Pioneer Flight Museum

Pit Stop San Antonio!

If you are driving to San Antonio from Houston and you happen to have children, you will probably stop. Here’s something different – the Pioneer Flight Museum. It’s a small museum with a neat collection that goes back to when the era of flight began to early WWII. You can definitely see some unique planes here!

I know! It’s only a 3-hour drive. But, ‘ya know, kids, bladders, yadda, yadda, yadda.

I feel confident in saying most people automatically think: Buckee’s, Luling! It’s just far enough away to warrant a stop and still far enough from San Antonio that you can’t really justify powering through if someone needs to use the facilities. And, Buckee’s is a Mecca. It is everything you want in a pit stop (Beaver nuggets and clean bathrooms) – except for all the people (dang, there sure can be a lot of people!) and it’s on the wrong side of the highway (y’all know what I mean – no left turns!).

If you are looking for something a little different but still involves a bathroom break I highly recommend the Pioneer Flight Museum. It is easy to miss. In fact, unless you are looking for it, you will miss it. Not because you blink, but because there are no signs. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Nada. Nothing on the highway saying, “Exit here for the Pioneer Flight Museum.” Nothing on the road leading to it. Not even a little sign with an arrow. Nope. Fortunately, Google Maps has no problem finding it. Just plug in the Old Kingsbury Aerodrome and poof you will arrive. There is a sign for the Aerodrome.

When you drive in on to the road leading to the Aerodrome the road will fork and again no clear signage here. We chose to veer left because we saw people that way. Those people were some really nice guys who had just gotten done flying their RC planes. They also kindly informed us the museum was closed!

Now, this was entirely my own fault because I failed to do two things:

Tell basic time. On the website, it says normal hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 AM to 2PM. We arrived at 2:30 PM. To which I told my husband weird it said on the website it was open until 2 PM and he replied, “It’s 2:30 PM.” Umm, …oops?
Call in advance. Now, I don’t think you need to do so if you arrive during operating hours but I get the impression this would be a good idea either way. The website suggests calling to make an appointment for a tour and I’m going to recommend calling in advance, just in case, it seems like that kind of place.

However, it wasn’t a total wash for us. Since we were only a little late the garage that houses the old vehicles was still open and so were their newly built restroom facilities. The facilities are much like you would find at a state park – fully constructed but open around the top, no A/C. They were quite clean. There is also a lot of room for the wee ones to run a bit of energy out.

It is a really nice little facility and if you are really interested in aviation history I would recommend looking into attending their big annual event the Fall Fly-In! This annual event is held in November and they actually fly some of the very old planes and several car clubs drive in and put their cars on display. Additionally, there are re-enactors that will set up camp life as experienced in the early 20th century. As well as some weapons and equipment displays.

Why You Should Stop Here:

Clean restrooms
Room for the kids to run
You may see actual airplanes flying or at least RC ones
The museum of planes, cars, and more from the era of when flight began to early WWII
FREE, but donations are appreciated