|
PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Meeting every airlift need Evergreen Helicopters continues to expand its fleet so that it can respond flexibly to almost any challenge Alan Bailey Petroleum Directory Contributing Writer
From rescuing injured climbers on Alaska’s Mount McKinley to providing sky cranes for construction projects, Evergreen Helicopters will perform just about any kind of airlift anywhere in the world. With a large, diverse fleet of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, the company has established a unique business that can respond quickly and flexibly to service needs.
“We look for niche markets — stuff other people aren’t doing or won’t do, that we can do safely and where the return is worth going into,” Gerard Rock, president of Evergreen Helicopters of Alaska Inc., told Petroleum News.
Aviation pioneer Delford Smith founded Evergreen Helicopters in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1961. The original company expanded to become Evergreen International Aviation, now based in McMinnville, Ore., and still owned by Smith. Evergreen Helicopters became a subsidiary of the larger company.
Rock explained that the large financial resources of Evergreen International Aviation together with the diverse nature of Evergreen Helicopter’s fleet give Evergreen Helicopters its unique ability to respond rapidly to customer requests.
“We’ve got corporate funding and an ability to operate anything we want to operate,” Rock said. “We have a very diverse fleet and we tend to give the customer an exact machine match for their specific job.”
Add Department of Defense certification and the company’s international experience in more than 160 countries and it’s not hard to understand how the company has continued to thrive and expand over the years. Diverse customers Evergreen Helicopters’ customer list covers the gamut of almost every type of government entity and industry.
Services for state and federal government make up a particularly large component of the company’s helicopter business — for example the company has hauled mail for the U.S. Postal Service in Alaska for more than 20 years.
“Firefighting is a large amount of our work here in Alaska, and we also do a lot of (BLM) survey work for the federal government,” Rock said.
Evergreen Aviation is a Civil Air Fleet Carrier for the military and has provided vital support for many overseas military actions, including those in Afghanistan and the Middle East.
The company has supported the oil industry for many years. Services have included logistical support for seismic exploration, heavy lift during pipeline construction, logistical support for oil facilities and aerial patrolling of pipelines.
The company provides similar types of support for other industries — 24-hour emergency support for electrical power grids, for example.
“We support Chugach Electric ... in Southcentral (Alaska),” Rock said. “We have a helicopter on full time.” Air medical services Medical air evacuation services form another part of Evergreen Helicopter’s service portfolio.
“We do aeromedical for Providence Hospital (in Anchorage) — we have a helicopter base there,” Rock said, “and then we do air medical for Maniilaq (Association) out of Kotzebue.” The Maniilaq service uses a King Air fixed-wing aircraft, Rock said.
Evergreen Helicopters also annually conducts search and rescue missions, throughout the 6 million-acre Denali National Park. The company’s Mount McKinley search and rescue service uses a high-altitude Lama helicopter.
“We do everything above 17,000 feet for the climbing season up there,” Rock said. Support for the United Nations Evergreen Helicopters has established an outstanding record in international humanitarian relief and has recently commissioned two Learjets to support peace efforts by the United Nations in Sudan and Afghanistan. The company’s vast international experience is proving invaluable in these initiatives.
“It’s always a challenge when you first go in there and ... get the operation started — that’s about a 60 day challenge,” Rock said.
When setting up an operation in one of these remote countries, the company hires a local person to arrange food supplies and accommodations for company personnel — it’s vital to keep the flight crews and support personnel safe and comfortable.
“Housing and food are probably the biggest challenges when you’re working in these countries,” Rock said. Growing fixed-wing fleet The acquisition of the two Learjets for United Nations support marks a deliberate expansion of Evergreen Helicopter’s fleet of fixed-wing aircraft. The fleet already includes another Learjet, the King Air for the Maniilaq aeromed service and CASAs that are stationed in South America for the Department of Defense.
The company has purchased another King Air for charter work, such as transporting VIPs and the general carriage of passengers and cargo.
“We’re in expansion mode on the fixed wing — we’re continuing to look at various opportunities and markets,” Rock said.
In April of this year the company announced the introduction of a new Boeing 747 supertanker for aerial firefighting. The huge fire retardant carrying capacity and advanced retardant application technology of the supertanker will increase response speeds and reduce firefighting costs.
“It carries more than six times what any other aircraft will carry,” Rock said.
In another technical advance, Evergreen Helicopters is purchasing unmanned air vehicles for operations such as power-line patrols.
“We have five of these on order with Bell — they call it the Eagle Eye,” Rock said. Motivated employees With such a diverse range of aircraft and assignments, Evergreen Helicopters has become a sought-after employer.
“One of the things that I’ve heard from pilots and mechanics who join Evergreen is that Evergreen appeals to them because they’ll get experience in a vast variety of aircraft,” Joy Journeay, marketing manager for Evergreen Helicopters, said. “We’ve even had employees from the airline companies ... that want to drop into the small fixed-wing (operations).”
Pilots also find unusual flying missions in remote parts of the world challenging and rewarding, Journeay said.
“If they want to fly internationally and do some other things we promote that,” Rock said. Safety Even in the most challenging situations Evergreen Helicopters places safety at the top of its priority list. Safety has become ingrained in the company culture.
“Safety is always a priority ... we probably have one of the best records in the industry,” Rock said. “We survive on everybody doing everything right — we don’t want anybody to get hurt.”
Evergreen Helicopters promotes safety awareness through safety meetings, through procedures such as pre-mission risk analysis and through rigorous maintenance of its aircraft fleet.
The company participates in safety initiatives associated with aviation in Alaska and is a member of the Medallion Foundation, an organization that promotes safe flying in the state. Rock himself is president of the Alaska Air Carriers Association. Continued expansion Regardless of its past achievements and the size of its current operations, Evergreen Helicopters continues to expand and diversify. In addition to its new Learjets, the new King Air and the supertanker, the company has just bought two Bell 214ST helicopters from the North Slope Borough. One of these helicopters will serve in the Philippines.
The company is also buying two Puma helicopters to serve a new contract with the U.S. Navy for replenishing ships at sea.
Rock takes particular pride in the way that the company’s expansion and international reach, actively supported by the company’s owner, help the Alaska economy.
“Everybody that works for us is Alaskan and a lot of these people that are going overseas are Alaskans. Evergreen is becoming a big supporter of the economy here,” Rock said. “We right now are building this operation and putting all the money we need to into it.”
Editor’s note: Alan Bailey owns Badger Productions in Anchorage, Alaska.
| 