Almost4x4

Hi All,

This was my 7th newbie drive with the club. As with all drives so far there were elements of learning, refining skills already gained and expanding the limits of my driving. Toward the beginning of the drive I had 2 second attempts. This was due to my traction control being on (stalled earlier on and forgot to turn it off). The remainder of the drive was smoother with some challenging ascents. Toward the end faced some issue with my radio which was overcome by turning off and back on. Also my ABS and Traction control warning lights came on (need to check).

Yousef (my son) as usual had a blast. He is already asking when is the next one.

Big thanks to the marshals, rescue and support and all those involved.

Thanks.

Kind Regards,
Laith

G'day,

2nd Drive with the club. Certainly some steep drops with bumps to the front bumper and underneath with no major damage. Was great watching the tyre pop back on after seeing it fall off the rim and what to do in that situation. Last 45 mins of the trip was my favourite with sweeping side to side from dune to dune. Thanks to the crew who guided the newbie group especially lead car @rapailo and @Barish marching us along as a cracking pace.

cheers
Shakkas

Hello Almost 4X4 community,

I admit that I'm not a social media fan but Almost 4X4 had me linked since day one... I'm learning now my way through the forum now, but needed some help from @CARLOSS to figure out how to navigate... It is just like the dunes, I need to get crested and rescued to learn the way . My hope is that this post goes to the right place because I really want to share my appreciation to the group and Marshalls! This is my 9th trip but for always like day one! Cannot avoid learning and enjoying like my kids do in cheeky monkies (if you have small kids, you will understand...), they want to stay there the whole day.

For me the trip starts the day is published... lucky me this drive was not as busy as the my initial days with the generation of eager divers like @NahorJP @dorudoru @brett ... it was always dog fight trying to get a sit with them... in milliseconds the trip was full, obviously I never made it on time and I'm glad to see how far they have reached in experience. This time was easy, I probably signed in 10 minutes after the opening and yet had plenty of room... looks like the new CM generation is not yet aware of the "Billy the kid" ability.

I met a couple of conationals, @adrianamartos and Fernando, and all of a sudden we have a small group of 6 spanish speakers in the debrief counting @Flor , Alvaro and Alex. I'm impressed how the group is bringing people from all over the world....But please don't get bored with all the things that go in my head... for me every trip is a happiness experience.

About the trip... @Daggerfall was our lead Marshal... always adapting the difficulty based on the performance of the convoy and taking good care of us. He managed to make it smooth ride but sometimes also bringing some adrenaline. WOW... don't have words to describe how much I enjoyed. On the second position, the Pajero partner @jayslens made it easier for me... It's always nice to have car similar to mine in front of me... it helps a lot need to say. I can't recognize who was behind tho, but I bet he was experienced guy in a grey Jeep Cherooke, KUDOS!! every time I looked into the mirror, he was nicely driving.

Of course, I managed to get crested once... I'm glad @alshamsi_m was not there to count my stuck... I don't want to reach the magic 33 and get my car on fire... beeing honest, I probably have around 9 stucks under my belt... not much room for the next ones...

All the drive was remarkable, I saw some self recoveries, another failed side cresting that ended in a tough position but nicely recovered by @Rashidjass who turned to be the guardian angel everywhere. He has the ability to be omnipresent... At some point I had @Rashidjass telling me where to go and I look around everywhere without seeing him or his car... It is true... Marshalls see everything ...

To make it more exiting, right about the end, our lead Marshall @Daggerfall took us to a deep slope in soft sand... no words... scary but defo was a learning one, specially to manage the steering with the fish tailing. Of course our Marshalls and Rescue team had it under control but, as a newbie, is all about a challenge and gratifying experience....

Looking forward for more!

Carlos Garcia

Hello everyone,

After a beautiful morning, in the afternoon, it was time to assist in the Stars Track series.

I was put in the convoy which was led by @rapailo and @Barish . @orlantsev and me were assisting where needed.
I think everyone was learning at a hefty pace, analyzing the beginning of the drive where a lot of assistance was needed till the end of the drive where the flow was optimized and people were enjoying.

Thank you all for the nice drive and sit together afterwards!

See you soon again

Tom

Big thanks for @baris for organizing the trip! This was my 4th drive and I was assigned to @Daggerfall convoy for first time.

The tempo was great and definitely felt different from my previous drive experiences.
The crew did well to keep the challenge just before our abilities to handle it in a safe way, so adrenaline was constantly flowing.
The car in front of me had occasional issues with its VHF, so sometimes I was in a blind spot in terms of clearance (checked with crew if I'm good to go) - and on some occasions I didn't give clearance because I didn't hear any before me.
I had a mix of stucks & 2nd tries (total 5) - but I was happy to recover completely myself on all occasions. As simple as reversing and going for a second try, or 4LO and diff lock were enough to get me moving. Once I got stuck in a bowl shaped place and this was the time for crawl system to shine - I managed to slooooowly work my way forward and then reverse on a slope to have momentum to escape

All in all, a very smooth & enjoyable ride, learning my car more and more, as well as building confidence in skills learned.

It was a good opportunity to discover my car and get more confident at evefy dune.
At the beginning of trip, i use to be tough on the car especially when a car get stuck in front of me, then i go hard on the car.
In the middle of the trip, i stopped getting affected by other people when they get stuck, and i start to gain more confidence.
I got to learn new thing when one tyre got damage and we had to fix it: we dig diagonal under both tures, used th wooden plate, add the jack and fix the tire.
It was a nice trip, we enjoyed.