FAMILY OUTING
CAMPERS GET THE CHANCE TO OPERATE A FLIGHT SIMULATOR.
Lone Star Flight Museum’s camp for would-be pilots.
James Talmage says that girls are often more skilled than boys at taking apart airplane engines.
At Pilot Makers summer camp at the Lone Star Flight Museum, where he serves as vice president of education, “a lot of times they are showing the boys how to do it” during hands-on activities such as engine disassembly and modelbuilding.
The final camp this summer, open to kids ages 10-12, starts Aug. 11. Formatted like a beginner flight school, the session is limited to 10 children, with a mask requirement and on-site temperature checks.
This summer camp provides extra incentive, Talmage says. Although the museum is open to the public, due to health concerns, some of its interactive elements remain closed to visitors but are open to campers.
One of these is the bay of flight simulators, each housed in the nose of an airplane.
Campers get the chance to sit in the cockpit, moving real controllers, such as a yoke and throttle and operating rudder pedals, while watching their individual flight on the computer screen.
On another day, campers take apart a small engine down to its pistons to learn the mechanics of what makes a plane fly. They’ll also find out how a propeller works and delve into the basics of physics.
“It’s a good mix of a scientific foundation of really learning the concepts, then applying it to things that they build,” Talmage says.
Prepare to fly
Most campers arrive at camp with an interest in aviation, a passion for STEM, or both, Talmage says. Some come from households where a parent works for NASA or holds a military job at Ellington Airport, where the musepreflight um is located.
Throughout the week, kids will head to the learning lab to study how weather patterns affect flight. In the hangar, they’ll conduct a check.
They’ll also construct a balsa wood glider to take home. They’ll use the model plan to master balance and reduce drag.
A favorite activity is flying drones, which Talmage says is harder than it looks. Kids practice liftoff, flying through obstacles and making a loop before landing inside a hula hoop on the ground.
The museum, an inspiring setting for young learners, is home to roughly 25 historic, flight-worthy aircraft, including a restored B-17. There is almost always a plane undergoing maintenance or up on jacks for repair, Talmage says.
A new exhibit, “Fight to the Finish” chronicles the air battles of 1945, the final year of World War II.
Historic memorabilia on display include a collection of bomb pins loaned by a veteran who collected one from every mission he flew.
The exhibit, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the war’s conclusion, is a celebration of a generation, Talmage says. It teaches guests both about men who fought and the “incredibly important” role women played, building fighter planes and repairing aircraft throughout the war.
“They’re in their 90s,” Talmage says. “This is kind of the last big anniversary that they’re going to be with us.”
Living history
Kris Ornelas, who lives in Livingston, recently visited the museum with her children, Eliana, 10, and Rafael, 8.
Ornelas homeschools her children and says year-round museum visits are key to the family’s curriculum.
Eliana and Rafael are interested in all kinds of history, including military history, she says. Her husband and their father, Rob Ornelas, is retired from the Coast Guard.
She says her children walked around the museum in awe of how large the planes are. Her daughter particularly enjoyed a room that details women’s role in aviation history.
“That was a really big deal for her,” Ornelas says. “We do encourage girls a lot more in today’s society to study science, but really there’s not as many women as men in the profession.”
Seeing photographs of realworld women and reading their stories will make the lesson stick, she says.
“I think history just comes alive when you actually get a handson look, as opposed to just reading about it,” she says.