Mesa Del Rey Airport


Mesa Del Rey Airport is a public airport a mile northeast of King City, in Monterey County, California, United States. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a general aviation facility.

History

It opened in April 1940 as Palo Alto Airport or King City Airport. It originally had a 4,570' NW/SE hard surfaced runway. It was used for most of World War II by the United States Army Air Forces as a primary contract pilot training airfield. It also had four local auxiliary airfields for emergency and overflow landings. The pilot training contractor was Palo Alto Airport, Inc. Flying training was performed with Fairchild PT-19s as the primary trainer. It also had several PT-17 Stearmans.
Known sub-bases and auxiliaries were :
  • Benard Auxiliary Field
  • Hanson Auxiliary Field
  • Sorenson Auxiliary Field
  • Trescony Auxiliary Field
The construction of the flying school began in December 1940. The buildings, the barracks, administration, PX, mess hall, schoolrooms, aircraft hangars, runways, and aprons were built from scratch and were completed by May 1941. The first set of cadets arrived on March 15, and the first class of 50 started on March 21, 1941. Pilot training had ended by October 16, 1944.
Military control of the airport was transferred to the United States Navy in April 1945. It was known as King City Naval Auxiliary Air Station. The Navy declared the airport surplus on 30 September 1945. Eventually it was discharged to the War Assets Administration and became a civil airport.

Facilities

The airport covers 149 acres at an elevation of 374 feet. Its single runway, 11/29, is 4,479 by 100 feet.
In the year ending February 25, 2009, the airport had 7,862 general aviation aircraft operations, average 21 per day. 19 aircraft were then based at this airport: 90% single-engine, 5% multi-engine, and 5% helicopter.