The road to launch is terrible and we get Lucas Bader to drive up Roger Nelson, Brett Hazlett and myself to launch in his four wheel drive. Along they way we pass a car that can gashed a hole in it's fuel tank. Apparently Lucas helps tow the car down after dropping us off at launch. Some other pilots have hired the local bus company to take them to launch in their four wheel drive van. With fifty pilots making the cut, there is still plenty of room on Emu 1 launch.
Conditions look good with light thermals coming in at launch.
We are concerned a bit about the forecasted inversions and the high winds. The task is 40 kilometers north down the valley to Gundowring North back to Running Creek turnpoint across the valley, and then to Mt. Beauty airport. I'm able to work it up 1000 feet while everyone else gets below launch out in the front of EMU 2. They finally find something and I join them as we climb is broken lift for another 1000 feet. We find another thermal that turns out to be very smooth and climb almost to 8000 feet drifting east back over the ridge line at about 4000'.