When VEX in Brussels Airlines colours?

Post by **sn26567** » 15 Nov 2006, 17:22

B-tail wrote:OO-VEK left for painting last saturday and will return to BRU this saturday. a/c is first doing a test flight in Bournemouth...

A test flight after re-painting?

To check if the paint is well applied and does not peel off

Duke · Post by **Duke** » 15 Nov 2006, 17:26

Slightly off topic, but does anyone have an idea when the first Avro's will go to the paint shop (I suppose the three 'white' ones with the special summer scheme will be repainted soon?)?

B-tail · Post by **B-tail** » 15 Nov 2006, 18:01

sn26567 wrote:
B-tail wrote:OO-VEK left for painting last saturday and will return to BRU this saturday. a/c is first doing a test flight in Bournemouth...
A test flight after re-painting?
To check if the paint is well applied and does not peel off

Test flight is compulsory because wings are also painted , which is normally not done. Therefor a/c behavior after painting has to be tested.....

Established02 · Post by **Established02** » 15 Nov 2006, 19:32

B-tail wrote:Test flight is compulsory because wings are also painted , which is normally not done.

Why did SN opt to now paint the wings, which reportedly is not done normally?
Is it merely for esthetic reasons or perhaps for technical, protective reasons?
Thanks.

B-tail · Post by **B-tail** » 15 Nov 2006, 20:32

Established02 wrote:
B-tail wrote:Test flight is compulsory because wings are also painted , which is normally not done.
Why did SN opt to now paint the wings, which reportedly is not done normally?
Is it merely for esthetic reasons or perhaps for technical, protective reasons?
Thanks.

First of all, it's not SN Ops that is deciding this, but Vex Ops at this point (like I said before, the 2 are at the moment still working seperatly).
The reason is simple ; the wings of Sn a/c were in the past whiter than the wings of the Vex a/c (which are more of a grey tone). To make the a/c of Brussels Airlines more uniform, the wings of the VEX a/c have to be painted to a white colour. Esthetic reasons therefor...

B-tail · Post by **B-tail** » 15 Nov 2006, 20:37

sn690 wrote:So that means that they will leave BRU this Saturday ( 18th of November) and they will arrive back in the Brussels Airlines paintsheme next Saturday so that is the 21th of Noveber. I'm I right?

Regards,
sn690

The first vex a/c in Brussels Airlines paintscheme will ARRIVE in BRU saturday 18th of November (OO-VEK) and the second one (OO-VEN) will depart for painting that same day and will be back around the 21th of November (if there are no delays off course)

Avro · Post by **Avro** » 15 Nov 2006, 23:07

IIRC the brand Virgin may not be used anymore on airplanes as from the 01/01/2007. That could explain why they are now repainting the VEX fleet asap.

BTW nice to hear they are fitting the winglets to the second aircraft

Chris

Cash · Post by **Cash** » 17 Nov 2006, 14:29

Does anyone know when OO-VEX will arrive in Brussel tomorrow?

B-tail · Post by **B-tail** » 18 Nov 2006, 10:16

The arrival of the first VEX a/c (OO-VEK) is delayed untill Monday 20th of November..... Furthermore , the brand Virgin Express is legal to use untill april 2007. Nevertheless , the entire 737 fleet is prepared to be repainted as soon as possible. As from March 24th, the new name of Virgin Express will be Brussels Airlines Fly ! This has just been decided . The a/c will have the Brussels Airlines livery, with the mentioning on the fuselage of "operated by Brussels Airlines Fly"....

Atlantis · Post by **Atlantis** » 19 Nov 2006, 12:23

B-tail wrote:Because Virgin Ops is at this time still working seperatly from SN Ops (will change in 2007) and Bournemouth was in the past one of the places where VEX airplanes used to be painted...

I have a question about that. Not so long ago some airplanes of Virgin Express received their new livery at QAPS in The Netherlands. We have seen that at their site. On their homepage you can also seen a Virgin plane who received new colors. In that time it were of course the red colors.

So, I can conclude that the use two facilities: one in The Netherlands and one in the UK.

B-tail · Post by **B-tail** » 19 Nov 2006, 12:34

Atlantis wrote:
B-tail wrote:Because Virgin Ops is at this time still working seperatly from SN Ops (will change in 2007) and Bournemouth was in the past one of the places where VEX airplanes used to be painted...
I have a suestion about that. Not so long ago some airplanes of Virgin Express received their new livery at QAPS in The Netherlands. We have seen that at their site. On their homepage you can also seen a Virgin plane who received new colors. In that time it were of course the red colors.

So, I can conclude that the use two facilities: one in The Netherlands and one in the UK.

Correct, I therefor said in my previous post ; Bournemouth is ONE of the places where VEX a/c are painted. I don't know why they opted for Bournemouth this time.
Apparently there was some delay in the return of OO-VEK to BRU this weekend because there were some problems with the paint.
The Brussels airlines blue wouldn't stick on the ex-Virgin tail and they had to redo it several times (no joke!)

babolat-blast · Post by **babolat-blast** » 19 Nov 2006, 23:34

So, tomorrow, the first 737 for Brussels Airlines? Hope we'll get pictures!

BrightCedars · Post by **BrightCedars** » 20 Nov 2006, 09:20

Picture! Picture! Picture!

Can't stand the wait...

B-tail · Post by **B-tail** » 20 Nov 2006, 14:36

Sorry, arrival of OO-VEK is again delayed. There was still something wrong with the paintjob so the return of the a/c is postponed untill tommorow 21/11 around the same time. Because of the delayed arrival of OO-VEK, the departure of OO-VEN to the paint hangar is also delayed untill tommorow.
Sorry guys

Avro · Post by **Avro** » 20 Nov 2006, 19:55

No need to be sorry B-Tail it's not your fault !!

Thanks for all the useful info you are giving us.

Chris

babolat-blast · Post by **babolat-blast** » 20 Nov 2006, 22:38

Okay, one more day, I'm very curious to see it!

Duke · Post by **Duke** » 21 Nov 2006, 00:26

B-tail wrote:There was still something wrong with the paintjob so the return of the a/c is postponed untill tommorow 21/11 around the same time.

What's the time then?

Skystef · Post by **Skystef** » 21 Nov 2006, 13:26

Duke wrote:
B-tail wrote:There was still something wrong with the paintjob so the return of the a/c is postponed untill tommorow 21/11 around the same time.
What's the time then?

Was around noon. Scheduled eta on 21/11 was 1100, delayed till 1245.
Mister B-tail will probable know if the paint didn't fell off this time, with more delays...

A provisional schedule can be found here.

babolat-blast · Post by **babolat-blast** » 21 Nov 2006, 20:37

So, the bird has finally arrived at Brussels Airport... or not?

TWR · Post by **TWR** » 21 Nov 2006, 21:02

Yes, it's here. And it's not pretty