Go Wheels Up! brings awe-inspiring air show to San Marcos

Sierra Martin | Managing Editor

SAN MARCOS — Cory Morrow’s Go Wheels Up! took place at the San Marcos Regional Airport on Saturday, May 28, and featured a Car Show, Air Show and live music festival.

This year, the main attraction at the Air Show was a USAF A-10 Thunderbolt II, which demonstrated fast aerial maneuvers and impressive speed to the onlookers attending the event. Pyrotechnics were also set off throughout the Thunderbolt’s flight to simulate how the U.S. Air Force plane assists troops in ground defense.

The pilot of the Thunderbolt, who goes by “Gator,” has seven years of experience flying the aircraft and said the most exciting and rewarding part of flying the Thunderbolt is that its purpose is to take care of the men and women on the ground. 

Gator has also been enjoying his current assignment of flying the Thunderbolt at air shows across the country and said that his team always says, “Texas never disappoints,” and has enjoyed attending Go Wheels Up! 

“It’s a lot of fun to go to some smaller towns that don’t have any sort of military presence out there, and you bring these cool airplanes out and [for] folks that never get to see them up close or anything like that,” said Gator.

Gator said he enjoys seeing people’s excitement after watching the Thunderbolt fly. Several former serviceman approached him after the air show to thank him for being a Thunderbolt pilot, and said seeing the aircraft fly reminded them of the support and protection they received from the plane while overseas. 

“It’s pretty awesome to come out to air shows like this and get people excited about aviation. Get the kids excited about aviation and excited about military aviation,” said Gator.

Aftershock, a vintage fire truck outfitted with three jet engines, raced around the airport runway and displayed its 36,000 horsepower, allowing it to reach over 350 mph. 

Other aerobatic skills featured in the air show include Adam Baker, Spanky Gallaway and the Shetterly Squadron. The Central Texas Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, stationed at the San Marcos Regional Airport, also flew the C-47/DC-3 airplane That’s All Brother, which led the main airborne invasion of Normandy on D-Day in 1944.

The event began on Saturday morning with Coach’s Big High 5K at the Runway. Various vendors served food throughout the event, as those attending admired the planes and automobiles on display.

The music festival was headlined by country music singer Cory Morrow and also featured Gunnar Latham, Eric Tessmer, Montclair, Kyle Hutton and Ben Cleary.

During the Air Show, it was announced that 2022 was the final year the event will be called Go Wheels Up! The memorial day event will be named Red Wild & Blue in the future.