Cockpit DOUGLAS DC-6 with EVERTS AIR

Video from the channel Just Planes about Douglas DC-6, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 9:55. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.

Report aboard a Douglas DC-6 operated by the cargo carrier Everts Air Cargo in Alaska. It covers a stopover in Nome after a flight from Anchorage carrying about 27,000 pounds of mail, whose unloading usually takes around 45 minutes, and a departure from Anchorage followed from the cockpit: engine start-up, communications with control, taxiing, takeoff and gear retraction.

The flight engineer refuels from the wing. The captain explains that, since this is a military version of the DC-6, more fuel is loaded into the outer tanks than the inner ones, that the tanks are measured with a dipstick, and that quantities are still expressed in gallons because of when the aircraft was built. Also shown is the red rapid fuel-dump duct on each engine, designed to lighten the aircraft ahead of an emergency landing.

Everts had been operating out of Anchorage for almost ten years, with between eight and ten flights a day depending on the season; on the day of filming, 1 February, there were five, to destinations such as Bristol Bay, Dillingham, King Salmon and St. Mary's, with the aircraft warmed up on the ramp before departure. The operations office plans flights by hand and coordinates with maintenance and cargo by phone or fax; the age of the fleet often forces schedules to be reworked and aircraft and crews to be reassigned.