Erick writes:

Here are the last two Days of the Canarian Open 2012:

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

Day 6 - No Task

https://picasaweb.google.com/105386951176123199820/CanarianOpen2012Day6

The weather forecast is again very uncertain so we first go up Asomada. As soon
as we get to take-off, we notice that the clouds are already drifting west which
is not good as it means that there are big chances the we will get tailwind as
soon as the sun gets to the zenith.

As we start to rig up and Jean-Paul does a little flight with his Paraglider,
Juaki tells us to hold on for a while as the pilot's committee is discussing
what to do next. After a few mns and some phone calls, Juaki tells us that there
may be a chance for a task in Famara! We get quite excited about this, reload
quickly all the gliders on the vans and cars and take the road as fast as we
can.

As we get to the first Famara take-off on the ridge, it's tailwind. The view is
quite beautiful though and we stay there for a while hoping that the wind
direction changes. But it doesn’t and after about an hour, the day is finally
cancelled.

We end up driving up to another Famara take-off to see if it would be possible
to free fly. As we get to it and admire the amazing view of the island and the
ridge, we see a glider taking off from an improvised cliff to the north. The air
mass is not good, no dynamic nor convection and the glider sinks pretty fast and
goes for a straight landing. The scenery and landscape really is beautiful
though and we just enjoy it for a while taking pictures and filling our brains
with great images as memories in case we never get to fly there this year.

A late Spanish lunch/early French dinner is organized with most of the pilots in
a very nice restaurant in the middle of the salt march at Las Salinas at the
extreme south west part of the island. We get there a bit late for the beginning
of sunset; the view is beautiful, the food is good but the risotto a bit
salty…the bill too. But it was a nice moment altogether and yet another
opportunity to get to know each other and exchange contacts for future flight
opportunities. We then take advantage of the early hour to go back at the resort
earlier than usual and rest a bit in our rooms while others play some billiard.

Day 7 - Task 5

https://picasaweb.google.com/105386951176123199820/CanarianOpen2012Day7

The weather and wind direction just doesn't change as forecasted earlier this
week and the wind just doesn’t want to get N.W as needed to fly at Famara. So
here we go again to Mala for the last task. We get there before most other
pilots but much later than usual and the cloud coverage is about 80% and the
wind is about 20 degrees more North than usual so the dynamic lift is much
weaker than usual.

Most of us are not really motivated to fly given the conditions and the inertia
to unload the gliders is quite impressive. Guillaume who barely touched a rock
at landing yesterday, slightly fractured his base bar and cannot fly as the one
Juaki lent him doesn't fit and Christian's spare is too long ;o( Only Christian
seems to really wants to fly and carries his glider first. The other pilot's are
finally starting to show up which motivates us to finally carry our gliders and
harnesses.

We all rig up slowly and the now classical cat's cradle multi-waypoint task is
thrown but the window starts even later than usual with only three starts. Serge
decides not to do the task and takes off first and does our wind dummy. He goes
North towards the start a couple Kms further but just sinks the whole way and
lands in less than 10 mn. Christian takes-off among the firsts and I get stuck
with JM in front of me as we are prevented from taking off for quite a while as
there are too many pilots in weak conditions. Although Carlos who was behind us
is allowed and we don't really get why.

By the time take-off 're-opens', we have missed the first start, the shade is
all over the place. JM takes off when the cycle is still ok but I am not so
lucky and by the time i am airborne (after quite a bad take-off), I am stuck on
the ridge. Meanwhile the pilots who took-off earlier are thermaling behind at
the antenna till cloud base a bit over 800m and manage to do the start and the
first couple waypoints quite easily.

After doing windshield wipers for a long time while Gerard, JP, Dom and Pedro
are landing at the official LZ, I finally manage to grab a weak thermal which
finally brings me to a shy 450m. Not great but enough to finally take the last
start, turn B1 and B2 while JM and Christian turn B5.

Since i have never reached cloud base, I am stuck again on the ridge above
take-off for quite a long time while Yvan who landed first and went back up give
it another try. Christian is among the very few pilots who are high enough to be
able to leave after B5. The wind is strong but way too north to create dynamic
lift and the clouds are moving fast. I notice some parts getting sunny fairly
often as the clouds are moving fast but by the time I get to them, they are in
the shade already! By then, i have been in the air for about a couple hours and
I am far from enjoying myself trying to stay airborne, most of the group has
landed a while ago and is waiting for us to land so I decide to call it a day.
JM feels that he lacks some altitude to leave and comes in right after me.

No pilots at goal today, Benito lands at 10 Kms from it, Christian at Nazareth
at 4 Kms but wins the day for the flex and Carlos lands at 2 Kms and wins the
day for the rigids. Christian start to regret to have sold is Combat as he
finally got used to it.

Videos:

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaXpO1JDOjQ

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbiCQ_7yslI

Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-iSgghHWtE

Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLlf_iorFWw

See you next year for the 17th Edition of the Canarian Open de Lanzarote