We are excited and thankful to be able to bring Go Wheels Up! Texas back to the San Marcos Regional Airport on May 28th for its third iteration. This year looks a little different and we’re trying out some new elements we hope make the event bigger, better, and shine a brighter light on San Marcos and the airport.

As counterintuitive as it might seem, one of our growth strategies is taking the event from a two-day to a one-day show. After careful consideration, we decided a one-day event was more conducive to a better customer and participant experience because many exhibitors and vendors found it difficult to justify the second day, and we saw a much lower turnout for the car show. Those factors, along with low attendance on Sunday, as well as the significant cost saving that could be realized with a one-day over a multi-day event, led us to the conclusion that Sunday’s juice just wasn’t worth the squeeze.

This year’s airshow will feature the USAF A-10 Thunderbolt II Demonstration Team, with plenty of pyrotechnics to wow the crowd. We’ve also invited Aftershock! A jet-powered vintage fire truck. We’ll see the incredible aerobatics skills of Adam Baker, Spanky Gallaway and the Shetterly Squadron, and the Central Texas Wing of the Commemorative Air Force will show off That’s All Brother and Yellow Rose along with a slew of other warbirds from their stable.

We’ve made one big change to our car show format this year… we’ve made it FREE to participants. With this change, we expect a much larger turnout and look forward to seeing a wonderful array of classic and exotic automobiles. Our goal with the car show, along with the event as a whole, is to turn it into a Memorial Day tradition where car lovers from all over the state come to enjoy a show unlike any other in the country.

As an addition to the car show, we’re trying something completely new this year: an airplane show. If you or anyone you know has a unique, vintage, or otherwise noteworthy airplane, either on the field at HYI or within flying distance, we would love for you to put it one display with us! We’ll even throw in two VIP tickets for your trouble. The airplane needs to be in-place by 0900 Saturday morning, and stay until 1800, but you get to show off your plane to thousands of aviation enthusiasts and maybe even make a friend or two. Please email me at clayton@vast.events if you’re interested. We have room for twenty aircraft, so let me know soon if you’re interested.

Set up for the event will start midweek, on or about May 24th or 25th. Some tenting structures may begin construction then, but we don’t anticipate construction to begin in earnest until the 26th, with the majority of it happening on the 27th, including fencing. It’s our goal to be as unobtrusive as possible to normal airport operations throughout the entire event. That being our goal, there will be a few times where that’s simply not possible.

Runway 8-26 will be closed beginning Thursday, May 26, and a TFR will be in-place over the airport both Friday the 27th and Saturday the 28th from 1430-1730 local. Friday’s TFR will accommodate airshow practice and Saturday the actual event. You can still fly into the airport during this time, but you will be greeted on the radio by our Air Boss and worked into the pattern in a manner that puts the safety of the participating airshow pilots first. During the event itself, starting at 1000 and ending at 1800, once arriving traffic leaves the active runway, they will be handed off to a volunteer ground controller and directed to parking. These volunteers are experienced pilots and know the airport well, so there’s no gap in safety, we just didn’t feel it to be appropriate to ask the contract controllers to handle festival traffic.

Another new element this year is the addition of an early-morning 5K runway run. The run benefits local charities and starts at 0830. The route starts on Taxiway Charlie at Taxiway Echo, and turns left onto Taxiway Alpha. It proceeds west on Alpha, turning right at the end, crossing the west end of Runway 8-26 and joining Taxiway Juliet. Runners then proceed northeast, crossing the end of 13-31, until the bend where Juliet turns due east. The route then doubles back and turns left down Runway 13 and ends at the Taxiway Echo intersection. Runway 13-31 will be NOTAM closed during the run, leaving only Runway 17-35 available. Large high-visibility runway markers will be placed on the runway until everyone is clear, at which time the runway will be reopened. All aircraft traffic will be guided around the runners by ground control to and from Runway 17-35.

For the honor of holding the event at your airport, we are extending free general admission tickets to any pilots based at HYI. To claim them, simply go to our website: http://gowheelsup.live, and proceed as though you are purchasing a ticket. At checkout, you’ll be prompted to enter a promo code. Enter HYI100 and claim your ticket(s). We are placing 200 in cue for this code, so don’t hesitate to get yours.

If you are a business on the field; flight school, maintenance facility or otherwise, your booth space in the event is completely free. Please reach out to clayton@vast.events and me know what you need in terms of space. We can’t provide tenting, but we are providing electricity. We look forward to hosting you.

From the bottom of our hearts, Cory Morrow and I, along with our team at Vast Concerts and Events, would like to extend our deepest gratitude for allowing us to produce our event at your airport. We understand it can be a bit of an inconvenience, but our goal is to benefit the airport and the community at-large and present everyone involved with an unforgettable time. If the weather cooperates, we expect between 10,000 and 15,000 patrons. We hope you and your family are among them!

Blue skies!

Clayton Corn
Maestro of Mayhem
Go Wheels Up! Texas