46 x 48 gunports.

10 Note: For those interested in more detail on this project, we have, since 2015, been creating a scratch build log on the NRG Model Ship World Forum web site under the title USS St. Louis Ironclad. This forum can be browsed by anyone and accessed for full participation by simply registering a user name and password on line. We continue making significant progress on large subassemblies, however we still have a few unassigned interesting model subassemblies for anyone interested which include the small forward sky light, anchors, Hog Chain system, masting, shovels, cotton bale cart, insulated steam piping. In addition, a considerable amount of research is still necessary to supplement the data we have accumulated to date and complete this high-fidelity model. I hope to see you there, Howie **************************************************************************************

11 Gateway Mid-America Toy Show at Westport Plaza February 4, 2018 Bob Keeler, Bob Shissler and Kent Morgan (mid left-to-far right) Ready to run boats

12 Bob Keeler and David Thomas PLEASE SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS Jane Benefield 25 Treebeard Circle Saint Charles, MO Checkered Flag 3847 LeMay Ferry Rd St Louis, MO 63125