Fri-day the 13th drive

[Rooies]

It was Friday the 13th, the day I was really looking forward to, my first 10+ drive. Shamsi dropped a few hints & comments during the week that we will have lots of fun in the sun (shovelling).

We met at the meeting point, went through the normal drill, stop, greet everybody, deflate & get ready for the action, then Shamsi appeared in McCloud & I knew it was game on, we are going to have lots of fun. We had the briefing, convoy got sorted & off we went.

From the get go I could see that I will be tricky & technical. I had 2 passengers, their first desert drive. The route did not let us down, short steep dunes, sharp turn & accelerate, to slow & you will get stuck. It really felt like a rollercoaster ride, up, down, left, right etc etc. We had quite a few crested cars, but help was never far away. I made a mistake & ended up in a very small hole & it took two cars to rescue me (my first major stuck - believe there will be more). At one point 3 cars got crested in the same area, I believe that was a first in a long time or the first time that it happened.

Lessons learned from my side today was, keep decent following distance, momentum & work with gravity.

It was a very enjoyable drive, thank you again to all the marshals, the intermediates & my fellow drivers for the fun in the sun.

Till next time, take care & see you in the sand.

Greetings
Rooies

[Lenny]

Hello everyone ,

It was a beautiful morning & the weather was calm with a mild breeze as I arrived to the meeting point at 6:15 am.
I quickly got down to doing my due diligence on my 4×4 and then moved on to meeting and greeting the victims of Friday the 13th!
Not long after, Shamsi arrived with MCloud and we got down to the roll call & briefing.
Once that was done & we were all ready to roll, Hakkoum arrived & we assisted him to air down quickly and set out on our way....
Most of the 10+ had been to this area before for EIB, however for the 10+ freshers this was something else.
I recollect driving to the meeting point and about 2km before the actual rendezvous point I engaged my 4x4, something I'd never done on drives before.

We moved on as Shamsi in lead with Giorgio as second lead, followed by Kareem , myself & the rest of the members with Presa & Youssef in the convoy & Solmaz ,Jock,Booy, Rashid & Yogi bear floating.

As we approached the steeper climbs I decided to engage 1st gear and realised I had none! I was not able to shift into 1st!
I was gutted thinking I would have to abandon drive, however when I checked with Bu Salem he reassuringly told me to drive in 2nd & we will see.
Maybe I would need to skip the second area!

I decided to drive in 2nd & only use 4 Lo when I got into a tight spot which as you all know today was all about...tight spots
The area chosen for today was extremely technical and the proof was in the pudding.
We had a multitude of stucks, pop outs , crested cars & a lost flagpole.
There was carnage everywhere.
But it was very hot & enjoyable as promised & never a dull moment on the radio.
I lost count of the number of times I got stuck and had to be pulled out, thank you for not burning my car!
Thank you to all the Marshalls, crew & support teams for your help & guidance & your tireless effort & patience with us Newbies.
Till next time, see you under the sand grin

[Mabubaker]

A naughty sneaky siver blue Jimmy, called McCloud, leading a group of newbies in a journey to the unknown.
Abubaker gets a popout.
Marshals and intermediates are so busy helping poor McCloud followers.
Abubaker gets another popout.
Jock confesses about the chaos at the back of the covoy.
Abubaker... popout hat trick... well done..

The so called McCloud finally seen, many wish they don't see again. Not me..
The long-awaited Friday 13th early morning Almost4x4 newbie drive finally done. The drive was shockingly rough even with yhe pre-drive many warnings from Bu Salem and the comments by the other Marshals.
The drive started by a quick briefing by Bu Salem, his smile was different this time, it was obvious he was hiding something. And we all know now what he was hiding..
I was right by insisting to get the Almost4x4 sticker on my new ride before the drive, no need to say why...

We reached the first part of the drive, while I'm still at flat area, I was watching McCloud to get the feeling of the track, what a feeling! This is going to be fuuuun.. the area was looking like a war zone, I would prefer calling this drive as the "game of thrones" .... meta knight use you imagination.
I was doing good in the first half of the track... then everyone knows who got the 3 popouts in a row .. in 1.5 km as Jock said.. :D
I learned a lot in this drive, I wish the drive was longer so I can test the car further "with a couple of more popouts"
Thanks Bu Salem, marshals and support team.
I am in Amman for two weeks, can't wait to hit the samd again...

[alshamsi_m]

Good morning everyone

History in our club tells us that Friday 13 is a good day , " Eggs in Basket " game came from one of these Fridays in 2011.


Well the drive has to live up to it's name " Fri - Day 13th " so to make it clear " non of the drivers came out safe " each one got his share ( stuck, pop out & adrenalin thrill ).

We drove around 3km in 3 hours can you believe what happened?? imagine if you go through a similar area more than 30km with half tank and you are not sure if you are going to make it on day time or not ?? Is your group going to get out of the desert before one you run out of fuel??? This what is going to happen to you in Liwa if you got caught unaware so you better be ready !!

Thanks for the support team for bringing everyone back to road safely.

Till next Friday 13, stay safe.

Cheers

[giorgio]

Friday the 13th

It was a well advertised event not cause of it's name but mostly that McCloud was the leading car.

Although this is not the first time that I have driven behind McCloud it is the first time that I was chosen to be the second lead and follow Mc Cloud.

The think about this car is that it is a feather weight category ( boxing term) car. It is light on its feet agile and it can maneuver itself in very tide spaces a true Ninja worrier. Now of course our Ninja could be nice if he wants too but the problem is not the car but the driver (we all know the famous saying it is not the car it is the driver) and since our Leader had promised us a thrilling Friday the 13th he delivered his promise. So guys stop blaming the messenger ( Mc Cloud) blame the sender ( [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] ) he is the creator of all that mess that was created on the Friday the 13th drive poor Mc Cloud did was he was told. Make no mistake if it was Optimus there we would have had the same problems.

Now from my point as I said earlier I had the opportunity to be the second lead as It was promised on the chat the day before (and they say don't believe the roomers on the chat unless u see it on the forum) and the major problem that I had was that I never saw McCloud except when there was a request on the radio to stop the convoy. Most of the time I could see his flag in a distance and I was only able to see and follow its track.

[mention]Petr[/mention] was the third car and he had trusted me his older son as a passenger so I had additional help tracking the path and believe me it was well needed.

The challenge for us on the front was not where did McCloud go (he himself was way gone) the question was where did the track of McCloud go???

You may find it weird but very often I will ask my passenger where did it go (the track) we will climb and get down from the dune and there is no track that few seconds that it takes you to realize where you should be (back on track) and where you are it made the difference of surviving or been rescued.

The convoy as many mentioned earlier was in major trouble with endless pop outs and crested cars. As someone mentioned earlier it look like a war zone and in many times as a pick nick gathering were all the cars were parked together in a small area like there was an event or something.

The surprise of the day was the call from our leading car the [mention]Hakkoum[/mention] will be the second lead. Now that was an unexpected strategic decision that put the front of the convoy in trouble.

I would say that up to that point we were doing relatively OK (at the front). But since it was promised that Friday the 13th was supposed to be a drive to Fry us all the well calculated move to switch second lead led us to a nice trilling stuck (that will be me on a small dune as I was dissenting. I was not even crested)

The reason of why I was crested I wont mentioned because it is not important what is important to mentioned is that the dune that I found my self in trouble was not more than 1M tall and I found my car with the front left wheel shanked 100% and the back right one 60 cm of the ground and in an angle that I needed extra weigh ( thanks [mention]presa[/mention] and [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] for running to the rescue.

Following my trouble came [mention]Hakkoum[/mention] with two crests where I had the opportunity to perform my first rescue as an intermediate under the step to step gaudiness of [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] Thank you for walking me through.

I would like to thank all the convoy the leader and the supporting crew for these unforgettable hand full of KM's that will remain in all our minds as a drive to remember.
I will mostly remember the supporting crew been the busiest the have ever been and the remarkable [mention]JockJKU[/mention] soft voice cracking jocks and keeping the spirit of the convoy on a high level as I am sure that people would have burned their cars on their own out of desperation.


Great drive thank you everybody see you on the sand soon.

P.S I truly believe that no newbie should be upgraded to the next level before it has at least one drive behind McCloud ( and again it is not the car it is the drivers intention that you need to experience) Mc Cloud is only his cover up )

[Agalon]

It was the most memorable drive i had so far and a very good demonstration on what kind of a challenge desert may become.
My 2 cents for the drive... Especially in the hot weather, try to control the tyre pressures as much as you can. Even 1-2 psi lower than usual might not hurt (assuming you can control the risk of pop-out).
In dunes like these which are small and dense, you don’t have enough space to gain momentum so better to keep more distance and watch the car in front of you carefully to avoid consequent stucks.
Don’t push sharp turns on soft sand. That is a loud call for a pop out. Again watch the car in front and see where the track leads and how. Then make your move.
Overall, i believe it was a concentrated course for all drivers with lots of lessons. Thanks to our marshals and support crew for the nice friday morning. The support crew did an amazing job.

See you next time...

[Mohamadahshan]

Fellow Almosters,

When I first read the trip name “Friday the 13th” I thought wow, such a nice catchy name.. but guess what?!! It was literally Friday the 13th.

McCloud was in the lead, that should explain everything. It was by far my most favorable drive ever. Small technical dunes which is my favorite; with tons of challenges. I got crested once and had a 2nd try as well. In addition to countless pauses due to crests and popouts, however that was the funniest part when I switched off my music and put on the radio on the loudest level to enjoy the spontaneous jokes between Jock and Shamsi.

It was “Almost” a comedy show with fun sand drive.

I really really enjoyed driving in McCloud’s lead, and looking forward to more fun.

Big shout out to all the marhsals and rescue team, always happy to give hand and teach us =)

[kareem.alameldin]

It was such a big learning experience, the dunes are short and close to each other - hence the "eggs basket" name!- that you don't have space to carefully descend and gain momentum for the next climb, and the bowls are really tight that you don't have much space for a big turning circle to avoid popouts, i had a couple of second tries because of those reasons, we had a kind of an introduction to side cresting at the end of the drive, not the first time to do it but still gave an idea on how much work ahead of us to learn the right techniques and polish them to do it consistently,

thanks everyone for an amazing Friday morning, a weekend is not a weekend without being with the club!

[presa]

Hi Almoster!!

Although wasnt a drive for me - I have another drive on the afternoon - I enjoyed like it was!

This were the first time, at least for the Fresh 10+, that they were taken for a more challenging drive.

The area was full of small dunes, packed over each other, with valleys full of soft sand.

To make things more challenging, the convoy leader was driving a small Vitara... so with half power than everybody else, it was not suppose to be a problem for the convoy to keep the pace...

There were a lot of funny moments in this drive, instead of pointing each one, I will point a few that I enjoyed, while being floating around the convoy.

i. One member got stuck in a small ditch, with one back rim almost 1,0m out of the ground... Intermediates were called to assist under Marshal supervision... when I got to the place there were a newbie car also crested... and another newbie also... each one in a different Dune :) the only who passed unharmed was McLoud.... so after the rescues I used a different route grin grin grin

ii. On another point there were a dune climb, after that a flat area with soft sand and another climb, turning left... one member got his 3rd popout after the 1st climb... he looked at us and say: I am understanding why McLoud don't come too much for the drives... he was still sweeting from the previous popout fixing... but I was a testimony that he fixed it very fast ORLY ORLY ORLY

iii. After rescuing a car, I decided to return on straight crest against the wind... got crested! Tried self recovery, but no luck.... look around and no sign of others, who were moving from area 1 to area 2, so my rescue would be low profile :) until my radio called: put on low gear and use a-trac... got busted by the full convoy at 700m from my place dark mood dark mood dark mood

iv. Rashid was the one that deserve the most warm THANK YOU from all the ones in the drive. He did so many rescues that I truly lost the counting! At a certain point he gave up on putting the rope inside the car. He just kept it tightened to his car and rolled it on the spare tyre LOL!! RASHID you were absolutely great!!

v. Jock were at the back of the convoy assisting... at a certain point he called for me, but I was rescuing someone.... he called by Youself, but he was also doing another rescue... he looked around and Rashid was helping a different driver... I leave to your imagination his next words XD XD XD

vi. My passenger come for one other drive with Almost and at a certain point he asked me: I thought you come to the desert to drive, but you are driving 3 min and there are 3 car stuck that takes 15min to rescue. This math isn't helping today!

There were several other funny moments in this drive. Everyone were driving at a higher level than before so I believe that everyone enjoyed to be challenged and learned a few things, or two, from this drive.

See you next Friday!

[JockJKU]

Well...where to start....

There is not much I can say that has not been covered! Hot, chaos, stucks everywhere, 2nd tries, radio comms, distance etc., the list goes on...

This drive was the optimum lesson for our new 10+ Newbies to show that they should be careful what they wish for, that they are entering a different level to -10, and just how much is still to be learned before pushing for the next step!

Looking forward to Eggs in Basket now to see how much was actually learned and how everyone copes driving this area solo with only a GPS for support!!

Till next time,

Jock