Newbie All In V.5

[Mark B]

Again, another great day in the desert. 50 vehicles, 3 convoys and three advanced drivers trying out their new responsibilities as lead (except you @Hockey, no new responsibilities, you are the best).

Group C started the drive with a pop out at 45 degrees on a drop. Great job guys. No job too tough for Almost 4x4.

We in group B were trucking along testing the limits of previous training. We caught up to group C who passed us earlier at the top of the big drop. Splitting up we headed off towards December 2nd. Avoiding the rock outcrops and finding a safe path we made Dec 2 and joined @Hockey s group.
@alshamsi_m led us after dark to big red where we made the big circle and with good food and company, we passed the time.

Thanks @rashid for keeping the front of the convoy under control (and being my mentor). Thanks [MENTION=1633]Yoghybear[/MENTION] for keeping the back of the convoy under control (and being my inspiration). Thanks @bombays and @Mo Sh for the rescue support. Thanks all members for a great drive.

Mark

[mahesh_bmj]

I spent the loangest 6 days in my life after joinning almost4x4 family.Drive got anounced on Sunday and it was a long wait till Friday.
Today , we got the opportunity to drive, under future leaders of the club. Thank you @Hockey , @Eric & @Mark B you did a great job.
I was with group C (newbie 5-) and lead by @Hockey and @alshamsi_m.
On top of the big drop, i got the opportunity to witness rescue skills of Marshals. Popout was on 45 degrees drop and @alshamsi_m used another vehicle to anchor the failed vehicle while repairing the popout. It was a great learning experience.
Lesson to learn is Keep the vehicle speed under control and don't fight the gravity.
Last 7 kilometers of the drive was amazing as we got the opportunity to drive after sunset. It was amazing to see how desert is getting transformed after sunset and beauty of sand.

Thank you Marshals, advanced ,intermediate drives and everyone in almost4x4 family.
Looking forward to next drive.
Mahesh

[mahesh_bmj]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2943[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2944[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2945[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2946[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2947[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2948[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2949[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2950[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2951[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2952[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2953[/ATTACH]

[mahesh_bmj]

Viking Rope in Action

[video=youtube_share;IfK2Mebu8RQ][/video]

[jose]

Yesterday I drove in group C and had the bad luck to break the transmission of the car. The response of all the experts group, Marshalls, recovery and mechanical team, was immediate and perfect. His work (I was more looking and learning than helping, as Newbie -5) was excellent, rescued the car from the ravine where it was stuck and leaving it running with two-wheel drive to take to the road, where was waiting a crane prepare by they, after being escorted all the way by the experts. Thank you very much everyone for your help, which has made a huge problem in the desert what looked like an incident. Thanks again for having demonstrated once more time not only be technically the best but also best friends, making one feel protected. Really you are our second family.
I hope to have the car ready for our next driving.

SEE YOU IN THE SAND


Enviado desde mi iPhone

[Adam]

What a nice long drive, through large swaying dunes to the smaller more technical ones. I thought the track was chosen well, with enough drops, technical turns and minor crests to challenge. The pace was as expected for a large convoy but communication could have been a little be clearer, especially from those without flags.

Thanks to [MENTION=10397]Eric[/MENTION], [MENTION=2]ALKHATIB[/MENTION], [MENTION=22]zico[/MENTION], and [MENTION=9746]Barish[/MENTION] for leading, and recovery.

Was really nice to finish the evening off with some delectable sweets of various kinds and at least three types of coffee!

I accidentally left the tracker running after we finished the drive so some of the information (total time, and averages) is slightly skewed.

Activity type: driving
Description: Almost4x4
Total distance: 49.47 km (30.7 mi)
Total time: 4:24:21
Moving time: 2:52:26
Average speed: 11.23 km/h (7.0 mi/h)
Average moving speed: 17.21 km/h (10.7 mi/h)
Max speed: 73.15 km/h (45.5 mi/h)
Average pace: 5:21 min/km (8:36 min/mi)
Average moving pace: 3:29 min/km (5:37 min/mi)
Fastest pace: 0:49 min/km (1:19 min/mi)
Max elevation: 256 m (839 ft)
Min elevation: 116 m (380 ft)
Elevation gain: 795 m (2608 ft)
Max grade: 25 %
Min grade: -26 %
Recorded: 27/05/2016 4:06 p.m.

[IMG]http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss15 ... jf7n4p.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss15 ... m5s0qr.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss15 ... jmgd2.jpeg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss15 ... erm4h.jpeg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i571.photobucket.com/albums/ss15 ... 71en3.jpeg[/IMG]

[dLemma]

Hi guys,
it was a nice, long and interesting drive. :grin:
I was part of convoy A, under the lead of [MENTION=10397]Eric[/MENTION], where we had also Khatib and Bu Tarek as second lead and in general supporting our convoy. [MENTION=10405]Adam[/MENTION] was our sweeper, making sure nobody was left behind.

I really enjoyed the driving, the chosen track was really interesting to test the responsiveness of the car and learn its reactions.

We managed to keep an overall good pace, with no pop-outs, some second attempts and just a couple of viking pulls.

After we reached big-red, we climbed it one by one, and again it was a good learning of how the car reacts.
In my case for sure I'm learning that the stock FJ suspensions are way too soft, and the overall drive-ability would gain a lot if there would be suspensions with a bigger compression resistance, an adjustable return and bump-stops.

Thanks to everyone for the drive, the company and the coffee.
See you next drive!

[alshamsi_m]

Hi Everyone

Three different convoys with different versions of stories you are going to read.

As mentioned above 50 cars was the number we had in this drive but it got split to three. We* had the fresh newbies nevertheless we had our share of adrenaline and fun.
[MENTION=3678]Hockey[/MENTION] did very well to manage the time frame we had although we had some delay but it was expected, the idea was to see different sceneries in one drive.

Once we reached 2nd. December some of our members decided to call it off for the day but the rest decided to complete the whole journey. We were racing with sun light to minimize the driving in the dark duration for our members.

Reaching the gathering point after the drive was really rewarding. Everybody seemed to be relaxed, you could see the smiling faces all around, either chitchating in smaller groups or joining the majority.

Thanks [MENTION=10976]jose[/MENTION] for the sweets & the Spanish egg pie, all the people who provided us with the " COFFEES " and of course our guardian [MENTION=1531]Abu Jimmy[/MENTION].

Looking forward for Ramadan to more drives. My advice fix offroading lights because we are going to give " Newbie night drives " this summer.

Stay safe

[mahesh_bmj]

" Newbie night drives "
music to my ears.. after driving yesterday... Wow what I was missing all these years.

Thank you @alshamsi_m

[KIMOz]

First of all it was my pleasure to meet most of the family members yesterday also it was nice to see new members joining us . Big thanks to the Marshals and Founders for arranging the 5^th All Newbie In event. My trip started by nearly 11:50 am from Al Ain heading to the meeting point via Al Madam road in which I stop in the middle of the way for Jumaa prayer, Fueling and getting some snacks for the day. I reached around an hour earlier than meeting time but the surprise was that I wasn’t the first one to reach, but @Daggerfall was. We had some chitchat till the rest of the members arrived. After that we had an instruction to start deflating at our spot. I started deflating and I said why not to try @Daggerfall’s gauge to verify mine, then the shocking surprise was that my gauge was showing a fault reading!!!! I usually set the pressure to 10 psi (According to my gauge) but in reality it was 16 psi and due to the heat it increases to 18 psi !!! … I didn’t believe my eyes, so I tried @Mo Sh’s gauge and then the petrol station pump to check the pressure and all of them were proofing that mine was peace of crap e. (I learned a big lesson in my life; we have to check regularly our equipment and never depend on them no matter what’s their brand and how expensive they were).

I deflated to the proper pressure and I started the drive after having the briefing which was done by Abu Salem (@alshamsi_m) in which it was mentioning the different convoys structure. There were 3 different convoys with advanced leaders and total number of cars was 50. We were led by @Eric and the second lead was @ALKHATIB, Abu Tareq (@zico) was in the middle of the convoy and @Adam was the Sweeper. I started my drive with a very bad mood, but after 15 min I was enjoying as I felt myself driving a totally different car. The FJ was very powerful, light and smooth (LOVED IT) :D :D :D. The drive and the track were really nice and entertaining as we started from Adnoc Tayba till the big red and we didn’t have many incidents. We enjoyed the weather and the view a lot in that area. We had a permission from @ALKHATIB to climb the Big Red which was fantastic, so I took the advantage of that opportunity and I did it several times till the top:D :D.. then we had a gathering camp at the bottom of the Big Red in which everyone was sharing his traditional snack and chit chatting together. In general it was a very nice relaxing successful day.

Thanks again for all the Founders, Marshals, and the supporting team for arranging this trip.

See you all in Sand,

Cheers