Very rugged mountains surround the airport at Palmer, AK

Everts Air Fuel "Hot Stuff" taxis away from the fuel pumps for one of four roundtrips across the Cook Inlet that day. Pretty amazing for an aircraft that is 65 years old!

Starting up for another mission, this magnificent fire bomber was completing her nineteenth year of service with T & G at the photo date. She began her career in 1957 with Delta airlines and received that company's classic livery again after the summer of '99. Ten years later I saw her like that down south with International Air Response at Coolidge, AZ, where she still resides.

One of then only two flyable Carvairs in the world is seen here in a glorious take-off, a very rare and wonderful sight (and sound)! This beautiful oldie had already seen a lot of the world: it flew as LN-IAE, JA6012, HL4003, VH-INK, N54598, ZK-NWA, N5459X and C-GAAH, before ending up with Brooks Fuel in late 2002. Roger Brooks did a great restoration job on it, but then unfortunately crashed it near McGrath, AK on 30 May 2007.

Northern Air Cargo used to operate two Cargomasters, which were both leased from Cargomaster Corp. in the early 1980s. Shown here is N133B, which still carries small and faded Northern Air Cargo titles on the wheel bay and 'NAC' on the fin. It also still wears serial 0-90533, as a reminder of its previous military career (ex 59-0533). Sadly this rare aircraft, one of only fifteen C-133Bs built (with the clamshell rear loading doors), was scrapped at Anchorage during 2000.

At the time of this photo, Northern Air Cargo's once very impressive DC-6 fleet was slowly being phased out by NAC's new owners, and was already down to five flyable aircraft. Only four of them saw fairly frequent use, one of which was this N6174C (ex C-GBYN, N1281, N402US, N34959). It was acquired by them in June 2002, and eventually withdrawn from use in Sep 2008. A little over a year later this oldie was bought by Everts Air Cargo, and was still in use with them by 2016.

This aircraft, seen here at the start of its takeoff run on runway 14, joined the Everts fleet in August 2000. It was originally delivered to Canadian Pacific way back in July 1958 as CF-CZZ. It later served as a sprayer with Conifair (C-GBZC) in the mid 1980s and even saw some service as an airtanker with France's Sécurité Civile from 1986 to 1988 as F-ZBAP (Tanker 65). Its last former owner was Conair (C-FCZZ, Tanker 52). By 2017 it still served faithfully with Everts.

Lake Hood, situated right next to the international airport of Anchorage, must be one of the world's busiest seaplane bases. I spent a very enjoyable afternoon just sitting here, feet dangling in the water and the camera at hand, with all sorts of seaplanes speeding along every few minutes. Pictured here is Otter N234KA, which was still a "real" Otter back then. It was converted to a Turbo Otter during the 1990s, and became C-GHAR in 2002.

This Stratofreighter, owned by Stratolift Inc, shows misleading identification marks. It is ex USAF 52-0883 (with some difficulty '0883' can be seen below the faded U.S. Air Force titles on the nose), but the tail clearly shows '0237'. This is because the original tail fin was damaged, and it was replaced with that of 53-0237 (cn 17019). The missing cowling of engine #3 suggests that this aircraft had already been withdrawn from use at the time. It was slowly reduced to scrap here during 1994-1996.

One of the few Northern Pacific Transport freighters that were not sold to Hawkins & Powers was this C-119G. Instead, this ex USAF 53-7836 was sold to Everts Air Fuel in 1995, and it was stored at Fairbanks, Alaska. By 2015 it was still there, in complete condition.

Conair's Tanker 44 was originally delivered as a Convair 340 to United Air Lines in 1954 as N73153. It would keep that registration with various operators for more than 40 years, until it was purchased by Kelowna Flightcraft in 1999 for conversion to airtanker, and registered C-GEVC, then C-FFKF. It came to Alaska today to battle the Parks Highway Fire and is seen here in the evening light, arriving at Fairbanks to satisfy the customs people.

N90267 is seen here being used as a spares source, possibly by Northern Pacific Transport. A sad end for former USAF Flying Boxcar 53-8154 and ex civil N4999P. It was completely scrapped by 1996, but the forward fuselage was saved. This initially went to Greybull, WY, then in 2006 it was moved to Henderson, NV, and finally in 2013 to the Palm Springs Air Museum in Palm Springs, CA.

In a left turn just after take-off from Lake Hood's watery runway, with the Bush Pilots Air Service's logo on the tail. This Beaver started life with the USAF as 56-0388 way back in 1957, but has been used for bush flying in Alaska since 1975.

In 2006, when this photo was taken, there were only very few flyable Curtiss Commandos left in the world, and this was one of them. Dumbo joined the Everts fleet in 1976, and despite being more than 70 years old (delivered to the USAAF in February 1945 as 43-47201), this former C-46R demonstrator still saw frequent use by 2016.

In 1992 most C-82's and C-119's at Anchorage were sold to Hawkins and Powers and moved to their base at Greybull in Wyoming. A few C-119s stayed behind, but most of them later also departed to other airfields, such as Fairbanks or Palmer. This former Northern Pacific Transport N9027K (ex 53-8073) was the only one to remain behind at Anchorage, and it was still there by mid 2017.

At the time of this photo Everts operated the largest fleet of Douglas DC-6s in the world, and ten years later they were the world's last commercial operator of the type. This former Sis-Q aircraft N555SQ (Tanker 45) was was originally delivered to United Airlines in June 1957 as N37585. Everts acquired it in 1994 and operated it for 18 years until withdrawn from use in 2012. It is now stored at Fairbanks, AK and used for spares to keep the rest of their fleet in the air.

At the time this rare Packet (delivered to the USAF in 1948 as 45-57814) was used by Northern Pacific Transport to haul cargo (mainly fish) all through Alaska. It flew with TWA from 1956 to 1972, and the remnants of their livery are still visible on the fin and fuselage. Also visible are faded "Briles" titles, from its time with Briles Wing & Helicopter during the mid 1970s. In 1992 it was sold and flown to Greybull, WY, where it survived as the world's only flying Packet. In 2006 the Hagerstown Aviation Museum bought it, and the delivery flight to the museum on 15 October 2006 was the last ever flight of a Fairchild C-82 Packet worldwide.

Gloomy Chugach Mountains looking down on the Northern Pacific Transport "apron" at Anchorage. It shows a typical Alaskan aviation scene as it existed up until the early 1990s, with a lot more tail fins than aircraft. On the right there are three C-82 Packets (left to right: N9701F, N8009E, N5102B) and on the left three C-119 Flying Boxcars (N9027K, N8505A, N8504Z). Stuck in the middle of all this military surplus is Reeve Aleutian YS-11 N171RV.

This former 144th TAS Provider was preserved just outside Kulis ANGB, surrounded by trees and with the beautiful Chugach Mountains in the background. The aircraft was dismantled and removed in early 2011, and trucked to nearby Elmendorf AFB, where it was re-assembled for continued display. It was still there by early 2021. In the 1970s this Provider flew for the Alaska Department of the Interior, under civilian registration N4393E.

"Large Marge", ex USAF 54-709 and bought from Ray Petkow's Classics in Aviation in December 2003, is a famous aircraft. It featured as the "Jailbird" in the 1997 movie Con Air, in which it did all the flying scenes. It even had two stand-ins, for the destructive scenes. They were N94DT c/n 20155 and ex USAF 56-4361 c/n 20245. All three looked identical, and all wore registration N709RR. Very confusing, but the one in this photo is the only real N709RR. Unfortunately this rare aircraft crashed in Denali National Park on 2 August 2010. Three people lost their lives in the crash.