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The Squadron's first organized events were held in April 1992, a fly-in (held
two days after the Charter was received from CAF Headquarters) and
a hangar dance. The
fly-in was repeated in March 1993. From 1994 to the present we have sponsored
the Bluebonnet
Air Show in concert with the Burnet's Bluebonnet Festival the second
weekend in April.
Initially the Squadron had no aircraft assigned although the B-25 Yellow
Rose was in our hangar for our first Hangar Dance. The first aircraft based
in our Hangar was a red Stearman owned by Larry Lorenzo. This plane was restored and flown by Lefty Gardner. The second was the CAF's P-40. The P-40 is the aircraft that appears on the squadron logo that was used until the current logo featuring the C-47 was adopted. A L-5, later sold, was the next aircraft. Then came a P-51 owned by Lefty Gardner and the CAF's founder, Lloyd Nolan.
The famous P-38 "White Lighning" owned by Lefty Gardner arrived in 1993. This
aircraft was based here until a 2002 accident resulted in
significant damage to the aircraft. In 2003 the P-38 was removed from
our hangar and eventually sold to an Austrian company. Other privately
owned aircraft that were based here were Stearmans (PT-13) and a PT-19.
The L-5 currently based in our Hangar are privately owned.
The other aircraft in our Hangar, the L-17, AT-6/SNJ, PT-19, and C-47, are owned by the CAF. The L-17 was the first Squadron airplane. We obtained it from another CAF Squadron in 1996. The C-47 was purchased from a private operator in 2002 and restored by us over a two year period. The PT-19 was on static display at CAF Headquarters in Midland, TX until we moved it to Burnet for restoration in 2005. The SNJ, while owned by the CAF, is operated by a sponsor group. It was restored, primarily by a Squadron member, and moved here in 2005. More information on the planes currently in our Hangar is available on their web pages on this site.
Artifacts on display in our Museum were obtained from numerous sources and the collection is continuing to expand. Most have a local and personal flavor having been donated by veterans or their families from the Burnet and Marble Falls, TX area. These include artifacts from a P-38 pilot who served in New Guinea, from a B-17 gunner and engineer who flew 35 missions over occupied Europe, from a B-17 Navigator who was shot down and spent 18 months in a German prisoner-of-war camp, from a B-17 co-pilot who flew 30 missions over Europe, from a B-24 gunner, the brother of our founder, who did not return from a mission he volunteered for after his tour of duty was over, and a German test pilot. Most of WW-II gun and knife collection we exhibit was originally assembled by Col. Bill Pair. After Col. Pair's death his collection was purchased by the Pilots Auxiliary, a temporary sub-group of the Highland Lakes Squadron, and then donated to us.
In addition to staffing the Museum and contributing tourist dollars to the Burnet economy, several times we have made flights for the Burnet County Sheriff's Department and rescue agencies.
We have no paid personal. All flying, maintenance, and the operation of the Museum is performed by volunteers. In addition to appearance fees obtained by our historic aircraft, the Squadron is financed by contributions, our motorcycle raffle, and PX sales. The latter are principally general military service mementos, calendars, models, dog tags, and metal pictures. Our dog tag machine was procured by Col. George Taylor from an Austin Department store where it had sat gathering dust and rust for more than 10 years. Col. Taylor partially rehabilitated the machine so it was a useful revenue producer. In late 2006 the machine received a complete restoration and now functions as it did during the War years. (This is a mixed blessing. The operator can no longer blame the machine for typing errors.)
Squadron membership currently exceeds 100 members.
The Squadron is planning for future growth. In addition to recruiting additional members we are investigating the possibility of displaying and restoring additional aircraft and have plans in place to expand the Museum and the Hangar.
Throughout our history support by the City of
Burnet
cannot be overstated. Without that support we would not have been organized originally and could not continue to exist in our current form.
How to find us:
By auto:
We are located at the Burnet Airport (BMQ) one mile Southwest of the city on Hwy 281
2402 South Water Street
Burnet, TX 78611.
By plane:
BMQ is on the 182 radial of the Lampasas VOR (LZZ, 112.5 MHz) at 27.3 nm.
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