Bill Clapp of Seattle bought Simpson Air Service in Ketchikan, Alaska from owner Terry Wills. “When I worked for Terry as one of his pilots, we had a nasty fatal accident out at Deweyville. I think that was really hard on Terry. That winter I took my vacation and when I came back, he was trying to sell Simpson to one of the fairly new pilots there. That fell through and I made Terry an offer, because I had just met my future wife and needed something permanent.” When Clapp took on the company, continuing as Simpson Air Service seemed inappropriate, so after coming up with ideas for new names, Coast Air was accepted. Alaska Transportation Commission Air Commerce Certificate Noumber 131 dated July 30, 1970, formally approved the transfer of the Simpson Air, Inc. operating certificate to the newly formed Coast Air, Inc., stipulating: “Doing business as Simpson Air Service”. On June 24, 1971, an amended operating certificate was issued solely to Coast Air, Inc. Coast Air operated from the previous Coastal-Ellis/Alaska Airlines facilities PBY Maintenance Hangar at 1249 Tongass Avenue, next door to the Alaska Airlines company seadrome.

Coast Air carried on with their predecessor’s established business, running three Simpson fleet Beavers and three Cessnas, while employing many of the staff on hand. Bill Clapp: “I had learned from Terry what our customers liked and we were gradually moving away from “charters” or split charters. Terry Wills had been successful in making headway on the west coast and the Gooses had just about stopped stopping at logging camps. We could land more reliably in some of the more difficult places. At that time, we were serving several northern west coast logging camps, and during the season, we provided the same service to the canneries, cold storage, and buying scows. We also did a fair amount of fish spotting. We also looked after Yes Bay and much of Bell Island traffic. We kept working at Craig, Klawock, and Hydaburg as well. I know that at one time we had nine planes, four 185's, five Beavers (including one leased out up in Cordova). We were very busy.”

On June 1, 1973, with construction of the new Ketchikan International Airport over on adjacent Gravina Island slated for completion by the end of that month, Bill Clapp purchased two G-21A Gooses (N1019N and N2751A) from Alaska Airlines’ last four remaining Grummans stationed in Ketchikan, to add to Coast Air’s growing fleet. Alaska Airlines was then in the process of quickly selling off its seaplane fleet to go to turboprop Twin Otter landplanes and jets to utilize Southeastern community airports, while moving out of the Ketchikan company seadrome over to the new airport. To support the augmentation, three winter furloughed Alaska Goose pilots were hired to fly the pair of new CA amphibians, including Chuck Collins, Craig Wallitner, and Art "Bugs" Nelson. Goose 51A had served as Alaska Airline's dual-control pilot trainer. It was then available to instruct any of the pilots wishing to transition up to fly multi-engine seaplanes. Coast Air chief pilot Dwight Gregerson also was checked out to fly the Grummans.

Beginning June 1, 1973 Coast Air took over Alaska Airlines’ Prince of Wales Island scheduled runs to Craig, Klawock, and Hydaburg, with twice-daily mail delivery. Coast Air had filed their route service request one year previously, but had to wait until after Alaska Airlines discontinued their service on May 31, 1973, for the request to be granted.

Bill Clapp: “When we had three planes in Terry's day we all did everything, mail, loading, maintenance, errands, everything. But as we grew to five planes we needed maintenance, a bookkeeper, freight guys, etc. So, it was get smaller or bigger. So, we hustled and grew and had the good fortune of being in the right spot when Alaska came in and started cutting their Grumman operation. So, we got a subcontract from them and got agents in each town and replaced Alaska's very light schedule with five flights a day or more at a better price.”

On July 5, 1973, Coast Air pilot Craig Wallitner made the last Annette Airport to Ketchikan Goose shuttle flight in Grumman N2751A. On July 10, 1973, Goose 51A suffered a runway accident, while Capt. Chuck Collins and a student pilot were performing touch-and-go landings and swerved off into the ditch. There were no serious injuries, but the plane was so damaged it was put out of service. It required shipment to Seattle for a total airframe rebuild, which took over a year. Goose 19N remained in operation to Coast Air’s continued multi-engine amphibian seaplane service.

As he did after buying Simpson Air, Bill Clapp retained his multi-role as company owner, manager, while also serving as one of the regular pilots; "I flew a lot even after I took over. As we grew, I had to keep the pilots busy and I was the spare, but they were fine when the weather was bad, etc., if I took their flight.” Clapp purchased a well-used Cessna 180 in Las Vegas for the sole purpose of converting it into a trainer, to enable the young wanna-be bush pilots working for the company to build time by flying freight runs to the West Coast of Prince of Wales Island. In August 1973, Coast Air freight lineman Kirk Thomas passed his commercial pilot check ride, and Chuck Slagle followed soon after. Thomas was added to Coast Air’s line pilot roster, and Slagle left to fly for a rival outfit. (Both men would go on to later run their own respective airline companies in Ketchikan.)

In late August of that year, Coast Air hired former U.S. Navy jet pilot Art Hack, who spent two years flying seaplanes and transports in the Aleutians. Hack was originally from Mura, Minnesota and was married with three kids. He and his family decided to settle permanently in Ketchikan. Hack loved logging time as a Panhandle bush pilot, and after later taking on some management duties, found he had ambitions of running his own air taxi, which he eventually did, along with buying Yes Bay Lodge.

In the fall of 1973, several personal and business factors required Bill Clapp to leave Ketchikan to go back to Seattle. Clapp hired Mike Salazar as Coast Air Vice President to manage the company in his absence, which did not include pilot duty. In December 1973, Rodger Elliott was hired briefly as an assistant manager at Coast Air to help with flight department training, after retiring in 1972 as a veteran Alaska Airlines pilot due to medical reasons. On August 7, 1974, Bill Clapp sold both Gooses to Coast Air, Inc. Mike Salazar signed the FAA applications for both aircraft registrations.

Bill Clapp returned to Ketchikan in 1974 to attempt finding a new buyer for his operation, without any luck. Clapp ended up selling the business to Terry Wills and Art Hack. On August 8, 1975, applications were filed to transfer the Coast Air certificate to Tyee Airlines. On November 26, 1975, the State of Alaska/Air Transportation Commission granted transfer of Coast Air, Inc. (William Clapp, President) to Tyee Airlines, Inc. (Arthur Hack, President and Terry Wills being the sole shareholders in the new company), to commence in 30 days for new certificate holder on December 26, 1975. Bill took the planes they did not want and leased them the land, which he eventually sold. Tyee Airlines continued the history of air taxi operations from the old seadrome location at 1249 Tongass Ave. The building signage was repainted and many of the planes served on, including the Beavers wearing new Tyee fleet colors designed by Terry Wills.

Bill Clapp summed up Coast Air’s final tenure, with a candid thumbnail assessment via email to this author: “Being scheduled, our costs were higher, but the Alaska Aviation Dept. granted a new license, something rarely done in those days because there were so may air taxis, in Klawock. Flair Air as I recall. It really hurt our morning loads especially. With several air taxis in town (there were six companies competing in Ketchikan in November 1972), it was very hard to raise fares. The second thing was that the agency decided to loosen protection for those offering scheduled service to small communities. That was the natural way for us to grow, but I thought it a damaging move that would scuttle efforts to improve service. We had quietly been making inroads in offering better local service between Ketchikan, Petersburg, and Wrangell more like the old Coastal days. We found that frequent reliable service increased commerce and traffic between communities instead of waiting for the once-a-day jet service. I felt that the Alaska Transportation Commission was moving the wrong direction and was not working to create regular and reliable service between small communities. Looking back, I also made the mistake of buying two Gooses from Alaska, versus just one, without knowing how much they cost to maintain.”

The old Grummans were the last to go, to wrap up the Coast Air saga. On May 27, 1976, Coast Air, Inc. sold both Gooses back to Bill Clapp. N1019N was sold on April 9, 1976 to Eastern Airlines captain Laurie W. Yonge, who picked up the amphibian with his personal mechanic, and ferried it back to the East Coast to start a new life as a pampered private plane. Yonge, now 90 years of age, still owns it in Ocala, Florida and flies it at least one hour per month to stay current. Six years ago, Bill Clapp paid him a surprise visit, and they enjoyed a grand time seaplane flying together. N2751A went to Kenmore Air Harbor in Seattle, and was placed in service renumbered N1257A (using the last four digits of the company phone number). Today, she still flies as an air taxi workhorse with Wilderness Seaplanes’ Grumman Goose fleet in Port Hardy, B.C., Canada, who operate the last commercial G-21A amphibians in the world today, now registered as C-GDDJ.

Aircraft:
Cessna 180 and Cessna 185 Skywagon, DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver, and Grumman G-21A Goose.

Pilots:
Terry Wills, Bill Clapp, Art Hack, Dwight Gregerson, Craig Wallitner, Chuck Collins, Art "Bugs" Nelson, Bill Peterson, Lynn Joseph, Cliff Kamm, Tom Drake, Al McMannon, Art Byron, Gerry Bruder, Jack Newport, Bob Bullock, Wendell Jones, Andy Loud, Keith Stigen, Marty Mittet, Mike Hodge, Cal Tassainer, Bob Ulrich, Kirk Thomas, John Gundersen, Rick Hardcastle, Bill Buc, Chuck Slagle, and John Bussanich, among others.

Mechanics:
Stan Hixon, Gerry Madsen, Bob Hartlep, and Bob Dewitt, among others.