Almost4x4

Hi there,
a short summary of today's drive.

It was for newbies with 5 or less drives, supposed to be on soft sand.
We meet at Tawi Nazwa Shops on the Dubai-Hatta road at 8am. We had briefing and then we moved at 8.30 to deflation point, a couple of km away.

It rained in the night, so the sand was a bit wet. But it was hot, so I thought it would have been drying fast. Therefore I decided to deflate as much as I normally do for dry sand.

We split in 2 convoys of about 10 cars each, one led by [MENTION=1633]Yoghybear[/MENTION] and one by [MENTION=27]alshamsi_m[/MENTION]. I was with Shamsi right in the middle of the convoy, Solmaz was our sweeper.

We were headed to Pink Rock and then toward Al Badayer.

We had a couple of stucks and several second attempts, with few self recoveries. One of the stucks was bad, as the car was lying on the side of the dune with a bad incline and its wheels caught by sand. Thanks to our marshal [MENTION=27]alshamsi_m[/MENTION] and his viking rope, one strong pull and the car was recovered and back on safe ground. The only slight victims have been the car front bumper (some denting and scratches) and Shamsi's viking rope (it got a bit burned).

Again, we saw in practice why not to fight gravity: gravity always wins :)

I found it a nice drive, in some part was quite tricky as the sand was effectively getting very dry and there have been areas we crossed where some cars suffered a bit of low traction because there was too much air in their tyres.
A further deflation has helped to address the issue.

I did a mistake while following [MENTION=11226]maheshbmj[/MENTION] on one climb: i saw him climbing and i though it would have made it, so I stayed close to him. But suddenly he stopped and I was very close and instead of stopping, I moved myself to the left and tried to climb as well. Result: I hadn't enough momentum and the sand was very soft, so I also had to break and go for a second try. But my car ended up really close to Mahesh's one and if he had started to back-up he would have hit my car.
Luckily, the honk of the FJ is not shy :) , so I had the chance to reverse, let Mahesh back-up and do his second try and then I did the same.
Lesson learned for next time...

We climbed on Pink Rock and enjoyed the view of the desert from up there, then we continued the drive. Still a couple of second attempts, but in general we moved much better in the second part of the drive.
And no pop-out at all today!

We ended up by the shops of Al Badayer area, where we stopped and got our tyres inflated by the guys there. At 10DHS not cheap, as it is double the market price :), but it was hot outside and it was much better to pay the 10DHS and enjoy the chit chat with the others... And, by the way, Mahesh paid for me, so it was really cheap in my case: thanks Mahesh, I owe you one!

Really looking forward to the next drive! Thanks as usual to everyone for organizing, driving, rescuing, swiping and, most of all, for the great company!

See you all soon!

It was fantastic day today. I kept the alarm for 6.30 morning but end up getting @ 05:00 am and waited till 6.30.Today’s drive was a grate learning experience. We started with wet and firm sand and suddenly it got changed to soft sand. The change was so quick; initially it was difficult to figure out what was happening with steering. I got used to it after few rounds.
I think I didn’t switch off my walkie talkie after past weeks club drive or may be my daughter played with it. There was no power light when I switched it on. Fortunately @dlemma was there to rescue and he got one extra radio that he gave me to use. Lesson learned for next time.
I had 2 second attempts during the drive and I’m still learning to judge the dune and my grandfather (PAJERO). When we stopped near the mountain to give space to 1^st convoy, I checked my tire pressure and it was gone up by 5 psi due to hot weather. I took the time to re-correct the air pressure and set it again to 13 psi.
Pink rock view was fantastic and I hope everyone enjoyed same like me.
Thank you all and everyone in almost4x4 family for organizing the event. Especially for @Yoghybear and @alshamsi_m .
Waiting for the next event. See you all in sand.
Mahesh

As usual the planned course was super interesting and it felt like the marshals brought it a notch up. The different kinds of surfaces we dealt with required different styles of driving. We had longer

A splendid drive and great learning experience. Got stuck once and also had to make an attempt twice. All under the watchful eyes no helpful teaching from [MENTION=27]alshamsi_m[/MENTION]. Built my confidence and excitement. I thank everyone who was along in the drive. Looking forward to the next.

The challenge was once again pushed a notch up by the organizers and we had the pleasure of experiencing different types of surfaces and apply different driving styles accordingly.
Some climbs were stronger than the other drives i have been too which was interesting since we had to decide for which approach to go at each (4H/4L? momentum or acceleration?...)
During the first part of the drive the convoy split due to a recovery process and i took a small flight while catching up. At which point i was warned about the sharp drop :p chicks had already hatched. My front plate number was lost and got it back yesterday (never want to go through that again. I am going to weld the plate to the chassis).
The ride in general was nothing short of what we always get from the marshals and organizers to whom we are thankful. Same to the intermediates and advanced drivers that join from time to time and take care of us youngsters.
Best part was the feeling of getting more integrated into the family, meeting more people and seeing more familiar faces every time. It was quite the contrast compared to the weekend we skipped 2 weeks ago, everyone was on fire to get on the sand, meet and drive, and you could see in their faces that they were waiting.
Short, it's going to be a problem if we skip any other weekend :D
See you guys on the sand, can't wait.

It is always exciting to see the new members taking the very first steps to driving in the desert. It is a satisfactory experience to pass the knowledge to new generations that our club thought to us.

For those who struggled more than others I say don't give up. It is more about experience which you need time.So keep driving with the club and you will be surprised how far you could go in a year.

I have some comments for the fresh newbies:

Keeping the right distance is the first thing you need to focus.Not less than 3-4 cars but also you shouldn't let the distance open further .Because when you try to catch up with the convoy you have to go faster than you should be going and you cant be really aware of whats ahead of you without observing the car in front of you if its not in your eyesight.You are loosing the most important advantage of driving in a convoy!. Which might be very dangerous since the desert is full of surprises.

"Protect your tires but don't be shy on your engines" Having the right momentum is the key for climbing safely. And don't freeze when you feel that you will get stuck on the side of the dune. Turn down immediately and don't break. Moving car is the safer car.

Hope to see you all soon again.

Thanks