Texas Barnstorming Museum

04/14/2026

When I was in grade school, the space race was in full swing. In elementary school we watched Neil Armstrong take his giant leap. I was captivated. It helped that my Dad worked at NASA and the players were often friends of his. In the years that followed, the program kindof stalled, Shuttles crashed, astronauts had to hitch a ride to the space station we built on a Russian spaceship, and like so many others I kindof lost interest in what was going on in space and focused on a life in the atmosphere.
Still, I remember seeing those artist renditions of possible lunar colonies and even on Mars. Drawings of bubble hats on men in poofy spacesuits floating around connected by a rope to an igloo kinda house with a huge ringed Saturn on the horizon.
Here’s the cool part… its happening. And it took a class of 9th graders to refocus my nearsightedness. Artemus II was fascinating, and the classes interest inspired me to look closer at the program, and it’s absolutely incredible. The planning and future missions are right out of those early schoolbooks.
If your interested, bored, tired of playing angry birds, whatever, I urge you to explore the future Artemus missions online. Its fascinating.

04/03/2026

Its been a while since I posted on the Hallettsville High School Aviation tech class, so here goes.
Every student in the class is a pretty good TIG welder. They wont be great until each has run miles of beads… but they’re all really good at the basics and can build from there with practice They also are pretty good at oxy-acetylene welding on steel, so we switched gears and began oxy- hydrogen welding on some pretty thin aluminum… .035-3003. This is a new venture for me as well. We seperated out 2 of the kids to experiment with various torch tip sizes in order to find a good starting point. After that theyll bump up the material to .060, then .090 to find ballpark starting points, and we’ll tweak from there. The rest of the class and I are working on the raffle cubs Annual Inspection and getting ready to send it home to the new owners, which is just as exciting!
They are welding with a 1940’s Smith #2 torch using the “v” series soft flame tips built specifically for aluminum.
Seeing such an old process coming back to life in the hands of a youngster really makes me smile.
Please comment if you like what we’re doing, and stop by if you’re in town.
Tailwinds!
Jim

03/25/2026

Everyone meet the Jenkins family! They’re the winners of this year’s Piper Cub raffle. Ive got to say, it couldn’t be going to a nicer home and family. Unlike our past raffle winners, this is the first prize airplane that’s going to stay here in Texas. Im hoping they become regulars at our annual Fly-Ins. Its a perfect fit, and we couldn’t be happier!
Thanks again everyone.
Jim

03/24/2026

Hello all and thank you again for entering our raffle. Please see the museums earlier post with winners names and ticket numbers.
This is our 5th year to raffle an airplane. The past winners names and pictures are posted on our website, as will this years winner. The drawing is completely electronic, conducted by a third party raffle company, rafflecreator, which conducts the raffles for the EAA, AOPA and many others Once the button is pushed, the winner is notified immediately via email, as are we.
Drawing the winner on a live feed is a sticky subject, and out of respect to those who win, we don’t immediately publicly post their name without their permission to do so. I truly could have announced the numbers, and should have If we do this again I’ll do just that, but not immediately announcing their names was done trying to respect the winners privacy.
On our first couple of raffles, I announced the winners names and city. In both instances they were immediately bombarded with low ball offers from people wanting to buy their prize… thinking the winner had little or nothing in it. It was uncomfortable for them, and us.
I’ll also apologize if the drawing tonight seemed ambiguous. It wasnt ment to be. When I called the winner his phone went to voicemail. I left a message to please return the call. Thats never happened before. Luckily he returned the call just a few minutes later, hence the post several minutes later with names and ticket numbers.
Anyway, the airplane is going to a new home with a fairly new private pilot. What an excellent first airplane!
From myself and everybody at the museum, Thank you all again for your support. I truly wish everyone could win and I hope the explanation clears up any confusion.
Tailwinds!
Jim

03/24/2026

Its Official! We have a winner for both prizes… the winning ticket numbers for the grand prize was Mr K. Jenkins ticket no 10036223332432 and Mr J Rogers ticket no 10036223554962. We will post more as they come to claim their prizes! Thanks so much everyone!

03/22/2026

Its finally over! The 100 HP J3 Cub raffle entry window has closed. The drawing will be Monday (3/23) at 6:30PM Central. LaVaca County Sheriff Greenwell and County Judge Mudd will be there to officiate. The drawing will be live feed on our page, so be sure to be watching! If your local, come on out to the Hallettsville Airport and participate.
We’ll post the results on our real website as well
Thank you everyone for entering. These raffles and fund raisers are how we keep the lights on and students flying! Good luck to everyone and if you have any questions, just give me a call or text.
Thanks again!
Jim and the whole TBM Crew.

03/21/2026

All the entries close today at 6PM, so if your going to get a ticket, theres less than 8 hours to do so. We’ve coordinated with our Sheriff and County Judge to officiate the actual drawing, and we’ll draw Monday evening (23rd) at 6:30 PM The drawing will be broadcast live feed on Facebook. If your local or close by, come on out and watch live!
Last chance for tickets. Here’s the link:

2025 Piper J3 Cub Raffle is raising funds online with Raffle Creator!

03/16/2026

Just 2 days left to get a chance to win this beautiful 100 HP Piper J3. The link is below, Good Luck everyone!
https://www.rafflecreator.com/pages/41866/2025-piper-j3-cub-raffle

Official website of the Texas Barnstorming Museum, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of flying machines and inspiring youth to pursue a career in aviation.

03/13/2026

Manly men doing Manly things…
Teaching the Aviation technology class at Hallettsville High is fun. As luck would gave it, all the students are boys, and given that the curriculum is somewhat flexable, Im able to bend and weave things into the class that I deem “critical man skills”. Sounds sexist I know, but I can assure you if we were lucky enough to have a young lady in the class, nothing in todays lesson would have changed except the name. These are skills that I feel are essential to know, especially for a young adult headed out into the world. We’ve learned changing a car tire, greasing equipment, troubleshooting AC and DC electrical systems, air conditioning and a bunch of other stuff not really integral to aviation, but important nonetheless, at least IMHO.
Anyway, many of you know Lisa and I are converting a 1923 building and former print shop into a restaurant. As you might imagine, theres a lot to it. Luckily Ive had the luxury of having great local craftsman for a lot of the work, but the plumbing prooved to be an undertaking that nobody wanted to deal with. After a few swings and misses, I called my good friend and fellow aviator Shaye Fowler and asked ( really kinda begged) if he’d help. He did what all friends do and dropped what he was doing and came to help Hes a pipefitter by trade but holds a plumbing license and more importantly, enjoys the challenge of bringing new life into an historic old building. And a challenge it was. I wont talk about any of that, but what I will say when youve got a guy that has 37 years of experience and is superintendent of multi million dollar plumbing and piping jobs and he’s willing to teach the class how to fit pipe, cut and join pvc correctly, calculate fall and a bunch of other stuff all within a strict plumbing code, Im going to put them all together and see what happens. It was a blast! The boys cut, fit and glued pipes together, and learned how to enter the trades. It was a wonderful class. I know that the skills they learned today will serve them again when they need it.
Thank You Shaye. For your friendship and taking time out of your life to help us on our project, but more importantly to be such a great roll model and teacher to a bunch of young men eager to step out into the world! I think you molded some lives today!

03/06/2026

Just incredible response over the last few weeks of the 100 HP Piper J3 Cub raffle. Just 2 weeks remaining... it looks like we may sell out before the raffle ends 3/21! If your procrastinating, don't wait much longer... time and tickets are running out! Someone will own this beautiful cub for $50!! Click the link to enter below.
https://www.rafflecreator.com/pages/41866/2025-piper-j3-cub-raffle

03/01/2026

Its almost over!!! 3 weeks from today the raffle ends for this beautiful 100HP J3 Cub ( or cash, your choice!). Not many tickets left and they are selling fast. Get yours before we run out by clcking the link below
https://www.rafflecreator.com/pages/41866/2025-piper-j3-cub-raffle

02/25/2026

This week in the Hallettsville High School Aviation class we are completing the segment on Electricity & Magnetism. It’s important because its how magnetos operate, which are the primary ignition source in light aircraft. We tie it all together with each student building an electric motor from simple parts. Today the first students motor ran successfully, so now he helps the others get theirs going. Its a huge accomplishment for each. Besides the electrical/magnetic properties, it teaches them diagnostic skills and teamwork. They like the “hands on” method of learning as much as I like teaching it What are your thoughts?
Thanks!