Thanks Jeremy. That was a great read, and an excellent Hobie Tale.

Steve, who's first and best love was/is the Hobie Hawk.

Tony saved this flyer from a Trade Show 35 years ago when we first were beginning production and before we received permission to us the Trademark Hobie. The second is a copy of an ad I ran in Model Airplane News, Model Builder, Model Aviation and RC Modeler once were were licensed to use the Trade name of Hobie. Notice the mandatory credit for trademark to Coast Catamaran.

Life moves strangely along. When Katie asked for a sailplane and I chose the Hobie Hawk for her, I could not have dreamed I would, in a few years, own the tooling and produce that incredible sailplane.

I must admit that the path that life has offered me has been one of many adventures and good breaks. The best of course was being able to travel it with my best friend, Katie.

I thought this might be interesting to those reading this thread.

Bob

Originally Posted by bob57hdt

Tony saved this flyer from a Trade Show 35 years ago when we first were beginning production and before we received permission to us the Trademark Hobie. The second is a copy of an ad I ran in Model Airplane News, Model Builder, Model Aviation and RC Modeler once were were licensed to use the Trade name of Hobie. Notice the mandatory credit for trademark to Coast Catamaran.

Life moves strangely along. When Katie asked for a sailplane and I chose the Hobie Hawk for her, I could not have dreamed I would, in a few years, own the tooling and produce that incredible sailplane.

I must admit that the path that life has offered me has been one of many adventures and good breaks. The best of course was being able to travel it with my best friend, Katie.

I thought this might be interesting to those reading this thread.

Bob

Bob

It's all interesting. It seems the Hobie Hawk sailplane had a charisma
like presence. It still does today...very unique.

Bob was there any difference in the actual manufacturing process or build with the hawk when it changed owners, or are they all pretty much the same?

Originally Posted by roadgraders

Bob

It's all interesting. It seems the Hobie Hawk sailplane had a charisma
like presence. It still does today...very unique.

Bob was there any difference in the actual manufacturing process or build with the hawk when it changed owners, or are they all pretty much the same?

There were a number of changes over the years and with different owners but essentially the end product from Hobie, Bob Martin RC and Ross Models the wings, fuselages, elevators and rudder are all interchangeable. To my knowledge the only differences were what some of the parts were made of, mostly the molded parts.
For example, Hobie started with ABS plastic for the dorsal, but changed to Lexan. His first kits had wood wing , rudder and elevator tips, all later versions from all of us were injected molded. From the pictures I have seen, Ross Models used white polyethylene instead of natural as Hobie and I did. None of these made any difference in the appearance or performance of the Hobie Hawk.
Bob

Originally Posted by bob57hdt

There were a number of changes over the years and with different owners but essentially the end product from Hobie, Bob Martin RC and Ross Models the wings, fuselages, elevators and rudder are all interchangeable. To my knowledge the only differences were what some of the parts were made of, mostly the molded parts.
For example, Hobie started with ABS plastic for the dorsal, but changed to Lexan. His first kits had wood wing , rudder and elevator tips, all later versions from all of us were injected molded. From the pictures I have seen, Ross Models used white polyethylene instead of natural as Hobie and I did. None of these made any difference in the appearance or performance of the Hobie Hawk.
Bob

Thanks for the info Bob. I've been looking thru older model airplane mags for articles etc. on the hawk. I've found a couple so far... it's like going back in time!

Originally Posted by bob57hdt

There were a number of changes over the years and with different owners but essentially the end product from Hobie, Bob Martin RC and Ross Models the wings, fuselages, elevators and rudder are all interchangeable. To my knowledge the only differences were what some of the parts were made of, mostly the molded parts.
For example, Hobie started with ABS plastic for the dorsal, but changed to Lexan. His first kits had wood wing , rudder and elevator tips, all later versions from all of us were injected molded. From the pictures I have seen, Ross Models used white polyethylene instead of natural as Hobie and I did. None of these made any difference in the appearance or performance of the Hobie Hawk.
Bob

Bob,

Do you know approximate production dates for the various manufacturers as well as when final production ceased?

Dwrizzol,
Brian Joder has a website that has the history of the production of the Hobie Hawk here: http://www.hobiehawk.com/hist.html
I am sure this information is correct.
Bob

Originally Posted by bob57hdt

Dwrizzol,
Brian Joder has a website that has the history of the production of the Hobie Hawk here: http://www.hobiehawk.com/hist.html
I am sure this information is correct.
Bob

Thanks Bob!

Here is proof the new Rit dye works.....

Thanks to Tony Johnson and Curt White for exploring and finding a solution to our problem.

Bob

Great job on fitting the new canopy Bob
Sure looks by the photo, that is belongs there

Like I told Tony, I have always dyed in a pan.
But because this dye requires to use it a bit hotter, a pan made it more difficult for me.
Using a solution mixed at 160 degrees it was hard for me to get the canopy in the solution before it wanted to condensate on the underside of canopy, which seemed to make it not dye even for me.

My solution to the problem was to use a suggestion made to you Bob
by Tony sometime back when you were dying your first one for the SuperHawk. It was to use a Tupperware spaghetti dispenser.
This allowed me to get the canopy in the solution very quickly and no discoloration problems.
So here's how I did it, I heated the water in a microwave to about 180 degrees, in a big cup I had. Then I poured dye and water into dispenser.
Once mixed it was now about 160 degrees. The shape of the container makes it easy to get the canopy in the solution very quickly and dying was done in less than 5 mins and was checked 2 or 3 times in that time.

Ps. Don't try and reheat dye solution in microwave ...It wanted to spit, and jump out of container.

Curt

Originally Posted by toro

Curt, this is where my dad and I used to fly... This was known as "high and dry" and was really popular back in the 70's and 80's this is where my hobie life started with my dad

Toro
I think we may have flown High and Dry at different times, mine was all in the 70's but I still relate to it being a great place to fly and at times it had the greatest lift of a small slope I had ever seen!
I lost a hobie there because of bad or low battery.
It took me and 3 of my flying buddies 4-5 hrs to find and was about right here on the map.

I remember drooling over a Hobie Hawk at the local HeathKit store when I was a pup. Might have been '66 or '67. Plane hung on display was white with orange wings. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw.

The Hobie Hawk showed up about 1975. Prototypes were done in 1974 I believe. Heathkit was around in the 1960's but too soon for the Hobie Hawk until the mid 1970's.

Sitting up north right now just came off the willow fire and am jonesing to get back and fly the hobie .... Gonna be a long 2 weeks up here ,knowing I have a full battery waiting.

Originally Posted by toro

Sitting up north right now just came off the willow fire and am jonesing to get back and fly the hobie .... Gonna be a long 2 weeks up here ,knowing I have a full battery waiting.

Be safe...thanks for your service to California

Ps. don't use all the water