Graveyard of the Giants

Skymonster, fantastic shots!

I have a couple of questions. If you don’t mind me asking, what is the going rate for a pilot and an aircraft?

The story about VR-CAN was that it turned up one day and the people who owned it paid the storage money and left never to be seen again. The storage money kept arriving but nobody ever came to see the aircraft and so it remained out on the airfield. Schnozz had a few ideas back in 1991 as to what was inside the aircraft that they wanted to keep well hidden…

You tease, what was inside? I understand it belonged to the Shah of Iran. More info please 🙂

For those who are interested, herein the list of airplanes present on 1st May (as obtained from the photos):

East side of airfield (main ramp side)

Dirt area south of main ramp

7 x HU16 Albatross 2 in Chalks colours, 5 white
2 x P-2 Neptune Evergreen colours

Main ramp – in sequence south to north

N197FG A320 (all white, outside south hangar)
B-???? MD90 China Eastern (in south hangar)
N617DL B757 Delta (previous colours)
N???CA C212 (white, blue cheatline)
40206 C130 USAF ANG “The First State”
N193DN B763 Delta (previous colours)
B-2269 MD90 China Eastern (full colours)
N659DL B752 Delta (previous colours)
N186DN B763 Delta (previous colours)
VH-EBV B743 Qantas (full colours, no titles)
PH-MPP B74F Martinair Cargo (full colours)
N198MD MD80 Spanair (full colours)
N915MD MD80 Spanair (no titles, no logos)
N787RR B742 Rolls Royce
N479EV B747 Evergreen (full colours, inside main hangar)
N811SY B738(WL) Sun Country (full colours)
N708BA B747SP Pratt & Whitney
N705BL B742 PIA (old green belly colours, no titles)
B-2072 B777F China Southern Cargo (titles, white fuselage, full tail colours)
N533US B757 Northwest (new colours)
TF-ARM B742 Saudi Arabian (new colours, no titles, no logos)
B-2071 B777F China Southern Cargo (titles, white fuselage, full tail colours)
N346CA C212 Evergreen (no titles, no engines, no undercarriage)
N718BA B744F Dreamlifter
N????? B742 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos, no reg or fleet no)
N????? B742 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos, no reg or fleet no)
VH-EB? B743 Qantas (no titles, no reg, no last two on tail)

Dirt scrapping area north of main ramp – in sequence south to north

N???? D99 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos, no reg)
N????? B742 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos, no reg or fleet no)
N945F D93 Evergreen (no titles)
N942F D93 Evergreen (no titles, no vertical or horizontal tail)
N???? D99 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos, no reg)
N???? D93 Northwest (new colours, no reg)
VH-??? B733 Qantas (no titles, no logos, no reg, no nose section)
N705BC B743 (all white)
N822V DC10 (all white)
N4508H B747SP (all white)
N????? B742 TWA (just small sections)
N????? B742 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos, no reg – centre fuselage and centre wings only)
N270BC B743 (all white)
N624MD MD80 (all white)
N626MD MD80 (all white)

West side of airfield (main storage area)

North end of field, first/northern-most row angled away from runway, nearest runway first

N380WA MD11F World Cargo
N660VV DC10 (all white)
N662VV DC10 (all white)
N469V DC10 (all white)
N852V DC10 Global Tanker Service
N????? B722F (all white)
N1857U DC10F United Cargo (old colours)
N????U DC10F United Cargo (old colours)
N705TZ DC10 ATA (ex Northwest colours)
N706TZ DC10 ATA (ex Northwest colours)
N???TZ DC10 ATA (ex Northwest colours)
N????? DC10F Emery Worldwide (full colours
N???WL DC10F (all white)

North end of field, second row angled away from runway, nearest runway first

N14075 DC10 World (351 on nose wheel door)
N576SH DC10F Varig Log (MT on tail)
N825VV DC10 (all white)
N578SH DC10F Varig Log (MU on tail)
N824VV DC10 (all white)
N826VV DC10 (all white)
N967VV DC10 (all white)
N???VV DC10 (all white)
N913VV DC10 (all white)

Parallel to runway – nearest row, north to south
N533US B742 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos)
N61CX DC8 Air Transport International
N781AL DC8 Air Transport International
N870BX DC8 BAX Global
N515HC MD?0 China Eastern (full colours)
N24089 B732 (all white)
N14810 MD80 Continental (no titles, no logos)
N915F DC9 Evergreen
N933F DC9 Evergreen
N9340 DC9 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos)
N3322L DC9 Northwest (new colours, no titles, no logos)
N419MT MD80 (all white)
N941F DC9 Evergreen
N1798U DC9 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos)
N956N DC9 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos)
N958N DC9 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos)
N918F DC9 Evergreen
N9330 DC9 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos)
N9335 DC9 Northwest (new colours, no titles, no logos)
N955N DC9 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos)
N957N DC9 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos)
N916RW DC9 Northwest (new colours)
N923RW DC9 Northwest (new colours, no titles, no logos)
N8932E DC9 Northwest (new colours)
N530AW MD80 One Two Go
N905MD MD80 Spanair (full colours, “A Coruna” logos)
N705MT MD80 Spanair (full colours)
N583AN MD80 Avianca (new colours, no titles, no logos)
N105NT MD80 Spanair (no titles, no logos)
N620MD MD80 Spanair (full colours)

Parallel runway – further row, north to south

C-GAGC B742 Air Canada (old colours, no titles, no logo, 308 on tail)
N245BA B747 ANA (no titles, no logos)
N3439F B743M (all white)
N243BA B747 ANA (no titles, no logos)
?????? B741 (all white, no reg)
N????? B742 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos, no reg)
N129TW B741 TWA (new colours, no titles, no logos)
N618US B742F Northwest Cargo (old colours, no titles)
C-GAGB B742M Air Canada (old colours, no titles, no logos)
C-GAGA B742M Air Canada (old colours, no titles, no logos)
TF-ATB B742 (all white, green tail)
N617US B742F Northwest Cargo (old colours, no titles)
N478EV B742 Evergreen

West side of airfield, south end of field, sixth row angled away from runway, nearest runway first

?????? B752 AeroGal Ecuador (full colours)
N???US B752 Northwest (new colours, no titles, no logos)
N???US B752 Northwest (new colours, no titles, no logos)
N???NA B752 North American (full colours)
N???US B752 Northwest (new colours)
N???US B752 Northwest (new colours, no titles, no logos)
N???US B752 Northwest (new colours)
N???US B752 Northwest (new colours)
N???US B752 Northwest (new colours, no titles, no logos)

West side of airfield, south end of field, fifth row angled away from runway, nearest runway first

N????? B763 Delta (new colours)
N????? B763 Delta (new colours)
C-???? B767 Air Canada (old colours, no titles, no logos)
C-???? B767 Air Canada (old colours, no titles, no logos)
N????? B752 Delta (previous colours)
N????? B752 Delta (new colours)
?????? B752 (all white)

West side of airfield, south end of field, fourth row angled away from runway, nearest runway first

At least 22 Northwest DC9s, variously new and old colours

West side of airfield, south end of field, third row angled away from runway, nearest runway first

PH-MPS B744F Martinair Cargo (full colours)
N106UA B744 Blue Sky (full colours)
N671US B744 Delta (new colours)
N480EV B742 Evergreen (full colours)
N???US B742F Northwest Cargo (old colours)
N619US B742F Northwest Cargo (old colours)
N???US B742F Northwest Cargo (old colours)
N???US B742F Northwest Cargo (old colours)
N???US B742F Northwest Cargo (white colours, large titles, globe logo on foreward fuse)
N???US B742F Northwest Cargo (white colours, large titles, globe logo on foreward fuse)

West side of airfield, south end of field, second row angled away from runway, nearest runway first

SX-??? B742 Hellenic Imperial (full colours)
VH-EBW B743 Qantas (no titles, no logos)
PZ-TCM B743 Surinam Airways (full colours)
N632NW B742F Northwest Cargo (new colours)
N185UA B744 Blue Sky (full colours)
N623US B742 Northwest (old colours)
N624US B742 Northwest (new colours)
?????? B742F (all white)
?????? B742F (all white)
N???US B742F Northwest Cargo (new colours)
N???US B742F Northwest Cargo (old colours)
N???US B742F Northwest Cargo (new colours)
N192UA B744 Blue Sky (full colours)
N477EV B747F Evergreen (full colours)

West side of airfield, south end of field, first/southern-most row angled away from runway, nearest runway first

B-???? MD90 China Eastern (full colours)
VP-CKX B732 Cayman Airways (full colours)
VP-CYB B732 Cayman Airways (full colours)
?????? B737(WL) (green primer)
N????J B737 (all white)
N????? DC9 Northwest (new colours)
N????? DC9 Northwest (new colours)
N????? DC9 Northwest (new colours)
????? B727
?????? B727
N???AX DC9F DHL (no titles)
N???AX DC9 ABX (full colours)
N???AX DC9 ABX (full colours)

Spur near paradropping area, west-most side of airfield, east to west

C-???? B763 Air Canada (old colours, no titles, no logos)
N???US B742 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos, no reg)
?????? MD80 (all white)
N???US DC10 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos, no reg)
P4-??? MD90 Pro Air (full colours, no cockpit section)
N???? DC9 Northwest (old colours)
N793BA B743 (faded Ansett colours)
N???US A320 Northwest (old colours, no titles, no logos, no reg)
PK-JIC A300 Sempati Air (full colours)
N????? B732 United (old colours, no titles)

With the exception of counting the huge row of Northwest DC9s, I think I’ve accounted for everything albeit with lots of ??????s. For those who have stuck with it, hope it was of interest.

Andy

Great photo’s. Thanks for posting. Sad to see a World MD-11 tucked in amongst those DC-10’s! May yet see those China Southern 777F’s in a new white & purple scheme:D

Thanks Skymonster 🙂

Great pictures Andy – I did the tour there with the same Southampton (Eastleigh actually) enthusiast tour company in 1992 – no problems with access and walking around.

Is that Saudi B747 TF-ARM? If so, when did it arrive there and is it now in storage? Im sure I saw her crusing over London westbound on March 6th.

’tis indeed TF-ARM… Plenty of time between 6th March and 1st May to ferry it to MZJ. Air Atlanta do have a habbit of parking their aircraft at MZJ from time to time when they’re not out working, and the colour scheme suggests its been working for Saudi Arabian recently. It was parked on north end of the main ramp at MZJ, which typically means its there for relatively short term storage, or is destined for fairly rapid part-out – not sure which!

Andy

Is that Saudi B747 TF-ARM?
If so, when did it arrive there and is it now in storage?
Im sure I saw her crusing over London westbound on March 6th.

Splendid stuff, Andy.

Enough to make one quite green with envy. 🙂

Word is, by the way, that the China Southern Cargo B777-200Fs are bound for Federal Express.

Fascinating stuff

Zoot,

Are the HU-16s and P-2s still out there Andy?

7 HU-16s and 2 P-2s on the dirt in between the main ramp and the entrance road – click on the pic below!

Oh yes, the other thing about Pinal Air Park/Marana is that it was the last resting place of the vast majority of the Beech Starship fleet after they were grounded with the majority being broken up.

No Starships at Pinal Air Park now – six stored on the far side of Marana Northwest Regional (Avra Valley) though, on a new remote ramp.

Andy

Thanks for the info. I have found it on Google Earth.

The story about VR-CAN was that it turned up one day and the people who owned it paid the storage money and left never to be seen again. The storage money kept arriving but nobody ever came to see the aircraft and so it remained out on the airfield. Schnozz had a few ideas back in 1991 as to what was inside the aircraft that they wanted to keep well hidden…

Are the HU-16s and P-2s still out there Andy?

Oh yes, the other thing about Pinal Air Park/Marana is that it was the last resting place of the vast majority of the Beech Starship fleet after they were grounded with the majority being broken up.

Another thing,, the gate used to be guarded by people from Pinkerton’s Security…

In the old days you used to phone Arnold Mayer (the “Schnozz”) and book a tour and he would drive you round stopping whenever you wanted.

*sighs for the old days* and yes I used to have all the “Schozz paraphanalia as well.

Is VR-CAN still stored here?

No, sadly VR-CAN seems to be no more! It was there though when I first visited Pinal Air Park way back in the 1980s!

For those who don’t know, A.E. “Schnozz” Meyer, – a really great guy who chain smoked, God rest his soul – used to drive photographers around the Evergreen Air Center in a huge old car. He’d not get out of the car during the tour, so it gradually filled up with smoke as the tour progressed, but he was usually happy for photographers to walk alongside the car after he’d given his customary warning about the snakes!!! Schnozz always claimed that the P-2 Neptune was the best aircraft ever built (woe betide anyone who disagreed), and he was also a huge fan of Indy racing.

Sadly, access to Pinal Air Park/Marana slowly ground to a halt after Schnozz passed away. There was another lady – Veronica – who did tours in a van for a short while, but they soon stopped. The security associated with the special forces “training” that goes on there (we were encouraged not to get some “dodgy” buildings over the far side of the field in the background of the photos), the cost of running the tours after they became more and more popular, and airlines getting irritated about pictures of their aeroplanes in less than pristine condition appearing in books and magazines and the internet, killed off the access. There’s also a very large US Army aviation training base – Silver Bell – attached to the airfield, at which a significant number of Apaches and Kiowas are based, and the Army can be prickly about casual visitors too. So nowadays, its almost impossible to get through the airport gate unless you’ve got very legitimate business with Evergreen or the US Army. I remember going there after Schnozz passed on as an “official” (sic!) representative of British Midland Airways – it even said “Welcome to British Midland Airways” in the foyer! A guy called Dudley Nutt arranged the photo tour (at the time he would do tours but only for airline employees), and I still don’t know whether Evergreen expected a fleet of delapidated Viscounts and DC-9s to turn up as a result of my visit! Last time I went inside on the ground, I knew a guy who was doing some work on a 747 there – officially we were only allowed to take pictures of that 747 as we were supposedly doing some PR photos for the company that owned the aircraft, but we were given an “under the radar” photo tour of the whole place by the director of maintenance for Evergreen, on condition that our cameras weren’t obviously visible as we passed the security checkpoints and vehicle patrols – even that though was back in the late 90s.

Despite ground access nolonger being easy to arrange, Pinal Air Park is a public-use airport so anyone can fly in and out and shoot a few pictures from the air whilst doing so, and unlike other storage airfields at Victorville and Mojave there’s no ATC tower so airplanes can do much as they please, but if you land its not a good idea to go strolling around with a camera as Evergreen security soon get upset.

To answer the question from Red Hunter – its about 30 miles north of Tucson, just a mile or so off of the freeway that links Tucson and Phoenix in Arizona. Also very near Tucson is AMARG/Davis Monthan Air Force Base, the military equivalent storage airfield that hosts somewhere around 5000 aircraft! I did an overflight there too, and when I get around to it I’ll post some pictures of that place. Anyone contemplating a trip would do well to arrange an overflight – Tucson Aeroservice Center at Marana Northwest Regional Airport (also known as Avra Valley Airport, midway between Tucson and the Evergreen Air Center) were excellent, knew exactly what I wanted, and were happy to arrange an aeroplane and a pilot at what I thought was a pretty reasonable rate. The entire trip – north from Marana Northwest Regional (AVQ) to Pinal Air Park (MZJ), south to Davis Monthan, and then back to AVQ, including a few orbits and patterns, took around 1 hour 30 minutes.

Andy

It’s on the I-10 on the left hand side as you head out from Tucson to Phoenix. Note there is also a Marana Regional airport nearby – the former Avra Valley airfield – which also has a number of stored prop aircraft.

Thanks for that – very interesting. Is it in the Tucson area – southern Arizona? I must look at Googlemaps.

Pinal Air Park (or Marana as it is otherwise known) is a former CIA base and I’m sure we have gone into its murky history many times before.

Evergreen was associated with such outfits as Air America and its many and varied off shoots. Jeff Hawke flew B-26s from here on the abortive delivery flights to Biaffra many moons ago and even when I was here in the late 80s and early 90s I was told I could photograph everything except the Evergreen Casa 212s and the building (and associated area) above the Sun Country 737 in the first picture.

They train sky marshalls there using a CV990 fuselage, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security train people there, there was an Office of Indian Affairs. The US Army have an area right next to the airfield where AH-64/OH-58 are based (and some British Army Apaches as well).

It is a wonderfully ‘spooky’ place and Evergreen use it to store aircraft. You can’t get in anymore but you can fly in and taxi down the main ramp and take off and you can rent an aircraft and (avoiding the paradropping C-130s that inhabit here) circle round taking photos. In the old days you used to phone Arnold Mayer (the “Schnozz”) and book a tour and he would drive you round stopping whenever you wanted. Customer Service Representative. LOL, what a job. I got a Christmas card from him one year.

*sighs for the old days* and yes I used to have all the “Schozz paraphanalia as well.

Is VR-CAN still stored here?

Evocative photos. Is Evergreen another Arizona boneyard? I saw Davis Monthan some years ago and I believe that Tucson now has a large storage facility adjacent to the airport.

the passenger charters bit was what i was trying to get at. wonder why they bothered?

UPS also had a passenger service, for a season or so. Remember the bottom line!

To think that some of those planes might be a future Coca Cola can, or a composite fishing rod or tennis racket 😀

the passenger charters bit was what i was trying to get at. wonder why they bothered?