Flying Colours Corporation Completes 240 Month Heavy Inspection for Bombardier Global Aircraft

Flying Colours Corporation has completed another 240-month heavy inspection for a Bombardier Global aircraft announced Tuesday.

Flying Colours Corp. regularly conducts heavy inspections on Bombardier Global and Challenger airframes at its Canada and US bases. Photo courtesy of Flying Colours Corp.

The maintenance team regularly conducts heavy inspections for Global and Challenger types and used this extensive experience to complete a rigorous inspection of the Global Express jet at the Flying Colours Corp. Peterborough Ont., headquarters.

In addition, a landing gear overhaul along with a number of anticipated restoration tasks was also undertaken.

Running parallel with the maintenance tasks was a Collins Venue Cabin Management System installation which was blended with Alto Aviation switches. The controls are specifically designed to fit into previous switch panel location holes resulting in a solution that maximizes client budget and reduces installation time significantly.

To support the existing Ka-band connectivity upgraded routers were repositioned to support cabin and flight deck connectivity.

To optimize rest, relaxation and productivity the AIMSKYLAB soundproofing system was integrated, considerably reducing noise in the cabin. Externally the aircraft fuselage was stripped and repainted to deliver an as new look to the airframe.

“Our experience installing the blended Venue and Alto Switch offering and our capacity to fulfill maintenance, interior, paint and avionics tasks makes Flying Colours Corp. an attractive choice for aircraft owners. Undertaking all the work at a single venue reduces downtime and maximizes the budget which is also very appealing. For this customer the result was an improved ownership experience with improved connectivity, reduced noise levels and a new-look fuselage,” said Eric Gillespie, Executive VP, Flying Colours Corp.

The 240-month inspection involves completely stripping the aircraft down to the frame, enabling an in-depth look at the aircraft fuselage to check for signs of everything from stress fractures to corrosion, as well as other issues that may have affected the structural integrity of the aircraft.

The cabin was also laid bare, with panels, carpets, insulating surfaces floorboards, monuments, fairings, and side ledges removed for assessments and overhauls.

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Flying Colours Joins Leading International Association IADA

Flying Colours Corporation, the international maintenance, repair and overhaul business has become a verified Products and Services member of IADA, the International Aircraft Dealers Association.

Photo courtesy of Flying Colours Corp.

Joining the prestigious association bolsters the Canada-headquartered business strategy of supporting aircraft owners, operators and brokers throughout the transaction and ownership process.

“The ability to strengthen existing relationships, forge new ones with like-minded professionals, and meet new customers informed our decision to take up membership,” said Kevin Kliethermes, Director of Sales for Flying Colours Corp. “We have already begun to work with a number of new companies as a result. We are also looking forward to participating in the great events that IADA plans, contributing educational materials to the website and of course maximizing the full range of opportunities presented by IADA membership.”

The company also supports a growing number of aircraft transactions by sourcing aircraft, conducting pre-buy inspections, and subsequently completing technical modifications and refurbishment work as needed.

The streamlined acquisition process increases efficiencies and reduces aircraft downtime enabling owners to begin optimizing the new asset as soon as possible.

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Flying Colours Corporation Completes their First Custom Cabin Configuration In Its Asian Facility

The Flying Colours Corp. Asia facility, based in Singapore, has completed its first custom cabin configuration change in a Bombardier Global.

Rendering of type of modification made by Flying Colours Corp. Singapore for the first time. Photo Courtesy of Flying Colours Corp.

The project was completed at the Flying Colours Corp. PTE facility in Singapore at the Seletar Airport.

The customer requested that the mid-cabin credenza be replaced by a three-place divan and divan end cabinet. This project also marked the first collaboration of this type between Singapore and its sister location in St. Louis, Mo.

The St. Louis team built the cabinets and then sent the product to Singapore to be varnished and installed.

“This project is a substantial step forward for Singapore’s service capability,” said Paul Dunford, Flying Colours Corp. PTE Managing Director. “The combination of Bombardier engineering and FCC’s manufacturing expertise will now allow full cabin reconfigurations to be offered to their in-region customers.”

To prepare itself to offer these expanded services and in conjunction with the Bombardier facility expansion, Flying Colours Corp. is growing both its facility and its workforce to better support expected growth in demand for interior repairs, reconfigurations and refurbishments.

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Stewart Tours Announces 2020 Peterborough Departures Destinations

Stewart Tours has announced its 2020 Peterborough Departures destinations out of Peterborough Airport.

The destinations next year include Nashville, Tennessee; New Orleans, Louisiana; Gander, Newfoundland; and Savannah, Georgia. Full details and pricing will be available starting on Tuesday, September 17th. In the meantime, you can reserve your space by contacting the Stewart Tours office at 705.743.8683.

On Thursday (September 12th), the final flight in the Stewart Tours 2019 Peterborough Departures program flew to New York City for four days of fun. This departure was in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Peterborough Airport, and marked the 45th year in business for G. Stewart Travel Services, Ltd.

In addition, Stewart Tours wanted to use their anniversary trip as an opportunity to give back to the community, and made an awesome donation of $6,375 to the PRHC Foundation (see picture above). This donation will help keep great care close to home and will fund the equipment and technology that doctors and nurses use every day.

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StudioPTBO Releases YPQ T-Shirts In Collaboration With Ricart Promotions & Recognition

As a way to celebrate the growth of Peterborough Airport and the community—in this, Canada’s fast growing city—Peterborough-based marketing studio StudioPTBO has released a YPQ tee (Peterborough’s airport code) in partnership with Ricart Promotions & Recognition.

The tees are out for a limited time during this trial run in Men's/Unisex, Women's and Youth, and are available by ordering online here through Ricart.

”I’m stoked that our studio has released these in partnership with Ricart,” says Neil Morton, Co-Founder of StudioPTBO and PTBOCanada. “This is meant to be worn as a celebration of this community and the airport—Team Peterborough spirit—and I’m excited and grateful to see many people ordering them already.”

“The YPQ tees were designed by my partner Nora Mickee at StudioPTBO, and I’ve been working closely with the community-minded Matt D'Agostini from Ricart to make this a reality,” adds Morton. “I would love to see these tees fly off the shelves so to speak.”

“We’re excited to be collaborating with our partners at StudioPTBO to generate awareness and hype surrounding our city’s airport, celebrating its 50th year,” says Matt D’Agostini from Ricart. “Our collective goal is to get more and more people around town and across the province to identify Peterborough as a popular destination spot for travelers while promoting growth for our city.”

Morton hopes to see the #YPQ hashtag used more on social media over time as another way to promote the city here and beyond to tourists.

You can order the tees here.

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Peterborough Airport Celebrating Its 50th Anniversary With Epic Air Show

Peterborough Airport is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an Air Show featuring the most exciting lineup of aerial demonstrations that Peterborough has seen in decades. The show takes place on Saturday, September 21th and Sunday, September 22th.

Headlining the show are the Canadian Forces Snowbirds aerial demonstration team and the SkyHawks Canadian Armed Forces parachute team. The Air Show will also feature aerial demonstrations by Rick Volker, Todd Farrell, MKT Aerobatics and the Great War Flying Museum. Static aircraft displays, local food vendors and activities for kids will round out the show.

“We are thrilled with the line-up of performances we have assembled to celebrate the Airport’s 50th anniversary,” says Airport General Manager Trent Gervais. “There really is something for everyone—from heart-stopping excitement to graceful manoeuvres and everything in between.”

A variety of ticket options are available. Adult tickets are $30, a family pass is $70 and a VIP Experience is $200, plus applicable taxes and fees. Ticket pricing is also available for children, youth/students, seniors and veterans.

For more info on the show and tickets, go here.

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Flying Colours Corp. Breaks Ground For New 100,000 Square Foot Hangar At Peterborough Airport

Global Aviation Services company Flying Colours Corp has broken ground as work starts on building its largest hangar to date at Peterborough Aiport. Industrial construction company Vicano Construction Ltd braved the cool weather to formally begin the fourth phase of expansion plans at the Peterborough, Canada-headquartered company this month. 

On completion in mid-2019, the new building will house a climate controlled, dedicated paint-shop, a spacious hangar large enough to hold up to A220-size aircraft, as well as offices, customer meeting rooms, interiors workshops and a board room. The investment of approximately $25 million will add a further 100,000 square feet to the Peterborough footprint.  

A rendering of the new hangar due to open in mid-2019

More than 100 team members are currently being recruited to bolster the increased demand as the search for maintenance, interiors and paint expertise leads the recruitment drive.

“Our business has grown significantly over the last twelve months and we were running out of space to accommodate all our clients’ requests,” says John Gillespie about the expansion. “Once the building is complete, we will be using it to provide additional capacity for completions, refurbishment and heavy maintenance work scopes on large jet airframes.”

To learn more about Flying Colours, click here.

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Flying Colours Corp. To Open Brand New 100,000 Square Foot Hangar In Peterborough By Mid-2019

As part of its global expansion, global aviation company Flying Colours has announced that plans are currently being finalized for the groundbreaking of a brand-new hangar by the end of fall 2018 at the Peterborough, Ontario facility.

The additional hangar—the fourth at Flying Colours Peterborough headquarters—is needed to provide additional capacity for completions, refurbishment and heavy maintenance work scopes on large jet airframes. 

Here are renderings of what the hangar will look like when it opens mid-2019…

Renderings courtesy Flying Colours

THE HANGAR WILL BE DIVIDED INTO 3 DISTINCT ZONES…

-> A new 40,000-square-feet, climate controlled, state-of-the-art paint shop will be added, supplementing the two existing dedicated paint shops. (It will be large enough to accommodate business jets up to Global 7500, Boeing Business Jet or Airbus A220 size airframes.)

-> A second area of 40,000 square feet has been designed to enable heavy maintenance and/or interior work on up to four Global 6000-size aircraft to take place simultaneously.

-> Two higher levels will be used for new customer offices, a second dedicated design-center at the facility, storage and general office space.

Photo of existing Flying Colours hangar courtesy Flying Colours

The total office space will cover more than 20,000 square feet, bringing the hangar footprint at Peterborough Airport to more than 100,000 square feet in total when it opens in mid-2019.

“The business aviation sector is more buoyant than it has been for some time and with our Bombardier ASF status, our breadth of experience working on numerous different aircraft types, and the fact that we can offer a multitude of skills under one roof—so reducing aircraft downtime—is making us very attractive to a wider range of customers,” says Sean Gillespie, Executive VP, Flying Colours Corp.

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Peterborough-Based Flying Colours Corp. Just Delivered Its 100th Bombardier Challenger Retrofit

Flying Colours Corp.’s Peterborough facility has re-delivered its 100th major retrofit of a Bombardier Challenger model. The Bombardier Challenger 604, delivered in the first week of October, underwent a major overhaul of the cabin, avionics, connectivity and fuselage.

The Peterborough design team worked with the new owner and current operator to create a stylish interior featuring a black and gold palette. In response to the request for a contemporary cabin including seats with improved comfort, the design team adapted Challenger 650-style seat frames, purchased from Rockwell Collins - Interior Systems, to feature molded armrests that arch perfectly to fit the curves of the arm.

Flying Colours has completed 100 Challenger retrofits, with the latest inspired by a gold and black palette and incorporating modified Challenger 650-style seats.

The six reclining individual seats and complementary three place divan were finished using a soft but durable black leather with a perforated insert, medium-beige colored leather accent panels, and a single contrasting seam stitch trim in order to bring a modern, yet sumptuously comfortable feel to the cabin.

The light trims, buckles and control panels feature a matt gold to contrast with the leather. The customized monuments—including side ledges, panels and doors—are finished with a gloss anigre veneer with each fold out table incorporating a matt-gold inlay accent. 

The private owner also took the opportunity to update cabin-connectivity with the Gogo AVANCE L3™ air-to-ground connectivity system installed to provide WiFi access for voice, email, web browsing, moving maps, and a selection of movies and TV programs across the North American region.

Bombardier Challenger 604

Passengers will also enjoy inflight entertainment courtesy of the Rockwell Collins Venue™ system. The high-clarity touchscreen displays and intuitive controls optimize management of the cabin environment. Both crew and passengers can control lighting, temperature and entertainment choices, as well as view Airshow® moving maps, from their own personal digital devices.

The dedicated Peterborough paint shop revitalized the fuselage with a paint job reflecting the interior colors. A partial gold stripe sweeps from the tail to midway along the fuselage and sits above a full black stripe that sweeps in an arc to the front of the aircraft. 

“The owner was upgrading aircraft size and recognized the value in buying a pre-owned jet and customizing it to his style and needs,” says Sean Gillespie, Executive VP Flying Colours Corp. “We’re pleased that our hundredth Challenger project was such an interesting one, it’s a significant achievement for our team.”

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Peterborough's Flying Colours Corp. Installing Its First Gogo L3 AVANCE In Challenger Aircraft

Global air services company Flying Colours Corp., which is headquartered at Peterborough Airport, is installing Gogo AVANCE L3™ air-to-ground connectivity systems in two Bombardier Challenger aircraft, a CL604 and CL605.

The installation of the small form, fully integrated AVANCE L3 inflight connectivity and entertainment solution represents a first for Flying Colours, which has already installed several of the AVANCE L5 systems.

“As the privately-owned aircraft operate predominantly across North America, we advised our clients that the Gogo AVANCE L3 system will fulfil the flexibility, reliability and meaningful data-speeds needed by them,” says Kevin Kliethermes, director of sales for Flying Colours, which has facilities in Peterborough; St. Louis, Missouri; and Singapore.

“The solution is proving popular on mid-size aircraft with missions based mainly in North America," he adds. "We have more AVANCE installations confirmed, and expect the trend to continue as the ever-increasing demand for feature rich, high-speed data access at affordable prices continues.”

Once installed, the Gogo AVANCE L3 system will provide passengers with access to the Gogo Biz® Broadband network and will support, dependent on package, access to voice, email, web browsing, moving maps, and a selection of movies and TV programmes.

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