Erick writes:

Links to the results on the blog also:

http://world-phoenix.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/canarian-open-2012-lanzarotte.html

Day 4 – Task 3

https://picasaweb.google.com/105386951176123199820/CanarianOpen2012Day4

About 15 Knots Mala's Take-off for yet another Cat's Craddle task with the
goal Playa Quemada. The sky is quite cloudy and it seems that the convection
will shut down early again.

At the briefing, Juaki puts me on the spot for flying over the airport's CTR but
luckily, I was inside for only a few meters so I don't get 0 for the task like
the previous day ;o( I finally found a field on my Compeo showing the distance
to the CTR ;o)

Christian and I finally manage to take-off 15mns before the first start and get
to cloud base almost straight away in the gaggle with Juaki and the Spanish top
guns. We are waiting for the first start to open while Guillaume finally
takes-off and catches up with us as the start opens. We do the first couple
waypoints quite fast until I make the bad choice of not catching the next one
straight away. I end up stuck in weak dynamic while the cycle is dead because of
the shade.

Jean-Pierre and Gerard land at the official lz quite early. Then Serge who broke
his harness has to land B4, followed right after by Guillaume and JM after
turning B5.

I will be stuck for about 40mns with Christian, sometimes low on the ridge in
the middle of all the free flyers and other competitors when I finally catch my
best thermal of the day, quickly reaching 900m with Dom. Everybody is in the
same thermal and we find it quite stressful as the locals fly with no security
margins.

But at last, I finally get to leave for the antennas. The first part of the
transition is very smooth but I quickly get into some -2, then over -3. I get
there below 400m. The sky is shut, the convection is dead again, and being in
between cycles with no dynamic to keep me airborne, I have to land on my way to
next waypoint while Pedro does his best task yet and the first 3 or 4 waypoints
and Dom & Christian who are now in a better cycle get to the antennas much
higher and are able to get behind and reach the windmills high enough to
continue to the next waypoint.

Dom finally lands 2Kms short from B7 and Christian a couple Kms after with most
of the Spanish top guns and Bernard. Only one pilot at goal today: Carlos!

Day 5 – Task 4

https://picasaweb.google.com/105386951176123199820/CanarianOpen2012Day5#

Today, the weather forecast makes it difficult for the organizers to decide what
to do but finally, the East wind regime motivate the task committee to change
site and we all drive up to Osomada which we are all excited about as we are a
bit tired of going to fly to Mala. We have been waiting for some North West wind
to fly in Famara but the forecast keeps changing and that won’t be for today ;o(

By the time we get to take-off, the sky is already overcastted with about 85%
cloud coverage and not much wind which means that we won’t be able to count on
dynamic to stay airborne and a few pilots decide not to rig up Well, it’s a new
take-off with the National Park with all the volcanoes just behind (Forbiden CTR)
and I’d like to get some footage with the GoPros so I get motivated plus, I
already got 0 points at the first task so I might as well fly if I don’t want to
get far behind.

Yet another Cat’s Craddle Zig-Zag task of 46Kms is thrown but it doesn’t seem
doable and by the time we take off around 2pm, there is very little convection
nor dynamic and it gets quickly overcrowded in front of the take-off. We are
about 40 Pilots to not even make the start and only Carlos and a couple other
pilots get to turn a couple waypoints which make very little distances for the
scoring. We all land close to or at Quemada Playa but Katarina hurts her ankle
apparently pretty badly at landing because of the down slope of the field that
you couldn’t really see from above. I land just after her and with her glider
still in the middle on the nose, I have to change my bearing and land luckily
very well in the middle of rocks and bushes.I announce the down slope on the
radio to Sergio who comes in right behind me; he throws his chute and lands like
a butterfly.

We then help Katarina with a couple Swiss pilots to fold her glider and get her
some help from some German friends who were still at take-off. Let’s hope that
it is not so bad. Nives gets to us first, Then Lucile who just picked up Gerard
who did manage to do the start by grabbing the last thermal of the day. I finish
packing in a hurry as some rain drops start to fell and we quickly go pick up
the rest of the boys…

The task committee ends up giving all the pilots the minimum points for the task
(besides for Carlos, Esteban, Jorge and Benito who get a bit more) and we all
get to go back at the resort much earlier than usual without having to get to
Lolita’s to unload our traces. We finish the day in a very nice typical Spanish
restaurant in St Bart. Thanks to Bernard and Gwen who called me to ask if we
wanted to join them for this last dinner together as they are leaving tomorrow
back for Spain ;o( The food was really good: Pretty much all you could eat
Gambas, Octopus, Meat and Veggies with some Tinto for some and Tinto Verano for
others.