Results:
https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/results

It was all blue at 1 PM so we held back on the launch half an
hour. Just a cu or two, small and very scattered at 1:30 PM, but it was possible
to get up in the blue. I notice half a dozen pilots had to relaunch. Dave
Proctor landed on the as yet uncompleted freeway that goes around Big Spring to
the south.

As the 2:50 PM clock approached a bunch of us were almost to ten thousand feet
under a tiny flat cu. It stopped five minutes before the start window opened so
we lost 1,000' before heading out to the northwest. There were cu's ahead and we
headed for them.

We could see further off to the west between us and the turnpoint 60 km away
that the ground was shaded and there looked like there might be rain. As we got
closer to the shade it was clear that there was rain and it looked like it was
at the turnpoint and to its south a ways.

I was working weak lift in the shade and slowly drifting toward the turnpoint. I
had got out in front early but was now very concerned about the rain. The air
was pleasant though to the east of the rain so I just hung in light lift low as
I approached the turnpoint. I watched the wall of rain for half an hour hoping
that it would let up and let us through.

Two kilometers out I was in the light rain at the northern edge of the wall and
going up at 600 fpm. It was pleasant enough and smooth and the rain was not bad.
I wanted to get high enough to make the turnpoint and then get back under the
rain cloud to the north where there might be light rain and lift again, but I
was drifting north past the turnpoint at 6,000' so I had to stop climbing and
tag it.

Once I headed right for it to the west the rain increased greatly and I was in
the down air going down at 1,200 fpm on the twenty second averager. I raced to
the point in rowdy air and then turned to run away as fast as possible falling
out of the sky. Made it a few kilometers but not too far and landed in a nice
big field in the gust front from the rain.

Turns out that the task was stopped three minutes after I landed. My radio
wasn't working so I was unaware that Zac had contacted Belinda and said it was
unsafe. She contacted other pilots and decided to stop the task at 4:14.
Timothy, scoring the task, took the time back one time interval (half an hour on
this task) and so the scoring was stopped at 3:44. When I called Belinda to tell
her about the rain an the gust front she was already calling drivers to tell
their pilots that the task was stopped.

Timothy and I had a nerve wracking time figuring out how to score a stopped task
in FS. It ain't what you think it is. They apologize for their method, which
doesn't actually work.

A wall of rain at a turnpoint makes for an exciting task. Hopefully that is our
only encounter with one of those this week.