Almost4x4

Dear Almosters

Firstly thanks to @giorgio for arranging this drive dedicated to 10+ members

it was a very hot and windy afternoon. I chanced upon @giorgio at a gas station along the way so we traveled together to the meeting point. it was a sight to behold with the 2 yellow FJ travelling together - many drivers passing us had to take a second look !!

We arrived at the meeting point and after deflating sat and waited for the others to join. unfortueately of fortunately depending on how you view it - only 2 x 10+ drivers were brave enough to join the drive @Adonisalsissi and @jcarlosgarme

Also joining as rescue and support we had @Ehab @Rooies (sweeping) @mpodroid (2nd Lead) and Floating marshal @Rashidjass

Giorgio explained in the briefing that we would be learning how to do side cresting - which I personally was very thankful for the opportunity to develop this skill as it is not covered very often in Newbie drives.

The weather was a challenge as it was extremely hot and windy - side cresting dunes is a skill that requires concentration and sharp reflexes at the best of times, add the wind blowing the sand over the crest - making it impossible to see where the actual crest is and it increases the challenge 200%

Well done to the 2 lucky Newbies who survived the drive. We arrived at the finish point around 6pm

I was booked for the night drive so without inflating I headed off following Giorgio along the fence line back to the meeting point for the night drive - this was like an extra 45min personal drive for me following Giorgios lines and observing how he picks his way through the dunes

A 10+ level drive in the Al Faqaa area was subject to a private style drive I would dare to say since only 2 drivers were able to attend from the newbie level.
But as we all well know less is more in the desert, so we had the chance to have a more flexible convoy that moved faster and covered more area.

The main exercise of this drive was approaching angle too low dunes and entering the crest.

@Rashidjass was a floating Marshall with @mpodroid on the second lead with the rest of the intermediates following.

Points worth mentioning are don't fight gravity and regular radio communication.

Closing my report I would like to thank everyone that participated on the drive and looking forward to seeing you all soon on the upcoming drives.

Almost one month since last drive in desert, some rust built up and time to remove it.
Giorgio took the newbies to an amazing area where they can practice ridge riding and side cresting safely. It was amazing and we all enjoyed it.

Enjoy watching

Hello Almost family,

One could write a small book about this great drive, and then I would only add as preface that I travel 14 000 km during just in time from Mexico to get to the meeting point, this is how much exiting was to be listed for the drive!!

As said in the reports previously we were very lucky to have a private lesson by @giorgio and @Rashidjass. The drive was fluent and also got very lucky with 2 camera men: @brett and @Ehab. I have watched the videos a dozen times !

As I said, one could write a book, but will do my best to be short this time only on 1 incident that could have been a small (or big) collision with other car and that marked the drive for me a LOT!!

Near miss
I might touch the border line of what happen of the desert stays on the desert but I had a real near miss that yet repeated in my head several times after the drive. I was the 3rd car in the convoy when all of a sudden I almost collide with lead Marshal who was stopped in ditch after a side crest!!! There was small gap between his car and the dune and thankfully my nose landed in it, my passenger door was few centimeters away from hitting Marshals rear bumper (brown pants afterwards).

The chain of unfortunate events
I am an aircraft engineering fan, all they teach is that accidents or incidents are a consecutive series of unfortunate events that lead to consequences. investigations are intended to put measures and lessons to prevent for accidents from repeating making the safest transportation mean. I have repeated in my head what happened there... here it is.

Focus on the car in front:
I lost sight of car for in front of me (#event). I surely got distracted for a fraction of time, and kept following the tracks up hill in the dune and never saw the second lead went down. It doesn’t matter if it is a blink of an eye look for car in front all the time and put more focus in front than the car behind (thanks @mpodroid for the words)

Always listed the radio
Marshall said do not come and second car turned away. (#event) I can put my money on this and I do not recall hearing anything, all happened in no time and then I was facing down towards another car. I thought I was not distracted on anything else during the drive (not music, not eating, securing things in the car like water bottles... nothing). I don't know how I missed that! Important check: if the trip is quiet for a while make a radio check every once in a while, it does not hurt and you double check comunication is ON in-an-out. It might be the volume of is low, perhaps radio fail, it can be anything. Do radio checks when things are quiet for a while and stay safe!

Do not trust blindly the flag pole
I never saw the the flag of car stopped like when we cross forward crests... (#event) Well, I saw it when I was down hill (brown pants in action). The dune is on my right side when I was going up, the other car's flag in the blind spot from my eyesight. I finally realized after looking into the photos of the drive that the flag was on the opposite site, nearly impossible to see. Side crest inexperience, i never expected anything behind the dune.

Human factors
1.- The flow of the drive was so good that the the immediate thought is to keep going on the tracks in front for the next side crest.
2.- I was very exited driving
3.- Had focus on the speed, proper angle of attacks for the side, hecking on a mirror,
4.- MORE IMPORTANTLY. I landed in Dubai 14 hours before the drive after 10 hours time zone change and 20+ hours on 2 flights.
5.- Al human factors play a role on everything. I slept till noon but something was not 100%

The result is an amazing drive without incidents, only a near miss!
I can’t say more than thank you all: @Rashidjass came to assist me to help me on the self recovery. @giorgio called a break for me to shake it off,@Rooies, @brett, @mpodroid @Ehab making a relaxing time a support team. For experience drivers it was probably nothing, I just learned from this and wish @Adonisalsissi also had a great evening that saturday!

Thank you all and see you soon

Carlos (b)