Sam Harrel/News-Miner
Everts' Bone Yard
A Douglas DC-6 still bares its military markings as it sits in the bone yard next to Everts Air Alaska and Everts Air Cargo on Monday, July 22, 2013, at the south end of the west ramp of Fairbanks International Airport. The aircraft represent a parts supply to keep the Everts fleet of the radial engine aircraft aloft and flying across the state.
FAIRBANKS — Slow, laborious, loud and low-flying, and anything but sleek and modern looking, the quad-propelled DC-6 is a relic of the past. It is also one of the few aircraft that can fly into remote Alaska villages. While there are a small handful of these planes in use around the world, Fairbanks-based Everts Air Alaska, for all practical purposes, has a monopoly on usage and spare parts.
“We have the largest fleet of DC-6s operating in the world right now,” said Rob Everts, owner of Tatonduk Outfitters Limited, the parent corporation for Everts Air Alaska and Everts Air Cargo. “And each one of these airplanes has a story.”
With operations centered just west of Fairbanks International Airport’s main terminal, the setting outside the main building resembles something of an elephant’s graveyard. Dozens of old planes bearing faded military and commercial insignia in various states of dismantlement fill a large yard. These parts keep the Everts fleet aloft and flying across the state.
“It keeps Alaska operating in the Bush. Some places might not have developed to the point they are at today without these planes being able to haul this stuff,” said Everts.
“It’s pretty darn vital right now, but it hasn’t changed very much,” Everts continued. “It’s the same as it was 25 years ago. Air transportation is really important in this state. Until someone can figure out a more economical way to build roads — which doesn’t seem likely — people will have to rely on planes in outlying areas.”
Everts flies to Nome, Kotzebue, Unalakleet, Aniak, Bethel, Deadhorse, Barrow and King Salmon, among other villages. Planes have been retrofitted with tanks to carry diesel fuel to villages, while others operate as general cargo vehicles hauling pretty much anything — from furniture to generators, building materials to snowmachines, food to live animals.
“Occasionally we get dogs during Iditarod, moose meat or reindeer,” Everts said. “Whatever is willing to climb in or gets loaded in, we’ll haul it.”
So what to make of the old planes filling the “bone yard,” as Everts calls it? These planes exist only to be stripped of wheels, props, brakes, or other parts as needed, since replacement parts are no longer made for these 60-plus-year-old flying dinosaurs.
“Ever since the mid-’80s we’ve made it a mission around here to make sure stuff doesn’t get thrown away by somebody else. We’ve gone all over the world gathering up these parts so we can have this airplane running into the future. Some day, some of this stuff might be hard to come by,” Everts said.
The company owns parts planes in Arizona and New Mexico and monitors others in England, South America and North Africa’s desert.
“We know where every one of these planes in the world is located,” Everts said. “What parts are left, engines and propellers, we have a pretty good idea.”
“The majority will be scrapped once we use the parts off the airplane,” added Cliff Everts, a longtime Alaska pilot who founded the company in 1978. He started with Alaska Star Airlines in the 1940s and later flew for Fairbanks-based Wien Airlines. (Robert is his son.) The elder Everts pointed to the Arizona planes as an example. “Probably part them out and scrap them because it’s too costly to fly them out.”
By the looks of the Fairbanks bone yard, little has changed or been scrapped in years. Planes — including C-46s and C-119s — languish among seasonal grasses and weeds, lacking wings, propellers, engines, windshields, landing gear, doors or nose cones. Old cargo boxes are stacked under wings and planes. A glance inside several fuselages reveals hollowed out shells dripping with outdated wires, nylon straps, random parts and broken instrumentation.
Despite the current state of affairs, every plane at some point flew to Fairbanks. Ex-military planes arrived from as far away as Japan and the Lower 48. Fire bombers came from France and Canada. Former United Airlines passenger planes were flown in as well.
A 2010 addition to the fleet was a DC-6 formerly owned by Howard Hughes. The reclusive tycoon customized the plane for personal use, but never really used it.
“It has 17 air hours on it,” quality manager Craig Halpin said. “It was virtually brand new.”
Like military fighter pilots, Everts gives each plane a name, then adds artwork to match. Hughes’ plane has been named “The Aviator.” One of the Japanese planes is painted “Maid in Japan,” with a geisha girl on the side. “Salmonella” features a detailed image of the big hook-nosed delicacy, dubbed so because “it’s hauled so much fish in its life,” Halpin added.
Everts’ nose artist, Ron Klemm, “tries to put something unique on each aircraft, kind of like the military did back when they used to do bombing missions. It’s kind of our fun, but it’s something you would only do with vintage airplanes, 1950s or older,” Halpin added. “You don’t see any (painted) DC-8s or 707s. Alaska Airlines has nose art, (but) that’s modern-day nose art; the Mickey Mouse plan, where they’ve made it a marketing tool. We do it give it a little more image. Around here, guys fall in love with their planes.”
The question is, then, how long will that love last? The Federal Aviation Administration has “life limits” that determine how long a plane is deemed safe to fly or an engine can remain serviceable. For now, Everts has enough planes and parts amassed “to carry us to 2025,” Rob Everts said. “That’s why we have gathered all these extra air frames. So, when a plane comes up on its airtime threshold, we can retire it and take another one out, get it spruced up and get it into service.”
Before the time comes when there is no choice but for all DC-6s to be grounded, Everts hopes a new solution for shuttling cargo and fuel across Alaska presents itself.
“There might be a time that it makes sense to park these planes,” he said, “but until they come up with another plane that can land on 4,000-foot gravel runway, these planes will be still needed.”
Glenn BurnSilver is a former News-Miner features editor who lives and works in Phoenix.
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