Flight West, VH-XFE, Cairns, March 2000. Overall Gloss White, with Black areas on the wings to conceal the exhaust effluxes. The spinners are polished Natural Metal. Black regos VH-XFE either side of the fuselage, below port and above starboard wing (standard positions). The 'Flight West Airlines' titles are in Black on the fuselage. Also Black Nose, front of engine cowl and de-icing strip along the front of the wings. Cheat lines and tail markings are Dark Green and Red. Ref: Airhistory.net photo as above.
Some of the old Flight West routes along with assets such as their Cairns base were acquired by Transtate Airlines. As you can quess, they operated at least two Twin Otters also (VH-UQR and VH-UQY). There are several photos on the Airliners.net database of this one including Nos.0076058, 0171614 and 0171615 (also see 1102272 for 'UQR'). Note that I am not going to reproduce any of the Airliners.net photos here for copyright reasons.
Transtate, VH-UQY, Cairns, March 2000. Overall Gloss White, with Black areas to conceal the exhaust effluxes on the engine nacelles and wings. The spinners are polished Natural Metal. Black regos VH-UQY either side of the fuselage, below port and above starboard wing (standard positions). The 'Transtate' titles are in Black on the fuselage with a Dark Blue vertical tail and outer half of the horizontal tailplanes (inner halves are Gloss White). Forward part of the tail is a bright 'Lime Green' colour, divided from the Dark Blue tail by Red striping. Company logo on the tail is the same Lime Green with a '7 point' star in White. Refs: Airliners.net photos as above.
This airline was established to operate charter operations in 1992 as McKinlay Air Charters, changing to scheduled services in 1998. In May 2000 the business was sold to Transjet (the owner of Transtate Airlines). The two brands were merged and operate now under the Macair name. They are based in Cairns and Townsville and operate routes throughout Queensland. While the main types operated were Saab 340s, they have in the past operated DHC-6 Twin Otters, including VHFNU and VH-UQY. In the past they are claimed to be Queensland's largest regional airline, serving 40 destinations throughout the state. They are also a Qantas Frequent Flyer partner, acting as a feeder airline into the Qantas system. The airline however ceased operations in 2009.
DHC-6 Twin Otter, c/n 286, Macair, VH-UQY, 2000. VU-UQY which is shown previously in Transtate colours but after it passed to Macair ownership. Same basic scheme it previously carried but with Macair titling now, except this one had 'Macair' titles on the fuselage also. Black regos and Dark Gray exhaust areas. Dark Blue vertical tail and outer half of the horizontal tailplanes (inner halves are Gloss White). Forward part of the tail is a Red colour, divided from the Dark Blue tail by Gold striping. Company logo on the tail is Red, Gold and White. Note the Red used is almost a Burgundy colour in this case.
An original article in Vol 20/1 included the Flight West, Transtate and Macair schemes but as that issue is only available on the IPMS website as a B/W PDF, I have reproduced the drawings in higher quality colour with small corrections.
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