Hemet-Ryan Airport

Hemet-Ryan Airport is three miles (6 km) southwest of Hemet, in Riverside County, California. Hemet-Ryan is a main Cal Fire Air Attack Base, also used for civil purposes, Civil Air Patrol meetings, and more. It is home to a Riverside County Sheriff's Office aviation unit and a Mercy Air Air ambulance. The airport is named after the late T. Claude Ryan. History The airfield opened in September 1940 for the United States Army Air Corps. It was assigned to the West Coast Training Center (later Western Flying Training Command) as a primary (level 1) pilot training airfield. Later it was activated as an Air Corps Training Detachment with Ryan School of Aeronautics conducting primary flight training under control of 5th Flying Training Detachment. Known sub-bases and auxiliaries were: Banning Auxiliary Field (Unknown location) Highland Auxiliary Field (Unknown location) Ryan Auxiliary Field #1 Ryan Auxiliary Field #2 Ryan Auxiliary Field #3 Valle Vista Auxiliary Field Gibbs Auxiliary Field Flight training was performed with PT-17 Stearmans as the primary trainer, along with Ryan PT-21 Recruits. Over 14,000 army cadets were trained to fly. New Ryan PT-25s were delivered to the field by WAFS in July 1943.