I was out at the airport this morning, reinstalling various pieces, when Lieutenant Colonel (retired) Fern Villeneuve (video biography, including several Golden Hawk formation segments), the first team lead of the Golden Hawks, arrived in his Globe Swift - he had flown to Smiths Falls to meet a friend. His friend hadn’t arrived yet, so I introduced myself, and said I’d like to show him my aircraft, without telling him why he might be interested in it. He was very happy to see the RV-8 in Golden Hawk colours, and kindly allowed me to take his picture by the aircraft.

He did comment that the wing leading edges were painted gold on my aircraft, but they were unpainted aluminum on the Golden Hawks. They had originally painted them gold, but found that the paint would be removed whenever they flew through rain. Rain drops at 450 kt hit pretty hard.