Gallery Update: Chasing a Contour Airlines ERJ-135 in Corvallis

I noticed on FlightRadar24 that a Contour Airlines ERJ-135 was scheduled to fly into Corvallis this evening on a sports charter. It also happened that I would be flying around the time it was scheduled to arrive, so I timed my cross-country flying to make a quick stop in Corvallis just so I could catch it and I'm glad it worked out! I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

Corvallis (CVO) 

Preview:

Contour Aviation (d/b/a Contour Airlines) Embraer EMB-135LR ERJ-135LR (N16525) arriving on 17 as VTE525 from Tucson.

On board is the Oregon State University Beavers women's basketball team following their loss to the Arizona Wildcats.

VTE525 taxiing to the ramp. Airframe first delivered to Continental Express in March 2001 and then went over to ExpressJet in July that same year and continued operating on the behalf of Continental Airlines.

It was withdrawn from service in September 2008 and stored at Kingman, Arizona from March 2009 to February 2012 before being brought back into service March 2012.

With the sun pretty much set, the lighting was just ideal to get shots like this.

Face-to-face with the ERJ-135 at dusk! I really love how this shot turned out!

VTE525 pulling up to the ramp.

After being brought back into service in March 2012, it flew under the United Express banner as United and Continental merged by then. Airframe was once again withdrawn and stored in June 2015 and stayed stored until June 2018, when Contour Aviation added this ERJ to its fleet.

VTE525 parked on the ramp.

Cessna 208B Grand Caravan (N208JA) parked on the ramp.

As tail log indicates, this is a former Southern Airways Express bird! First time seeing the old Southern Airways Express logo too! Ever since Southern Airways Express acquired Mokulele Airlines in Hawaii, the former seems to have adopted a logo similar to the latter. This airframe seems to have undergone some modification work ranging from the power-flow exhaust running along the bottom-right side of the fuselage to something over the pilot-side windshield.

Aircraft is overnighting in Corvallis and scheduled to depart tomorrow morning for Logan, Utah as VTE525 for some more sports charter operations.