The Nicholson Air Service Flight School operated in the Cumberland Airport’s original administration building, which is now occupied by the Civil Air Patrol Squadron. The CAP had occupied this building previously but was evicted when Nicholson saw the need for the location of his Flight School. With the numerous personnel associated with the flight school, Dale Nicholson saw the need to have an on airport facility to provide food for his pilots, students, and visiting aviators. Accordingly, the Barnstormer Restaurant came into existence. This was an ideal situation, especially for the Scandinavian students. The old administrative building was large enough to provide classrooms and briefing cubicles for the flight school’s training endeavors and at the same time could accommodate a small lunch counter with a few tables for food service.
The Barnstormer Restaurant served a highly useful purpose as a lunch counter and food service facility for several years. In addition to the flight school personnel, the restaurant became a popular lunch gathering location for many of the local aviation oriented folks. Many of these local pilots, or other aviation oriented individuals, would be frequent visitors to the Barnstormer. Some made it a daily stop, to have a bite to eat and exchange stories (some may say lies), and to do a bit of hangar flying.
After the demise of Nicholson Air Service, an attempt was made to continue the operation of the Barnstormer Restaurant. But those attempts proved unsuccessful and in 1990 the service was discontinued to the dismay of many who had gotten so familiar with the gathering site for a multitude of aviators.
A portion of the signage that existed for the Barnstormer Restaurant.
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Wings Over Cumberland 