Houston, Texas

Events Scrapbook

The morning of the 17th started early for the
squadron.  It was the 100 year anniversary of powered
flight and we had a lot to celebrate and a lot of flying to
do.  Jeff Bertsch was lead for the day and conducted
the flight briefing.  Shortly thereafter  we departed
Houston's Ellington Field as a flight of six.

We quickly rendezvoused a few miles north and
configured into an arrow formation.  After a photo pass
over the San Jacinto Monument, we paraded south to
NASA's Johnson Space Center where spectators were
waiting.  We held the arrow for the first pass then
formed a wedge for a second pass. Now it was time to
head northwest to meet with Stu McCurdy's Falcons for
a Centennial Flight over the Texas State Capital
Building in Austin.

We met the Falcon team and other participants in San
Marcus and had time to pose for pictures. The four
major TV channels and a newspaper covered the
Austin event.  After a briefing from Stu and a formation
takeoff, we were now a flight of 27; 10 RV's, Mustang II,
and a T-18 made up the leading 12 aircraft followed by
formations of 6 Bonanzas, 4 Warbirds, 4 singles, and a
photo plane with a TV video photographer.

Lone Star Squadron joined up with Falcon Flight and
configured into the shape of a canard airplane to
represent the Wright Flyer. The "Centennial Flight"
then made its way up Congress Avenue and over the
Capital making the 12:35 TOT exactly. The flight
continued another 10 miles before splitting up. The
squadron was again a flight of six as we made our way
back to Houston feeling that we had well celebrated
the100th Anniversary of the first powered flight.

An element of the Squadron in cross country formation
over downtown Houston, Texas 17 Dec 2003