Kobe Kiko Hughes 300

[HeloJoe]

Hey guys,

Anyone remember the old Kobe Kiko Hughes 300? Not the gasser, but the one which ran on the Enya .30 heli motor...I had a yellow one with the old Heliball muffler (remember that old thing?)

Anyway, the KKK Hughes is the heli I really learned to hover with. I actually owned a Mantis before that, but could never get that pile to fly. The Mantis, as I recall, was actually partly made of cardboard!

In any case, anyone else cut their teeth on an old Kobe?

[biffj]

I do remember the Kobe Kiko heli's though I never flew one. I remember the Mantis too but I thought it flew pretty well, at least the one American RC made in the 80's. It had a lot of molded plastic parts and possibly wooden servo trays. I also vaguely recall a heli called the Lark from England. It was a fixed pitch unit with a wire drive tail rotor and a wrap around heatsink that clamped on your engines head. Every name brings back memories. I had an Ishimasa Playboy that was .25 size with collective pitch. I never got it flying as someone else wanted it more than me and I ended up with the GMP Cobra.
Now to find some pics of these oldies, that will be the hard part.


Frank

[Ah Clem]

I worked for Orange Coast Hobbies in the early 1980's-they were the importer for Kobe Kiko at the time.

The Hughes 300 was very easy to fly and flew well, but was somewhat fragile. Ray Hotstetler used to come into the shop and worked with the shop owner to get the machine set up so that it would not shake.

I recall these as being .50 sized.

I don't have real fond memories of it, other than that, as mentioned earlier, it flew well.

[HeloJoe]

Yes, you are correct, it did run on a .50 size engine (I had confused the .30 with my not-quite-so-old Shuttle.)

Still think I had a Heliball on it, though. Yeah, I bought mine from Orange Coast Hobbies in fact.

It was very easy to fly, quite stable. It did shake a bit. I think my fond memories of it are probably because it was the first heli that I was actually able to hover.

[helibeli]

I learned to hover a helicopter useing a KKK gasser and after i fitted one of the first gyros i learned to fly it.Even though it was underpowered i was able to throw it about the sky(no aerobatics though). It was so exciting in those days (80's) there was always something new on the horizon.I bought another one after i crashed this one(black wire corrosion in the transmitter causing complete power loss).Those were the days,it's not half as pleasurable now.

[HeloJoe]

I remember some of the "firsts" in this hobby. When I finally got a Hirobo Shuttle, I was also one of the first in my small group of fliers to have a CSM simulator and heading hold gryo (all the gryos up until then were simple rate gyros.) In any case, People at the field were amazed at my progress, LOL! I kept quiet about the sim...for a little while at least. But I got called out pretty quickly on the heading hold gryo as people kept wondering why my Shuttle didn't weathercock when I was flying it.

[helibeli]

Even the rate flywheel gyros were a revelation when they first came out,they stopped your heli swinging 180 degrees unexpectedly.The first one i bought was a Kavan with no electronics inside,you had to drill a hole in the servo and solder the gyro pot in parallel with the servo pot.It wasn't terribly sensitive but was welcome nonetheless.

[HeloJoe]

I remember the Kavan mechanical gyro. Never flew one myself, but remember them at the LHS. I think my buddy may have had a mechanical gyro on his Schluter, but I can't recall for certain.