Tatonduk Outfitters Limited dba Everts Air: delivering quality with a pioneering spirit.

• Author: Slaten, Russ
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: 2015 Top 49ers

Tatonduk Outfitters Limited, doing business as Everts Air Cargo and Everts Air Alaska, has an origin that embraces the pioneering spirit of the Klondike Gold Rush. It was formed in 1978 by Mark Lynch in Eagle--only one hundred miles down the Yukon River from Dawson City, Yukon, and six miles west of the Alaska/Canada border--Tatonduk Outfitters began as a flying service with light aircraft like the Cessna 206 and Piper Lance that was tailored to trappers and miners.

"I bought the operation in 1993 [from Lynch], and at the time there were three employees, a couple of aircraft, and an [FAA] Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate running a few schedules, and that was the beginning," says Robert Everts, president and owner of Tatonduk Outfitters Limited, a business encompassing Everts Air Cargo and Everts Air Alaska.

Today, the company specializes in cargo operations, providing for the unique needs of their customers in larger cities and small villages in remote or centralized locations across Alaska. Everts Air Cargo primarily transports freight and bypass mail, including oversized freight, hazardous materials, and basically anything that fits in the door, Everts says. The company is headquartered in Fairbanks where maintenance, administrative, and (Alaska and Lower 48) charter operations are centered. The company has 255 employees statewide and 10 out of state.

Vintage Aircraft

In order to handle the unique needs of rural Alaska, Everts began utilizing the vintage aircraft of the McDonnell Douglas DC-6 in 1995. Everts added a new DC-6 aircraft every year from 1995 until 2002 and began adding the Curtiss Wright C-46 to the operation in 1997.

"The [McDonnell Douglas] DC-6 is a reliable, hardworking, and rugged airplane. There was a large production run of the DC-6 back in the '50s. We began using the DC-6 in the early '80s hauling fuel under my father's business Everts Air Fuel which is where I got my start. That experience led to my decision that the DC-6 would be a good alternative for a freighter," Everts says.

The DC-6 has an average payload of twenty-eight thousand pounds with a cargo door 124 inches wide by 70 inches tall. The Everts Air DC-6 fleet comes from the original military surplus or from other civilian operators.

"There was plenty of work at the time [in 1995] and lots of unimproved runways then--and still today," Everts says. "The DC-6 can land on packed ice, snow, gravel, frozen lakes, rough mining strips, and has a very large cargo...