http://soaringspot.com/2010bsn/

Sunday was the first day of the 2010 US Nationals, taking place this year at Big
Spring, Texas. The cu's started popping at 9 AM, which is not a great sign,
because it indicates the possibility of over development. The National Weather
Service indicated that there was a front right over us that would stall, with a
10% change of isolated thunderstorms. But the XCSkies NAM forecast was for
strong lift and a high cloud base going from 7,000' up to 10,000' later in the
day. The winds were supposed to be 14 knots out of the southeast.

The task committee called a dog leg task to Lamesa airfield, seventy kilometers
to the north northwest, and then northeast, cross wind, to Garza, 143 km. The
Sport Class only had to get to Lamesa.

Mark Bolt was first to launch, and I third, after the launch crew found that
Patrick Halfhill didn't have his leg loops buckled. Russell Brown towed me up to
1,800' AGL in bouncy air before the core seemed good enough to stay in. I pinned
off and climbed to 7,600' 4 kilometers west of the Big Spring airfield in an
eight mph southeast wind.

Given the wind, and our first turnpoint to the north northwest I decided that it
would be a fine idea to head east to get under some of the good looking clouds
in that direction and get upwind of the course line. I made it over to the town
of Big Spring. I went under plenty of cu's, but the lift was quite weak over
there and I finally had to leave the start cylinder, alone, at a little after
the 2 PM race start time, at about 5,500'.

No one had joined me in my tactic to get upwind of the course line and under the
better looking cu's. Of course, they looked good but did little. So now I was
out on my own.

I headed for a small building cu on the course line three kilometers past the
five kilometer start cylinder and was rewarded with better lift, 400 fpm. This
got me back to over 7,000' and on my way. The wind was 13 mph out of the east
southeast, a quartering tail wind.

I took a more northerly route attempting to stay upwind of the course line. I
saw Rodrigo de Obeso climbing about five kilometers west (downwind) of me with
an ATOS and a couple of flex wings. These were the first pilots I had seen since
heading east from the airfield while still in the start cylinder.

A little south of Ackerly, half way to Lamesa, I hooked up with Rodrigo just
upwind of the course line. Zac Majors was way below us running fast but very
soon landing. The wind continued strong out of the east southeast as we worked
various clouds heading north northwest. It was pretty much a cross wind leg.

Ten kilometers south of Lamesa Rodrigo spotted either Jim Yocom or Campbell
Bowen climbing from below us fast, but when we got there we couldn't find it
below him (as he was above us by the time we got there). The ATOS pilot headed
downwind high and I followed him as Rodrigo headed toward the turnpoint. I found
the lift under the circling ATOS pilot and Rodrigo came back to me as we drifted
downwind away from the turnpoint.

But we were able to climb to over 7,000', so it was well worth it. I headed out
with Rodrigo off to the side and then found even better lift toward the
turnpoint and gliding northeast, climbing to 7,800'. I continued on toward the
turnpoint and it was tough going at times with all the cross wind. Rodrigo had
shaded a bit to my right but was basically following behind.

I got the turnpoint at 5,800' and headed east. While the clouds looked like what
we had seen on the first leg, I didn't find any lift. Rodrigo was less than 200'
over me when I landed, and there wasn't a puff of air in the field, but somehow
he found a quiet thermal and climbed out. It was ten or fifteen minutes later
that he came back now high and worked it again before going on.

No one made goal. Larry Bunner was first, Rodrigo second and I was third for the
day. You can see the results for all three classes at the link at
the top of the article.

There was a cu-nimb over Big Spring at about 6:30, lasting for about an hour or
two. It did drop a bit of rain on the town. We saw one other cu-nimb late in the
day out toward goal.