AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2021 - 32

BRIEFING
A I R F R AME S A L A SK A , L ONG known
for its specialized backcountry Super
Cub products, has expanded to provide
parts for Maules and Cessnas, and
offer accessories for pilots and adventurers
alike. A pilot who is preparing
for a bear hunt, fishing expedition, or
camping in the Alaskan wilderness can
get bush tires, fabricated parts, oil, and
more for the airplane, along with tents,
stoves, compressed wood blocks, sleds
that will fit in belly pods, aviation-engineered
dip nets, and apparel from the
company.
" We're a one-stop shop for pilots, "
said Ryan Kedzie, marketing director
for Airframes Alaska. " We understand
that we make a bunch of really great
backcountry aviation products, from
lightweight struts to fuselages to
Alaskan Bushwheels, but we also want
to serve the customer " with additional
aircraft parts and backcountry products.
To become a prominent backcounINDUSTRY
/
Ultimate
adventure
supplier
One-stop-shop
for pilots in Alaska
BY ALYSSA J. COBB
try supplier, the company started expanding in 2014 with the acquisition of Alaskan
Bushwheels, then Alaska Tent and Tarp in the fall of 2018, and Northern Sled Works
in the fall of 2020. Now, Airframes Alaska offers an improved aviation fabric product
line as well as supplies for backcountry pilots, guides, and adventurers.
Airframes Alaska has about 80 employees
among its locations in Anchorage, Palmer, and
Fairbanks. The company had previously been
based at the Birchwood Airport, manufacturing
parts in hangars until it outgrew the space. The
company opened its main campus on a 12-acre
parcel with a more than 50,000-square-foot
facility about one mile from the Palmer airport
in late 2019/early 2020 to better serve the
Matanuska Valley and Anchorage areas. It also
has started selling McFarlane parts to service
more Cessnas.
More than half of its employees-including
welders, tire builders, sewers, sled fabricators,
machinists, and sheet metal fabricators-work
on aviation products at any given time. Employees making Arctic Oven tents might
also be stitching wing covers, for example. The company was testing lightweight
nylon wing tents for Super Cubs this summer with plans to bring the product to
market in the fall. The wing tent is compact, easy to pack, and connects quickly to
the wing to allow pilots to set up a basecamp right from the airplane, Kedzie said.
Airframes Alaska's most popular aviation products are the 31-inch and 35-inch
Alaskan Bushwheel tires, Performance STOL flaps, and four-place Super Cub fuselage.
About 12 man-hours go into producing each of the popular bush tires. The
Performance STOL flaps, which allow pilots to " fly at a flatter deck angle without
increasing their airspeed, " have become so popular that the company added to the
production team because of a large backlog. The three- and four-place fuselages
are produced in-house at the Palmer campus by a team of fabricators and welders.
32
AOPA PILOT / October 2021
MIKE FIZER
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2021

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