Hugh Cook’s New RV-8 | Corona, CA and Aurora, CO RV-8 #82854

Congratulations to Hugh on his new RV-8! He writes in to report:

N908QC (my son’s name is Quenten) took to the air on July 29, 2020, a Covid baby. I decided to build an RV-8 in April, 1997, at Sun-n-Fun. I took delivery of the empennage kit in March of 2008. Patience. It spent most of its life in a garage in Foothill Ranch, Orange County, CA. I moved it to the Corona, CA airport in March of 2020. Of the twelve years in the garage, I took three years off from building it, but knew all along I was going to finish it. The beauty of metal is that it will wait for you. I also tackled the engine myself, buying a barn-find O-360 core, and overhauling it with the support of all the usual suspects, principally Ken and the boys at Ly-Con. I dyno’d the finished engine, and saw a whopping 227 hp at 2700 rpm. It’s sporty! Craig Catto spec’d and built the three bladed carbon prop, and Robbie Grove made some beautiful landing gear legs. It’s very light (992# with the EarthX battery), and very stock (even has a manual trim!) Dave Prizio was my tech counselor and DAR, and Bruce Bohannon conducted my transition training. The first flight was a bit of a blur, and the tach quit on me, but I made the perfunctory three laps around the pattern, mostly trying to slow down. Wow! A few squawks here and there, but I managed to fly off the forty hour Phase I by August 23, and brought her home to Front Range (Colorado Air and Space Port KCFO) where she will reside. A six hour cross country seemed the perfect capstone for the adventure of a lifetime, so far. Many thanks to all my family and friends who supported me along the way, especially my wife Julie, my late wife Kate, John Bovee, and the great Flying community at Corona, CA (including the gang at Aircraft Spruce who got to know me really well!) Fantastic experience, fantastic airplane.