All Stars - Limited Edition III

Ehab
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Another amazing trip with Almost 4x4, we had different kind of fun in 6+ convoy, this is my first trip led by @alshamsi_m the trip started with crossing very sharp dunes which caused multiple refusals and quick recoveries but the fun got escalated very quickly specially when busalem decided to go for triceps and biceps workout getting a pajero out of a nasty stuck next to deep pocket, @kareem.alameldin also decided to go for a rollercoaster ride in open air making sure the Pajero has enough weight in the side to eleminate any risk, @Rashidjass also was doing hand skin scraping therapy by digging the hot sand with bare handsšŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚




@giorgio and @Rashidjass were literally driving rally style parallel to our convoy, i felt extremely jealous, take a look from 00:26 till 00:48 this is just few seconds out of more than 2 hours where their tires spent more time in the air than the time on ground

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alshamsi_m
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Hello Everyone

After the last EIB for 10+ newbies, the marshals decided to bring all the newbies to have a good day for all. We had 50 cars at the meeting point which is always cheerful.

I had the chance to lead 5+ newbies, the plan to drive for 65 km and bring all safely before the sunset šŸŒ‡. The drive had everything, straight cresting, fast lines with speed of 100km, safari style and enjoying the site seeing of oryx & Sand ghazals.

The drive ended up with beautiful gathering to enjoy the sunset as promised. It was nice to have a surprise from @Solmaz & @Agalon to join in.

Thanks for @Rashidjass , @giorgio , @kareem.alameldin &,@Ammarxterra & @James for the support.

Looking forward to see you soon in the sand.

Cheers
Shamsi




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nidal78
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Hi everyone
As usual another nice drive another good experience, I was in the convoy of +6 led by our beloved founder abu salim šŸ˜Š
After a short briefing we all lined up and Shamsi donā€™t waste time he took us directly to a technical area without any warm upšŸ˜…
A lot of small and medium dunes, small bowls some 2nd & 3rd tries needed, then abu salim took us to a another area which is totally different, fast base like safari style and in some areas a rally style, we drove up to 100 km šŸ˜
I really enjoyed watching the gazelle running around us and the race between Rashid & Giorgio they literally were flaying in the open area and over the dunes šŸ’ŖšŸ»
Finally we were the first convoy to reach the end point āœŒšŸ»
We sat on small dune chitchat and eating Abu Salimā€™s home made traditional dates cookies and it was very delicious šŸ˜‹
At the end of my report I would like to thank Barish for organizing this drive and a big thank to Abu salim for his nice lead and also big thank to Rashid,Giorgio,Kareem,Ammar,james and to all drives ( you did really good guys šŸ’ŖšŸ»)
I hope everyone enjoyed it and I hope to see you soon on sand
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Tomvanhouten
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Hello everyone,

For me, the drive started with a surprise when the attendance was taken and heard my name rather fast (it starts with a T, so expected a bit later). Turned out, I was on sweeping duty with @Barish convoy.

It was a lovely drive, thru different terrains with some medium sized dunes, good slopes and as always, the style of Barish driving is amazing.
I had a super afternoon, driving at the back, trying to avoid the messed up sand by my predecessors cool

The drive itself was quite challenging, I suppose where flow and technique were made central throughout.

Great to see @Solmaz and @Agalon back with us!!

Thank you all and hopefully see everybody soon again!

Tom
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I like All Stars drives, MP always feels like a bit of a party and a great time to greet friends you might have not seen in a long time.

Al Faqa to Al Qudra was the route, I was allocated to the -5 convoy lead by Barish, the organizing Marshall. Plenty of support, Tom, Sorin and myself in the convoy itself with Mahmood Yasin and Nabil floating around. Additional support provided by Abu Baker and "The Queen of Al Faqa" herself.

Barish selected a very nice and enjoyable route, he did say he would like to increase pace as and when the convoy felt comfortable, he did a great job finding that balance of pushing the convoy a little bit more but always keeping it safe.

The first drives with Almost are used to give confidence to the less experienced drivers and get everyone used to the way Almost convoys move, this is critical to make sure that when the level and pace increase everyone is in tune allowing us all to have fun in a safely environment.

From a position of 2nd lead difficult to comment on how the convoy was doing but my main comments would be:

Radio communication. It felt good, "clear" was being given after straight crest and issues reported promptly. Well done.
Distance. Work to be done on this one, this is a critical factor, other than the obvious of being with friends and having support for recoveries the main advantage of a convoy is that you can use the car in front of you to show what is coming, you need to be not too close and not too far, enough to see the lines, speed, ... that he/she is using and with enough space to react if you need to.
Pace. Needs to be increased, of course the priority is always to be safe and thatĀ“s the way crests and other difficult elements should be approached but after them, in the flat and easier areas you need to catch up with the car in front of you.
Gravity, your "best friend or worst enemy". The 2 main situations that we had in the drive were related to fighting gravity, car asking for the steering to be moved right and drivers deciding it was better to go left, do NEVER fight gravity, even very confident drivers donĀ“t fight it, yes, they move closer to the line between right and wrong but they know the price for crossing that line.
2nd tries. I will always remember what Shamsi said to a Newbie in a drive I was attending as support. "It is your right as Newbie to have as many 2nd tries as you need", use it, it goes in line with the "gravity" point, you need to do 10 2nd tries in the same place, not a problem, you are learning, it is the way it is meant to be. He also said "too many 2nd tries as Interm and we burn your car" ... just warning you. Psmiley
Climbs after a straight crest. A few 2nd tries were related to not accelerating hard enough after clearing a crest, if you see that you are going to have to climb high from a low position, better you floor it from the start, if after too much power you can always release but the opposite, starting slow and trying to make up for it half way does not normally work.

See you on the sand (unfortunately not too soon TT TT ) - enjoy the summer!!! have a nice day
Last edited by David on Sun Jun 20, 2021 10:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
AdamW
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Hello Almosters!

That was another fun drive day with the club.
Thanks @Barish for organizing the trip and as usual all Marshals and Support team for keeping us safe. thumbsup

When we've arrived to the meeting point my car shows outside temperature 47 degrees and we could literaly feel it. melt
As a surprise, my windows refused to cooperate ORLY so i could only have a hope that nothing will happen to my ac.

I was allocated to Daggerfall convoy which was 10+.
The drive was a great combination of safari style, technical with a lot of "top dune" and side crests.
Couple of second tries, one stuck was really not that bad ;)

It was great day with additional surprise of seeing @Solmaz and @Agalon back.

Thanks all Marshals, Crew, Support and of course all drivers. See you on the sand.
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CARLOSS
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Hello everyone,

All Stars III was very important to me as I was coming from my ā€œdisasterā€ whut EIB drive so I wanted to prove to myself that still I was able to perform. thumbsup

I was positioned in @Daggerfall convoy with part of the usual suspects and some new faces more experienced than me and man!, it an amazing drive with appropriate level, amazing tracksā€™ selection with a lot of side cresting, big arches, fast tracks, good pace in general and good convoyā€™s performance.

I should confess that after EIB I was looking forward to having some fun and this drive really fulfilled my expectations specially when driving behind @AdamW ā€¦we made a sort of a Pajerosā€™ brotherhood by helping each other, sharing some tips and having a lot of fun after completing some of the challenges when exchanging our sensations/feelings. FJs and Jeeps drivers will never understand the joy of completing some of the challenges when driving these powerful, amazing and super well-performing pieces of engineering Psmiley

I enjoyed a lot driving this one and missed the third Pajeroā€™s member (@jayslens ). Letā€™s see if next time we can make a bigger gang.

Even though it is a recurrent topic, I would like to share a different angle: I have been told and experienced many times that Marshals have eyes everywhere but during this drive, I have also learned that Marshals (and Founders) have also ā€œtelescopic visionā€ playingsmiley as I saw @alshamsi_m coming from 2 or 3 km away to our point for giving advice to one of our members when making a weird maneuver wtfsmilie . And in the meantime, his convoy was patiently waiting for him stopped in a flat area most probably asking themselves: What are we doing here stopped? OSMILEY . Again, far away!

For finalizing, I would like to thank @Barish for organizing the drive, @Daggerfall for leading us on an amazing way, @Agalon and @Scorpio for taking care of us and giving good advices and the rest of my mates and supporting team.

See you soon

Carlos
Last edited by CARLOSS on Sun Jun 20, 2021 12:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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jeepers76
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Hi Almosters

Drive started at around 4pm, and I was chosen to be made part of 6-10 drives lead by @Shamsi . Our convoy mostly comprised of FJs, X-terra and some lonely and lovely GMC, Pajero, Jeep and F-150.

@James was designated as sweeper and mine was the third vehicle from the last. During EIB Challenge I noticed few fine tunning of suspension requirements, therefore this drive was again a test drive for my vehicle after all tinkering and final touches were given to vehicle mods.

@Shamsi , decided on a strange start, where in order to avoid other two convoys he started going straight over dunes, so initial startup was just bouncing off different dunes; which was actually a lot of fun and new experience.

Later the drive was on flats, where we throttled up between 80-100 kmph, and then again entered a technical zone, followed by flat run till the end. In short, drive was mostly technical with flat runs.
We reached our finish point after sunset, where a short stay for chit chat was pre-planned.
Temperature was decent to sit and enjoy, shared experiences, stories and especially the food.

No major breakdowns or recoveries. I got valuable advice and suggestions from @Shamsi on my recently modified FJ and I have every intention of acting on these especially the electrical side.

It was hartening to see @Solmaz and @Agalon back in action.

Thanks to all Marshals, Support Staff and Crew for their support and guidance.

Lesson Learnt:
ā€¢ Trying to be part of near 10+ drives with unmodified vehicle is not fun, unless you are an excellent driver. At least do basic mods as you get more experience, the same will give you more
ā€¢ Donā€™t hesitate to throttle up. After a number of drives, few of us are still hesitant to throttle up and end up requiring recovery.
ā€¢ Know your vehicle, donā€™t fight gravity, follow convoy discipline and track.
ā€¢ Communication is key to smoother drive.


Looking forward to seeing you all during next drive.

Cheers
Umer Jameel Shah
Oldbie with a FJ
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giorgio
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Last edited by giorgio on Sun Jun 20, 2021 11:02 am, edited 3 times in total.
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giorgio
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All Stars - Limited Edition III

One of the most popular drives of the club.
Drivers were separated to 3 different convoys based on their level with the same meeting and ending point.

The given area is a perfect terrain providing the lead cars to raise or lower the level.
I was assigned as a support to the 5+ convoy led by @alshamsi_m with @kareem.alameldin on the second lead @James as a sweeper and @Rashidjass floating marshal

The track was long with mix terrain (technical and fast pace to flat rally style with alot of dust)

Overall the convoy did well with minor delays. One pop out one advance self recovery from our founder several second tries and coupled of assisted recoveries

The one thing that I did notice through the drive though was the poor radio communication on the second tries and stacks.

It is vital from now on the early stage of your training to get used to the fact that radio communication is a safety issue and it cannot be ignored. Reporting your challenge on the radio presents the opportunity to the cars following the can in trouble to take the necessary action as needed.

Additional points that the drivers had to work on was maintaining proper distance and throttle control.

The only way that new drivers will be able to master the above mentioned points is by attending frequently and keep practicing the same skills over and over again.

Remember that these points are your foundation to enable you to progress to a safe and capable off-roader.

Closing my report I would like to thank the Organizer @baris for the beautiful event and our leader and support team for all their efforts.

Until next time be safe and hope to see you all soon on the upcoming drives
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