Barnstormers’ annual fly-in set Saturday at Hallettsville airport

“Watching the class working together, I don’t know who’s luckier—them for living in a district that sees the value of the trades and taking this class, or me for getting to teach them.”

That’s what aviation instructor Jim Baker said recently after spending a few moments watching them work a while on their latest project over at the Texas Barnstormers Museum, the local nonprofit that he founded with his wife a few years ago to help bring the wonder back to the wild blue yonder.

For those not familiar, that what those who enjoy spending time way up there, pilots like him especially, will sometimes call the blue skies above.

“Either way, it sure is fun to be a fly on the wall every once in a while,” Baker said. “This group is special.”

Because its kids like them who tend to inspire fellows like Baker. After all, he says it was in watching a low flying plane pass over a youth baseball game he attended a few years back, and noticing how not one child even batted an eyelid up the passing plane.

Say what you will about their dedication to the game of baseball, but it was obvious that flight didn’t seem the least bit interesting to any of them in the slightest.

Still, rather than merely moan about it, Baker said that he and his family decided to do something to change it, much as those barnstormers of old had once done across America during the first few decades of the early 20th century.

At the same time, though, it’s also why Baker so appreciates being surrounded by those who share a real interest in things like restoring an old plane.

If that sort of thing energizes you, too, then you won’t want to miss the 10th annual fly-in and barbecue hosted by the Texas Barnstormers Museum at the Hallettsville Airport, set for Saturday, Oct. 19.

They’re usually chock full of vintage and collector’s aircraft spanning from some of the earliest planes in flight to those fresh off the assembly lines today. Given those pilots’ natural fondness for all things mechanical, those fly-ins also tend to attract quite the car show as well.

Much like those original barnstormers, fresh back from the Great War fought in Europe, found their unique niche in the world. They’d been taught to fly these incredible contraptions for the U.S. Army—the Air Force wasn’t around yet—only to be released from their service and sent back home after the war, which for many back then, was some tiny hardscrabble farm set off the beaten path.

Let’s face it: The farms they grew up on sure seemed awful small upon their return, especially when they’d seen all they’d seen and learned the finer points of keeping those aircraft up in the air, either through their prowess as pilots or as a mechanic, specializing in all things aeronautical.

It never took long. With a worldwide economic depression sucking every ounce of value from any crop they might coax out of the ground or glean from the sale the livestock on their place, few found it too lucrative to not leave the farm once more.

Mind you, the roaring 1920s gave way to the Great Depression, and we hadn’t made it far into the 1930s, before a drought like few could remember gripped on for all it was worth, sparking what many now call the Dust Bowl years.

All these complications, combined, soon led many to take to the sky once again, and following the war, Uncle Sam did open up several of the old war planes to interested buyers here in the states.

They used them not to wage war like before, but this time, to make ends meet. The barnstormers—so called because it wasn’t uncommon to find those pilots of old, cozied up inside or next to their planes, soundly sleeping beneath her wings, beneath the shelter of some farmer’s barn, causing quite the stir when they fired up their props for takeoff come morning—made a mark all their own on a public in dire need of lifted spirits.

And what better way to accomplish that than aboard a plane, way up yonder?

If little else good came of such trips, they could at least count on collecting plenty of spare change. People would happily hand over their last dimes for just one shot at a ride or flying lesson. It may not be much, but it might buy fuel to the next stop, or equally important, a meal or two. And bit by bit, they slowly made their way across America, in just such a fashion.

Not surprising, nearly all the men who became our nation’s first astronauts can trace their first interests in aviation to just such a barnstormer visit when they were young.

Not surprising, either, it wasn’t long until Baker, his family and friends started calling the small outfit he put together inside one of the hangars out at Hallettsville’s Airport, the Texas Barnstormers Museum.

This is Baker’s second year of teaching the local aviation classes, one of several vocational offerings made available through Hallettsville High School’s growing curricula of CTE programs. Having built an interest in the subject at a young age, he had the good fortune of coming to know people who were willing to share with him what they knew, allowing him to soar high and fly among the eagles.

Today, he simply pays it forward, working with the kids he does, and if he says they’re a special bunch, well…

“Come to our 10th annual fly-in and barbecue and meet them yourself on Saturday, Oct. 19,” Baker said. “You’ll see what I mean.”