Flying Colours

Given that Flying Colours Aviation could be regarded as the premier aviation painting company in Australia, you would be forgiven for thinking that it must be based in one of the major capital cities, but the North Queensland city of Townsville is where Flying Colours calls home.

The company is located at the Northern Australian Aerospace Centre of Excellence (NAACEX) business park at Townsville Airport, which is intended to accommodate future growth of aviation and support industries, both commercial and military, for Australia and South-East Asia.

The management team at Flying Colours is a family affair, with Linda Armstrong the managing director, her husband Gary Armstrong the general manager, and their son Lloyd Armstrong as project manager.

Gary and Linda’s journey has been an interesting one since they arrived in Australia from the UK in 1986. Gary, who is a painter by trade, was running the paintshop for his father’s car business back in the UK. But aviation has always been his passion.

Upon arriving in Australia, Gary worked for BMW in Melbourne, painting luxury cars. His drive to work each day took him past Essendon Airport, and as Linda explains: “Gary came home from work one day and told me he had just quit his job and wanted to paint planes. ” Seven months pregnant at the time, Linda says some ‘colourful’ words were used to describe Gary’s decision to quit his job to pursue his aviation dream.

After finishing up at BMW, Gary went down to Essendon Airport. Two hours later, he returned home to advise Linda that he had secured a job with a small painting operator that was working out of a curtained-off area in the Pacific Aviation hangar.

After two months of training with the owner of the business, Gary turned up to work one day only to find the owner had left without a trace.

At the time, they were halfway through painting an aircraft. When the task was finished, the other two painters also left, and Gary was on his own. With all of the tools and equipment left behind by the owner, Gary became self-taught, with aircraft companies still wanting small paint jobs done.

He continued and soon started to get work from ANZ, Fosters, the Police Air Wing and other corporate airlines.

Linda was at the time assistant to the charter manager in the upstairs office of Pacific Aviation. The economy was not travelling well, and the word was that Pacific Aviation was to close its operation and therefore the small paint hangar.

She decided to write a letter to Sir Peter Abeles to see if they could move into a hangar that Ansett was only using for storage so they could start up their own painting business.

“To my surprise, Peter replied to my letter and a meeting was organised, but the plan to take over the hangar from Ansett and possibly paint some of Ansett’s aircraft didn’t work out in the end,” Linda says.

With no other options, they decided to move back to the UK. Gary found work at some of the larger facilities, including FLS Aerospace at Stansted Airport, where he worked on 747s, and then at Biggin Hill restoring warbirds.

Gary gained a lot of vital experience during the years they were back in the UK working for larger MRO companies. While it was a steep learning curve, Linda says the bulk of his experience came from his time working at these larger facilities.

And while Gary was working at FLS, stripping, painting and learning the trade, Linda started up

The larger airlines could not come to Flying Colours, so Flying Colours had to go to them.

a contracting agency through which they would supply the larger MROs in the UK and Europe with contract aircraft painters.

After four years of enduring cold English winters, they decided to move back to Australia and settled in Brisbane in 1994.

Gary started a business painting large earthmoving equipment with a friend he knew from their time back in the UK. He did this for a few years, but was not enjoying the monotonous work, painting all the equipment yellow, day after day.

In 2000, Linda received a phone call from the management of Archerfield Airport saying that a hangar had become available. The caller was hoping to gauge their interest in taking over the hangar and starting a paintshop at Archerfield.

They accepted and the Flying Colours Aviation name was born, with the company initially painting smaller GA aircraft and corporate jets. Then Qantas approached Flying Colours in 2004 to repaint 737-300s it was converting to freighters at Avalon. Flying Colours was under CAR 30 approval at the time and had on-site crews that could be sent interstate.

Still based at Archerfield, Flying Colours painted the Qantas freighters at Avalon, and was also doing work for Virgin Blue in the John Holland facility at Melbourne Airport, as well as the Boeing hangar at Brisbane Airport.

As the Archerfield facility was only able to handle aircraft as big as the Saab 340, the larger airline customers could not come to Flying Colours, so Flying Colours had to go to them.

While it was a logistical nightmare, as Linda describes, this approach worked out well as Flying Colours was able to get a foot in the door with both of the major airlines, Qantas and Virgin.

And it was that same approach that saw Flying Colours staff onsite in Melbourne in late 2010 as the company had secured a contract from BAE Systems to paint a new livery on the RAAF Hawk 127 jet trainers.

“We turned the BAE hangar into a large paint booth, built our own extraction in and out, and while it was full-on, it was a great job to be involved in,” Linda says.

At the end of the Hawk job, Gary received a phone call from an industry connection that would prove pivotal in the company’s evolution.

“We were advised of a rumour that Worland Aviation had ceased trading in Townsville,” Linda explains. “A couple of days later, we arrived back in Brisbane, and I jumped on the internet to search the Queensland Airports website and I happened to see on the Townsville Airport link that the chief operating officer was Kevin Gill, who I knew from his days at MacAir as we painted the MacAir aircraft.

“A couple of days later I phoned

It was a really big decision for Qantas to have Retro Roo II painted here in Australia. LINDA ARMSTRONG

Kevin, and he confirmed the rumour that the business had closed. Kevin then invited us to come up to Townsville and have a look at the facility. ” Linda says they booked flights to Townsville in early 2011, but their travel plans were held up a week as Cyclone Yasi came through north Queensland the day they were due to fly.

Successful talks meant that in June that year Flying Colours painted a RAAF-bound Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft at Townsville for Boeing, which was an ideal opportunity to test the facility.

“We got all our crew from Brisbane plus some contractors from Melbourne to come up to Townsville, as we were given a strict timeline to strip and paint the aircraft,” she explains.

“With the aircraft still on the American register, we had around 15 people from Boeing in America who flew to Townsville to overlook the painting, plus five people from Boeing in Australia as well, so it was a really big job for us to manage at the time. ” After success on the Wedgetail program, Flying Colours permanently relocated to Townsville Airport from its Archerfield facility in December 2011.

Linda says the company has received a great deal of support from the Townsville Airport Management Centre, including the lease of an environmentally controlled dedicated narrowbody paint hangar at NAACEX, the Townsville Airport business park which opened in 2007.

“The facility is world-class, and has been important in enabling us to be successful in our contract wins,” she says.

Flying Colours was awarded two major contracts in late 2013, the first being for 25 Boeing 737-800s, three 737-700s and one Embraer E190 for Virgin Australia, following the successful livery change from Skywest to Virgin colours for the Virgin Australia Regional Airlines Fokker 100 and Fokker 50 fleet.

The second major contract was for five ex RAAF C-130H Hercules destined for Indonesia, through Northrop Grumman Australia. This followed on from the successful C-130H and Wedgetail paint contracts in 2012 and 2013.

More recently, Flying Colours has secured contracts to paint QantasLink Dash 8s, Cobham 717s and BAe 146s, Dash 8s for Jetstar’s regional New Zealand operations, a C-130J contract with Airbus Group Australia Pacific, and work for an international client on A320s and ATR 72s.

But the most high-profile aircraft to go through the Townsville paint facility was Qantas’s Retro Roo II, 737-800 VH-VXQ, which was a great job to win, Linda explains.

“VXQ was the first time we had been given a job by Qantas mainline, so we were a new supplier to them and we were a new location,” she says. “Qantas hadn’t had an aircraft painted in Australia for over 10 years; it was a really big decision for Qantas to have Retro Roo II painted here in Australia. ” And the pressure was on after VXQ left the hangar, as Linda describes: “The Retro Roo II aircraft special livery was to celebrate Qantas’s 95th birthday; a media event was planned, meaning it was going to be on display in front of hundreds of people in the Sydney hangar, at such a huge media conference with Alan Joyce and other dignitaries, plus the head of Boeing was in attendance as well. You always get a little nervous with media events, but the feedback we have received from Qantas is that we delivered a first-class job. ” Clinton Twist, Qantas’s principal certification and design engineer who oversaw the repainting of Retro Roo II with Flying Colours explains:“With the impending Qantas 95th birthday in November and given the amount of attention the first retro aircraft had gained in its first year, the airline was looking at ways to build on our history and in line with the same theme. To this point it so happened that a planned repaint of an aircraft around that time had been previously scheduled and some work had already been done as part of the first retro livery, that a plan was made to do another in time for the birthday.

“As fate would have it Flying Colours Aviation in Townsville had a slot available and had recently done some work for other Qantas Group aircraft with excellent quality and feedback and thus gave us confidence that we could attempt this special livery in a tight turn time. Furthermore, north Queensland and the region had been part of the initiation for Qantas and it was only fitting that an aircraft like this be painted in-country and in this very same region. ”The end result more than met Qantas’s high standards, Twist says.

“Our dealings with Flying Colours have been very positive in that the particular requirements were well understood and the team at Flying Colours pulled together to ensure not only that the end quality of the aircraft was fit for a media event but the quality and safety in going through that process was of a high standard and to the Qantas standards. ” Another milestone aircraft followed Retro Roo II into the Flying Colours hangar, Virgin Australia 737-800 VH-VUB for its repaint into Tigerair Australia colours.

That process was managed by Virgin Australia, but its significance lay in Flying Colours having now painted aircraft for all four major airlines in Australia.

Unpacking an aircraft paint

Stripping and painting an aircraft is a challenging business, as Linda describes. “Every aircraft that comes into the hangar is different,” she says. “It could be a relatively new aircraft that strips perfectly, or it could be a 20-year-old aircraft with corrosion issues.

“Once an aircraft enters the hangar, we mask it up then paint strip it in the first day of its arrival, and in a perfect world you hope that the next morning when you come in that you see all the paint on the floor. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, and when they don’t is when it can affect the timeframe for the refurbishment.

“Most times they do, but we did have an issue one year with an ATR that came in which had 14 paint schemes underneath it. This aircraft had travelled around the world to different operators, and each time it was painted into a new livery the old livery was only sanded back.

“We went through 1,200 litres of paint stripper where we should have only used 300 litres, and it took us seven days to strip the aircraft. ” Linda continues: “Once the aircraft is stripped the surface is

Asia is not as cheap as it used to be. The gap has narrowed and we are not that far off. LINDA ARMSTRONG

cleaned, and then engineers come in and inspect to make sure there is no corrosion, cracked rivets and that the skin of the aircraft is healthy.

“The next stage is we apply corrosion protection, then primers and base coat; colours and logos are applied within a few days, then final application of clear coat is applied. The base coat/clear coat system reduces the turn around time with a complex scheme.

“Before the clear coat is applied, different crews work over different sections of the aircraft like the forward fuselage, tail, wings, engines, applying logos, safety markings and detailing.

“The clear coat application is the final task, and a normal turnaround time for a 737 strip and repaint with scheme is 11 days, providing we have a smooth process, and that is working seven days a week from 7am to 6pm with an operational crew of 18 over different shifts. If we were using old paint systems it could take up to 14 or 15 days, but the new base coat/clear coat system has cut it down to 11 days.

“Anywhere from 200 to 250 litres of paint is used on a narrowbody aircraft, depending on the scheme, and this equates to around 130 kilograms of weight added to a 737, for example. ” Speaking about the painting process itself, Linda says: “It’s no wonder not many people get involved in painting aircraft; it’s not like painting cars.

“Different batches of paint where viscosity can vary or paint contamination issues are some of the things we have to deal with, and we are painting large areas of a narrowbody aircraft, so if you mess it up there is a lot of work to do to fix it. It can be extremely challenging, but it is also very rewarding at the end of the job.

“We only use approved OEM paints from three manufacturers that we rely on for supply; one is Mankiewicz, which was the paint we used on Retro Roo II. We also use PPG, which we used on the C-130 and Jetstar aircraft, and AkzoNobel, which was the paint used on the Virgin Australia aircraft.

“Unfortunately we don’t manufacture paint here in Australia; the majority of supply comes from overseas, although PPG do manufacture some paint materials in Melbourne. ” The key to a successful business is supplying a quality product and quality service, competitive turnaround times and a reasonable price. Safety, reliability, flexibility and the ability to recover quickly if things go wrong are all critical.

Keeping it local, aiming global

Flying Colours relocated most of its staff to Townsville from Archerfield in 2012, but nevertheless Linda says the company is proud to support and employ skilled workers from the local Townsville community, and to support local suppliers. Today, the company has a staff of 26.

“You can have the best high-tech facility in the world, but at the end of the day it’s the people inside that facility that count, and we have a highly skilled, professional crew here,” Linda says. “And we are proud to provide training to local unskilled and skilled Townsville people, with the opportunity of employment. ” According to Linda, being located in Townsville is an advantage for the business. “We are at a main airport hub with support services to cater for narrowbody aircraft,” she says.

“The airport also caters for both civil and defence, which we provide services for, plus we are close to Asia, so Townsville is a perfect location for us for the two markets we serve, and the market we intend to target.

“The warmer weather is another main advantage of being in Townsville. The materials we use are humidity-friendly, so the weather works in our favour because we would have to have heating in the southern, colder climates, which is an added expense. ” Being based in Townsville will also help Flying Colours in its ambitions to expand into the Asian market.

“The Asian market continues to grow, and Asia is on our doorstep,” Linda says. “We have always looked at expansion into Asia ever since we moved up here to Townsville, but to enter an overseas market like Asia you cannot do it with a standalone paintshop, which is what we are; you also need the engineering support. ” Linda explains: “Currently, airlines send their engineers up with the aircraft being painted, but that is taking them away from their normal place of work.

“We are CASR Part 145 approved, which is for paint off and paint on. We do not employ [licensed aircraft maintenance engineers] due to the variety of aircraft we work on, so for us to even think about attracting work from Asia we had to have that MRO support, and so we have entered into an arrangement with BAE Systems.

“The paintshop needs the engineering support, and engineering needs the paintshop, so we work hand-in-hand. The first aircraft we did under the new agreement with BAE Systems was retro roo VXQ. ” The partnership with BAE Systems is not new. “We have been working with BAE Systems for many years, and this partnership arrangement has been established over a long working relationship,” she says.

With regard to the painting of Retro Roo II, BAE Systems stated that the Townsville-based partnership gave Qantas a local solution, with Flying Colours completing the painting activities while BAE Systems provided the necessary engineering support.

“For us, both the timing and BAE as a partner is perfect; the arrangement supports Flying Colours Aviation’s growth strategy and expanding our position as Australia’s leading MRO and painting service provider, offering our customers a one-stop shop solution and positioning Townsville as a national and international aviation hub,” Linda explains.

“We can now promote Townsville to Asia and we can now offer the same services as the MROs in Asia. Townsville Airport has no capacity issues whatsoever; we have four narrowbody hangars in Townsville capable of offering engineering and paint services, with room to grow and plans for additional hangars in the future to meet demand. “The MRO market in Asia is a multi billion dollar industry, but we are only chasing a very small percentage of the narrowbody market. Cost was always one of the advantages of sending work to Asia; however, Asia is not as cheap as it used to be. The gap has narrowed and we are not that far off. ” Linda concludes: “Townsville will soon join the international circuit of MRO service providers like Europe, the United States and Asia.

“There are no full-service MROs south of Singapore. Australia has a long and proud history of aviation safety and skills; it’s time to stand up and shout to the world that we are here, we are good at what we do and we welcome their business. Australian businesses need to reassess their approach, however, as it’s a big market internationally.

“Flying Colours, as a small family business, has worked incredibly hard over the years, working closely with our Australian airline customers to keep their painting requirements in country. This is extremely important, and if we can do it then so can others.

“And if profit margins have to shrink slightly to attract the work, and more flexible workplace arrangements have to be put in place, then that’s what you have to do; it’s all about volume.

“I have total faith in the level of expertise and standards of work our aviation businesses in this country are capable of, and collaboration is the key to promoting it. I’m all for shaking up the Asian market, so let’s try and make a dent in their marketshare. ”