Hemet-Ryan Airport

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Hemet-Ryan Airport
IATA: HMT - ICAO: KHMT
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		County of Riverside
Serves		Hemet, California
Elevation AMSL		1,512 ft (460.9 m)
Coordinates		33°44′02.33″N, 117°01′21.09″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
5/23	4,314	1,315	Asphalt
4/22	2,045	623	Asphalt

Hemet-Ryan Airport (IATA: HMT, ICAO: KHMT) is a public airport located 3 miles (5 km) southwest of the city of Hemet in Riverside County, California, USA.

Hemet-Ryan Airport is a main CDF Air Attack Base, also used for civilian purposes, Civil Air Patrol meetings, glider flights, and more.

1 History
2 California Department of Forestry
- 2.1 History of Ryan Air Attack Base
- 2.2 Ryan Air Attack and Helitack Crews
3 Civil Air Patrol
4 Facilities
5 External links

[edit] History

For nearly 50 years, Ryan Air Attack Base has played a vital role in wild fire suppression efforts in Southern California and Riverside County.

Ryan Air Attack Base is named after the late Claude T. Ryan who is most famous for having designed the Spirit of St. Louis airplane, and who began the Ryan School of Aeronautics in Hemet during World War II. Through contract with the federal government 14,000 army cadets were trained to fly. With the end of WWII and the need for pilots diminishing, training ceased. The facility eventually became a public airport owned and operated by Riverside County.

[edit] California Department of Forestry

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Riverside Unit) operates a joint Air Attack / Helitack Base at the Hemet/Ryan Airport. Ryan Air Attack Base is statistically one of the most active in the nation. The fleet consists of an OV-10 Bronco - Air Attack 310, two S2-T's - Tanker 72 and 73 and one UH-1H "Super Huey" helicopter - Copter 301. Tankers 72 and 73 assigned to Hemet/Ryan are the “T” (turbine) models with 1200 gallon retardant capacity versus the 800 gallon limit in the older “A” models. Air Attack 310 is an OV-10 two place twin turbine.

[edit] History of Ryan Air Attack Base

In 1957 the United States Forest Service commenced air tanker loading operations and in 1959 California Division of Forestry (now the California Department of Forestry) began their operation at Ryan field. Both agencies maintained separate parking, loading and mixing areas but the initial stages of a joint base operation had begun. In 1969 the United States Forest Service (USFS) and the California Division of Forestry (CDF) truly merged into a joint agency air attack base sharing the base operation, responsibilities and facilities. The joint base concept successfully continued operation until 1998 when the USFS moved their air tanker base operation to the larger and recently vacated Norton Air Force Base.

Ryan Air Attack Base is one of 19 tanker bases strategically located throughout California. Because of climate, weather, fuels, geography and fire occurrence Ryan is strategically located. The base provides initial attack aircraft service to over 17 thousand square miles of private, state, and federally owned lands. Up until 1998, Ryan was statistically the busiest air tanker base in the United States delivering an average of 1.5 million gallons of retardant annually. With the USFS moving to San Bernardino, these statistic have dropped dramatically.

From the beginning of Ryan Air Attack Base, CDF and the USFS used privately owned contracted WWII vintage aircraft. The type and sizes of aircraft varied based on vendor, availability of flyable airframes and spare parts. As the years counted off and the flight hours increased these airplanes became static museum displays or were robbed for parts to keep the dwindling fleet flying. Because of the dwindling air tanker fleet, CDF acquired excess U.S. Navy Grumman S-2A submarine hunting aircraft. These planes were converted form military use to firefighting aircraft using a design developed by Hemet Valley Flying Service. The first two aircraft build-ups were completed by Hemet Valley Flying Service and tested at Ryan Air Attack Bases. The basic aircraft design has been in continuous state service since 1975.

In 1977 CDF began a two-week pilot helitack program utilizing a contracted helicopter. Headed up by Captain Emil Derdowski and two firefighters the program was extended to a total of four weeks. The success of this pilot program brought on line Hemet-Ryan Helitack Base using a full time contract helicopter staffed with three captains and nine firefighters operating out of Ryan Air Attack Base.

In 1981, CDF acquired Bell UH-1F Hueys helicopters through the Federal Excess Property Program (FEPP) leasing them from the Air Force through the USFS for one dollar a year. This program now allowed CDF to operate and manage its own fleet of fixed wing and rotor wing aircraft.

In 1992 CDF acquired several of the larger Bell UH-IH helicopters through FEPP with Hemet-Ryan Helitack stationed at Ryan Air Attack Base receiving one of the first buildups. These helicopters were further upgraded with larger engines, main rotor and tail boom assemblies making them the “Super Huey” model. CDF now has eleven of these helicopters in service with nine based throughout the state. In 1993, the OV-10 replaced the older Cessna 337 as Air Attack 310 base at Ryan. In June of 2001, CDF replaced the older S-2A's at Ryan with Tanker 72, 73, and 100 all new S-2G Grumman models. The upgrades include constant flow 1200 gallon tanks and turbine engines allowing, for better capabilities and performance.

Currently, CDF is in progress of finalizing the move of the Air Attack Base to March Field. This facility can accommodate a larger volume of aircraft without the impact to the surrounding communities.

[edit] Ryan Air Attack and Helitack Crews

Perri Hall: Fire Captain, Air Tanker Base Manager
Clay Williams: Fire Apparatus Engineer, Air Tanker Base Manager
Les Koehler: Pilot, Air Attack 310
Lee Munson: Pilot, Relief Air Attack 310
Deen Ohel: Pilot, Tanker 72
Mike Venable: Pilot, Tanker 73
Bob Forbes: Pilot, Relief Tanker 72, 73
Travis Bailey: Aircraft Mechanic
Bob Innes: Fire Captain, Helitack
Pat Tomlinson: Fire Captain, Helitack
Don Cockrum: Fire Captain, Helitack
Travis Alexander: Fire Captain, Helitack
Victor Wierzba: Forestry Pilot, Helicopter 301
David Patrick: Forestry Pilot, Helicopter 301
Ray Cordova: Fire Apparatus Engineer, Helitack
Adam Robbins: Fire Apparatus Engineer, Helitack
Michael Alarcon: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Jarrod Collins: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Derrek Cook: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Matt Dalton: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Noah DeMartino: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Jesse Diaz: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Matt Eddins: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Jake Flores: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Ray Gomes: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Fred Mata: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Ben Powell: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Gage Schlice: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Mike Spitsnaugle: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Nicolas Sutton: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Keith Vitale: Fire Fighter I, Helitack
Chris Wetzel: Fire Fighter I, Helitack

[edit] Civil Air Patrol

Squadron 59 of the Civil Air Patrol is based at Hemet-Ryan. Squadron 59's meetings begin at 1730 (5:30 P. M.) and end at 2000 (8:00 P.M.). They meet every Tuesday of every month.