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 Department 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. The airport was inactivated in December 1944 with the drawdown of AAFTC's pilot training program, the airfield was declared surplus and turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers. Later, the airfield was discharged to the War Assets Administration. The facility eventually became a public airport owned and operated by Riverside County. For over 50 years (about 1959–2009), Hemet-Ryan was a popular site for operating sailplanes (gliders). Sailplane Enterprises, a commercial glider flight school, operated there from 1969 to 2009. The Cypress Soaring club was based there from 1969 to 2009. Orange County Soaring Association (OCSA) also used Hemet-Ryan as its home base from 1991 to 2009. On September 30, 2009, the Riverside County Economic Development Agency closed Hemet-Ryan to glider operations. OCSA filed a complaint with the FAA pursuant to Title 14 CFR Part 16 against the County of Riverside. On February 11, 2011, the FAA ruled that the closure was in violation of Federal law and Federal grant obligations. The County declined to appeal the ruling. On November 18, 2016, the Cypress Soaring Club returned to Hemet-Ryan and resumed sailplane operations on runway 4-22. As of November 2019, Cypress Soaring has seven sailplanes and a Cessna 182, used for aerotowing, based at Hemet-Ryan Airport.