Texas Barnstorming Museum

08/09/2026

There’s always something cool in the hangar here… and looking at this little “Woodys Pusher” is sure to make anyone smile. A modern twist on the 1930’s Curtiss Pusher, the homebuilt Woody sports a more reliable Continental O-200 than the 3 cyl Szekely radial that pushed the Curtiss around. More than a few woodies were built in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, but I haven’t seen one in a long time. I carved a wooden model of one in 7th grade, and it’s neat to be working on the real McCoy now.
Theres a few other minor differences, but either is about as cool and fun as an airplane can get. Stop by Hallettsville and take a peek!
Jim

07/26/2026

Its on… Mark your calendars. Same great BBQ and Ice Cream. Pumpkin drop, Antique Airplane Rides, Family fun!

07/14/2026

This is probably the scariest thing what happens in our hangar. The mechanics of the Bobcats gear fascinates me. simple and sturdy, the gear extends and retracts almost vertically. Once retracted, the exposed wheels provide an element of protection if the gear fails to extend. Those old time engineers knew a thing or two about making things work. If this was built today, it’d be covered with computers.

06/28/2026

If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life

05/28/2026

Its on again this summer! Texas Barnstorming Museums work & fly program. In a nutshell, if a youngster (12-17) works 8 hours at the airport, they recieve 1 hour dual in the museums J-3 Cub. Warning- This isnt a daycare… the kids will mow, clean, paint, whatever needs doing, but the reward is pretty special and we try to make the work fun! Great way for a kid to experience aviation up close. Most of the kids wind up
riding in the Stearman as well. See the website
( https://www.whereolddogsfly.org ) for details and contact info on us. We’re at 34R, Hallettsville TX. Thanks ya’ll !!

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.

05/23/2026

Boom. Just like that its over. Hallettsville High School Graduation night, and we send out two more Aviation tech class graduates into the world. They’ve been in the program since it started 3 years ago One is headed to TSTC to fly, where he’ll join all the others we’ve sent. The other out into the trades. I couldn’t be prouder of you both!
They both know all about airplanes, basic mechanics and understand nuts and bolts. Both are pretty good welding- neither would embarass themselves with an oxy-acetylene rig or a TIG torch… (even on aluminum!), along with all the other things we’ve tried to stress as important to a young man headed out into the world.
Fly high but stay grounded fellas …I hope our time together has given you each a little tailwind in life. Im awfully proud of you !!

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