3.9
Rittenhouse Training Site
Rittenhouse Auxiliary Airfield was built during World War II as one of several satellite
airfields for Williams Army Airfield. Williams Army Airfield was later renamed Williams Air
Force Base and is now Phoenix‐Mesa Gateway Airport. Like many of the auxiliary airfields
built in Arizona at that time, it had three paved runways arranged in a triangular
configuration with an additional paved runway going down the middle. It was used to
train pilots on twin‐ and four‐engine bombers and single‐engine fighters. The site was
deactivated in 1966 but was still used to support touch‐and‐go operations training and
low‐approach navigational aid training at Williams Air Force Base.
Rittenhouse Training Site ultimately became an important site for AZARNG helicopter
training, and in 1999, Rittenhouse Army Heliport was listed with the FAA as an active
military site under the control of the AZARNG.
Installation Setting
Rittenhouse Training Site is a small facility approximately 12 miles southeast of
Phoenix‐Mesa Gateway Airport and six miles east of downtown Queen Creek. It covers
roughly 480 acres of land that is owned by the BLM and leased by the AZARNG. The site
is primarily undeveloped desert scrubland with a 1,500‐foot long by 50‐foot wide asphalt
helipad that incorporates a portion of the former airfield. There are no permanent
buildings or structures on Rittenhouse Training Site. The site is generally bounded by
Ocotillo Road to the south, Schnepf Road to the west, Arizona State Trust Land to the
north, and Arizona State Trust Land and Pinal County land holdings to the east. The CAP
canal also runs east of the facility. An aerial view of the site is provided on Figure 3‐22.
Rittenhouse Training
Site Fast Facts
Background Report
480 acres,
leased from the
Bureau of Land
Management
Nearest Town:
Town of Queen
Creek, 3.1 miles
to the west
Closest helicopter
training facility to
Papago Park Military
Reservation
Training Areas:
Military Operations
Rittenhouse Training Site is an important support facility for different types of helicopter
training for the AZARNG. It is the closest helicopter training facility to Papago Military
Reservation and primarily used by pilots from that location. As such, it plays a critical role
in reducing fuel costs associated with training at sites that are further away. Types of
helicopter training that occur there include: touch‐and‐go landings, dust landings,
emergency procedures, multi‐ship training, slope operations, sling load transportation
(transporting supplies and equipment by suspending them from a rope or tether beneath
a helicopter), Bambi Bucket training (transporting a 660‐gallon bucket of water
suspended beneath a helicopter), and some non‐live‐fire, small‐caliber weapons target
training.
Size:
Touch-and-go
landing
Dust landing
Emergency
procedures
Multi-ship
Slope operations
Sling-loading
Bambi Buckets
Target training
3-51