At Sunrise

[Dave]

[URL="http://[IMG]http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah301/Davidmhoran/image.jpg1_zpswwodvszq.jpg[/IMG]"]http://[/URL][IMG]http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah301/Davidmhoran/image.jpg1_zpswwodvszq.jpg[/IMG]

[Dave]

[URL="http://[IMG]http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah301/Davidmhoran/image.jpg2_zpssmyefmso.jpg[/IMG]"]http://[/URL][IMG]http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah301/Davidmhoran/image.jpg2_zpssmyefmso.jpg[/IMG]

[Dave]

[URL="http://[IMG]http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah301/Davidmhoran/image.jpg1_zpse6jqiary.jpg[/IMG]"]http://[/URL][IMG]http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah301/Davidmhoran/image.jpg1_zpse6jqiary.jpg[/IMG]

[Dave]

[URL="http://[IMG]http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah301/Davidmhoran/image.jpg2_zpsm5tmvmax.jpg[/IMG]"]http://[/URL][IMG]http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah301/Davidmhoran/image.jpg2_zpsm5tmvmax.jpg[/IMG]

[Dave]

As a "guest" of the Newbie 10+ drive today I will keep my observations short and honest. Hopefully I will not come across as too critical. After all, I must remind myself this was a Newbie drive.

My first observation, or lack of, was the sunrise! Unlike the title of today's drive, due thick fog the sky was completely obscured till at least 7am. Visibility was down under 100m as we drove to Badayer shops. Not a very pleasant start to my Friday morning. For obvious reasons the start was delayed around 45 minutes. @alshamsi_m decided to lead initially and once all the fog had cleared @Yoghybear would take over. We were about 14 cars in total of which 7-8 were newbie, a few Intermediate or Advanced and the 3 Marshals.

We we got of to a relatively poor start as we climbed the first bigger dunes behind the shops. As it was a +10 drive @alshamsi_m took a more difficult route to reflect this. However immediately the weakest link was identified. Not through driver skill as such but lack of horsepower. Some cars on the trip were much better suited than others and this was obvious from the start.

Horsepower aside we still had a very slow pace as we attempted to get beyond 500m of the shops. Too many second, third and more attempts at climbing up the relatively steep and soft initial dunes. After a little questioning it was clear some drivers had far from the correct tyre pressure for the soft and warm conditions. After 10 or more drives I would have thought this simple preparation would be second nature. As we had almost an hours wait by the shops for the fog to clear there was plenty of time to prepare.

As the target time of finish was 9am and the pace being more stop than start we struggled to get far into the Badayer dunes. I am not sure how many second attempts were made along the track but that's irrelevant as we all have to learn. What was absent was communicating this as almost always this information was transmitted by an observer. With cars coming over crests without realising there was trouble ahead we compounded the slow pace as cars were stopping in inappropriate positions and getting stuck as a result. Again compounding our forward progress.

To be fair, the conditions were tough today. Soft sand. Warm air. Poor visibility. As a result every box was ticked. Pop out. Stuck. Second and more try's. As I stated from the start I can't be too critical of this level. What I can say is many here today have still a lot to learn before they are prepared to join the Intermediate level. But practice does make us better at most skills and for sure the determination was present in most. It's just a matter of time.

Thanks for having me in your convoy today. Except for the fog delaying our start I still enjoyed being out on the dunes amongst friends and Almost club members.

[matts]

Good Afternoon All,

Firstly [MENTION=8472]Dave[/MENTION] those are great pictures, and secondly I think your comments are spot on, even after [MENTION=27]alshamsi_m[/MENTION] specifically commented about radio communication being the key, it was very quiet on the radio.

The conditions were tough but as usual most of the issues came from not quite judging the distance to the car in front correctly, you have to give yourself enough of a gap so that if you have to stop when they don't clear that crest you are left somewhere where you can still get sufficient momentum to clear it. Everyone has there different styles which can make this even harder to judge, we saw this today with the contrast between [MENTION=27]alshamsi_m[/MENTION] 'surprise / pause and sprint style of lead' and [MENTION=1633]Yoghybear[/MENTION]s consistently fast 'ridge riding' style.

I don't have much else to add really, when we were rolling I really enjoyed the pace but we did have quite a bit of waiting today. I learn something on every trip and as long as we are all doing that we'll get faster and more proficient as a group as well as individuals.

Thanks to the Marshals and Int/Adv for shepherding us through today. According to my GPS we cover a breathtaking, 14.6km, and there was me worrying about having missed the petrol station in the fog...

Cheers all!

[orlantsev]

[MENTION=8472]Dave[/MENTION] - fully agree. Driving back home I thought of something. I still remember driving with some of the Intermediates when they were still Newbies. It has been a few months we mostly drive in different groups and today was one of the rare occasions we were again re-united. If you look at the statistics I think every Newbie had some sort of a problem (i.e. I had to do few second tries; and apologies for not recognizing those who did not as I may have missed something). The 'former' Newbies and 'recent' Intermediates I think did not have any of that. So to somebody not familiar with the driving in the desert the difference may not be very obvious, but it hard to argue against the statistics.

[Daggerfall]

Hello,

It has been quite some time since I have been able to join & complete a 10+ Drive. I had to left 2 of them due to technical problems caused by my cold air intake (Removed and I am very happy with the stock one now) and I overlooked the last one (I don't know how since I check the site min 3 times a day :). Most probably I was too much focused on the catch me if you can on the very same day) . So I was very excited about this drive :).

As mentioned before visibility was terrible in the morning but these challenges are always a good opportunity to learn new things, so we started rolling.The pace of the drive was a little bit slow in the beginning but it was good when the convoy was moving. Two leading marshals, two different style & pace, it was great!.It was relatively clean drive for me accept one incident. I had a pop-out in a very stupid way. Never fight with the gravity how small the dune is and never ever tell a Marshall that you learned how to avoid pop outs :grin:. When I announced the incident @alshamsi_m just said "Interesting" . It was more than enough :TT TT::XD:. Thanks to @Yoghybear and his portable "forklift" :grin:.We fixed the tire very quickly.

Pop-out Video:

https://vimeo.com/131238425

So It was a great day with full of fun in overall. I would like to say that we are really lucky to have our dear Marshalls who really enjoys to drive with us even we are not in their level. Who are always be very patient with our mistakes and failures, always take care of us, teach us, and putting a great effort to make sure that we become a good, confident, skilled off-road drivers.

Thank you!

I prepared a video . Hope you enjoy it.

https://vimeo.com/131217462

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2umnc ... -2015_auto

Best Regards - Hope to see you all on sand soon.

[momo]

[video=youtube;n6XQ3oZSx38][/video] And here is a complementary video for this trip, I filled it with adrenaline at the end when [MENTION=1803]Zorro[/MENTION] and me were catching-up with the convoy, hold your breath :yarr:

[Defragmantor]

[MENTION=8718]momo[/MENTION] Loved the slo mo at the end :D I belive that was zico right ?
also did you use filters as the colours seem different