What motor is this ?

LAST EDITED ON Aug-13-03 AT 11:05 AM (CDT)
 
At a recent combat contest, I got me a Super Tigre C-35 motor. Upon closer examination, I found some sort of name engraved on its mounts. It looks like 'Doc J' but I could be mistaken. Can someone shed some light on what that motor is?

Little known fact: Julius Irvine, of the Philadelphia 76ers, flew CL combat in his younger days.

Was the engraving done by this Julius guy?

And what kind of engines did he use?

>At a recent combat contest, I got me a Super Tigre C-35
>motor. Upon closer examination, I found some sort of name
>engraved on its mounts. It looks like 'Doc J' but I could be
>mistaken.

It looks more like "Doc. 3" with a repeat of the the "3" further over. Depending on where the seller originated, there was a Doc Passen, now deceased, who lived in the Chicago area, sold combat kits, sponsored contests, lots of CL activity until his too-early death.

Maybe he ranked some of his own motors, as from 1 to 4, and the one you have now was his number 3. If you had been a basketball fan of a few years back, and though I'm not, never have liked that sport, I do know about the nickname, "Doctor J" for one of the players, who wasn't ever in CL that I heard about.

.
Kiwi

Kiwi,

Doctor-J used to go to our church in Lake Mary, Fl.

The first time I saw him someone said "Did you see Dr. J signing in?"
I turned around and saw this tall fellow and said "Wow, he looks just like Doctor-J!" Then they said "That is Doctor-J"

He had just lost his son when he drove into a retention pond and drowned.

Doctor-J has since moved to the Philadelphia area.

Steve, Kiwi is right, the engine must have come from Doc Passen; I was there the same day you purchased that engine. At the same time, I purchased several engines including a Doc Passen modified Brat 28, Dox also imported Cipolla .15 and 36 combat motors. All that stuff was donated to Neil Simpson to help out the New England Combat fund from someone in NY who stopped flying combat; in fact, Neil still has some Passen kits for sale. Doc Passen was a great guy and helped a lot of people until his untimely death.
Jim Carpenter

Thank you for the info!

Doc Passen sounds familiar. Neil probably did mention that name a number of times. I just didn't bother to remember as I had no idea who Doc Passen was.

Now that I know who this engine came from, my next question would be: What kind of motor is this?
Is it stuntable or should I stick it in a combat ship?
Did Doc modify his motors or just engrave?
Does 3 mean a series, year or something else?

Jim, Jeff Vader reminded me today that Kingston meet is this weekend! I totally forgot about it! I hope to see you there!

>Steve, Kiwi is right, the engine must have come from Doc Passen; I was there
>the same day you purchased that engine.

>... Doc Passen was a great guy and helped a lot of people until his untimely death.

Doc, it would have seemed, was not one to soft-pedal anything that smacked of stupidity. I talked to him on the phone when he was most active with "Dox Generix" kits, then he had his first serious bout of illness (a cancer, I think?) and curtailed much of his activity. If I recall, the cancer went into remission for several years, and then it returned with a vengeance and took him fairly rapidly.

I never met him or really got to know him. There were a lot of combat people who didn't know how to take his teasing. During his last few months, he got a computer and turned up on the Combat-I newsgroup. His caustic barbs didn't set well with some of those folks, and he either lost interest, or the illness was already sapping his strength, he stopped poking holes in the Combat-I folks' balloons after a short while.

.
Kiwi

Some combat and racer types often # their engines as to as grade of speed, or starting... I would guess that each of us have some system. My best 36x has a # 1, next best,#2etc. Iam sure that some have different meanings. My first TT 25 GP that is worked a little is # 1. The best plane gets the #1 engine...
Maybe Doc just numbered his and kept notes
MM

I was still writing the CL column for Model Builder when Doc was importing the Cipolla 36 for use in Combat. Howard Rush had the best line of all when it came to these motors: "Well, there's bad news and good news: They don't go fast; but they do blow up!"

Not being able to resist, I slipped above quote into a column. Doc was very much not amused...

As to the numbers, I always numbered my motors right from the beginning. It had nothing to do with their relative performance.

I still have a new Cipolla .36. I used to fly one in slow combat and 80 MPH. Actually, the thing would be a GREAT stunt motor, nice 4-2-4 break, good stunt characteristics, decent power and very light, 6.5 oz.THe old one got stuff with dirt and wiped out the piston/cyl. I gave teh parts to a guy to rechrome,but never got them back, partly my bad,I guess. He told me to come and get them and I never did.
Bare

Doc Passen was a real cool guy. I never got to actually meet him, but I did buy some of his kits and exchange letters with him back in the late '80s. The "Doc" part of his handle came from his being a dentist as I recall. Doc had a LOT of TOUGH times; at one point, his house burned to the ground and several of his family members only just escaped with their lives. Not long after, his wife left him and took what little assets he still had and sold them off (while he was in a local VA hospital for complications related to his diabetes)... He got BLEEPED in other words.
From what I understand, he died in a "old soldier's home" in Indiana, broke and worn out...
He (like GMA) was ALWAYS very friendly and helpful to me at all times. He might not have been the very best, greatest human being in the entire world, but he sure was FAR from the worst.
Rest easy Doc...

It depends.......

Have a look at the piston, if it is a flat-top piston it is a combat motor and a screamer, will fly a stunter very fast.......

If it has a baffle on the piston top it will be a good ( but not the best... ) stunt motor. I had a baffle-top one in a Sig Mustang, set it to medium-fast 2-stroke and liked it a lot, I also used muffler pressure.... not every-one likes this.
I used a 10X6 Taipan prop on it.

BTW, it can be hard to see the baffle, shine a torch in there....