Erick writes:

Blog updated with the posts, pictures and results for the first 2
tasks:

http://world-phoenix.blogspot.com.es/

The details:

Day 0 – Road + Boat Trip

https://picasaweb.google.com/105386951176123199820/CanarianOpen2012RoadTrip

Day 1 – No Task

35 Knots of North East. The day is not taskable so with most of the frenchies,
we decide to drive around the island to check the various take offs and landings
available to us. We drive up to the famous Famara ridge where the kiters and
surfers down the beach are enjoying themselves. It's beautiful but doesn't seem
safe to get airborne.

Day 2 – Task 1

https://picasaweb.google.com/105386951176123199820/CanarianOpen2012Day2

Briefing 10 am Lolita's. The HQ! About 20 knots at Mala's take-off. Unusual
scenery in front of our eyes while we rig up the gliders. 40 pilots registered
for the 2012 edition. Juaki told me while we were still in Cadiz that the Euro
crisis is preventing the usual Austrian and other pilots from coming this year.

A Cat's cradle task of 37K and 8 waypoints is called. Most of us take off quite
late as we are not ready early enough. I take the 2nd start and work my way
through the first couple waypoints fairly easily as many pilots including Juaki
are landing quite early just below. It seems that it pays to be conservative.

It's weird to fly with so many gliders in such a confined ridge and so much
wind. We need to be very careful especially with the few free fliers that just
do dynamic zig zags on the ridge without really paying attention.

Noise on the radio frequency make it very annoying to stay on the radio and
while Guillaume switches it off very early, I try to stay on until it drives me
crazy after about 45 minutes of not hearing my vario. The head wind is quite
strong and I see a major difference during the transitions with the other pilots
with more recent gliders.

Pedro, Dom and JP are going for a 'warmup' flight to get used to the area while
I land just after Gerard on the way to B7. I should have landed in the same
field as I end up way too low to make it back to the official LZ and I have to
'land' tail wind in a very bushy field. Luckily, no harm done to me nor the
glider!

Serge and JM land a bit further also on the way to B7 while Guillaume is the
only French flex to make it to goal with Bernard with his VR and a couple
Spanish pilots including Carlos who wins the day!

Interesting day altogether because I am learning a lot as the playground is a
bit tricky with all the CTRs and altitude restrictions. Overall, we are 22
pilots getting penalties for climbing over the 900m limit ranging from 50m for
me to over 300m for the winner of the day, Gerard. We will try to be more
careful tomorrow.

Day 3 – Task 2

https://picasaweb.google.com/105386951176123199820/CanarianOpen2012Day3

We drive up to Mala’s Take-off for the second task as the wind is still
North-East. Still about 20 Knots. Another 8 waypoints Cat’s Craddle task is
called but with 52K and the goal at Playa Quemada, we will get to cross and
visit most of the island. During the briefing, Gerard gets a full round of
applause for his ‘300m over’ from the day before and we all get the penalties
that we fully deserve even though most of us really didn’t do it on purpose.
It’s difficult to climb today and after the start and B1, I spend over 1.5 hours
trying to get some altitude to go do the necessary zig zags for the next 5
waypoints.

Even more radio noise today so mine is shut off most of the time except to
announce each waypoint that I turn so the Lucile who does our retrieve knows how
far I am on the task. I finally get a good thermal with Gerard while Andre,
Pedro and Jean-Pierre land after a little local flight and Serge lands after B5.
We finally turn B6 after a good couple hours of flight with Gerard and we leave
for B7 with Dom just a bit behind. JM lands like yesterday on his way to B7 and
Christian and Guillaume land right after while Gerard, Dom and I fly over them.
Dom, who left B6 much lower than us has to land a bit further while Ge and I are
drifting on the flatland in a little 0.5 thermal.

We are about 20 Kms from goal when Gerard and I split. He goes North while I
continue towards the goal more South, stupidly following my GPS and not paying
attention to the Arrecife’s Airport’s TMA (I am not really used to pay attention
to that kind of stuff). After a few kms, my compeo is singing like I am at goal
but I am not so I don’t understand. After a few mns of trying to understand what
is going on, I finally do after seeing a couple big carriers take-off from the
airport that the sound is telling me about the airport’s CTR. I get so confused
that I completely lose concentration and land just before the village of Ciume.
I am at 12 Kms from Goal and Gerard at 11Kms!

I will know tomorrow if I was indeed too much in the CTR or not. Meanwhile, it
was a nice flight. Carlos, whom lands with Bernard at 4kms from Goal and knows
the area will tell me later at I should have went North of the volcano’s peak
where we split with Gerard and not south (Lee-side). Gerard will ‘tell’ me the
same a bit later at the HQ!

Finally, there are 7 pilots at goal and Juaki almost won the day by landing
first only 2Kms away! I am really impressed by this pilot who is also the meet
director and so efficient at it too!