Danger Zone II

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Daggerfall
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Hi Almosters!

After the heavy rain during the week, it was great to have a beautiful sunny day on Friday!

The sand was tricky! One moment you have a nice traction and climb easily and suddenly you find yourself in a soft wall sinking into the sand you're kidding, right but still it was much better than I expected.

The convoy moved smoothly and without any issues except some pop outs including myself XD in a nice V ditch I found just after a side crest! Thanks to great Almost4x4 teamwork we managed to take care of all those incidents very fast! Thank you guys!

As usual , we tried to flatted all the crests on our way until the sunset and everybody did great! thumbsup .

We finished our drive at our usual place playing on a nice wall watching our members trying to climb higher and discussing about tires grin grin grin

Thank to [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] and [mention]Booy[/mention] for the support and [mention]Scorpio[/mention] for second lead. Its very important a have a good second lead in such areas where we had many surprises after the sharp and high crests.

Thanks [mention]SINGH[/mention] for sweeping and all other members participated and performed well so we had great time (At least I did you're kidding, right )

Everybody went home sound and safe which makes a drive "success"

Someone made us listen " Thunderstruck" from radio on the way back and maybe its time for another one! cool

See you in the next adventure!
" I feel the need, the need for Speed " cool

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giorgio
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Daggerfall wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:59 pm Hi Almosters!

After the heavy rain during the week, it was great to have a beautiful sunny day on Friday!

The sand was tricky! One moment you have a nice traction and climb easily and suddenly you find yourself in a soft wall sinking into the sand you're kidding, right but still it was much better than I expected.

The convoy moved smoothly and without any issues except some pop outs including myself XD in a nice V ditch I found just after a side crest! Thanks to great Almost4x4 teamwork we managed to take care of all those incidents very fast! Thank you guys!

As usual , we tried to flatted all the crests on our way until the sunset and everybody did great! thumbsup .

We finished our drive at our usual place playing on a nice wall watching our members trying to climb higher and discussing about tires grin grin grin

Thank to @Rashidjass and @Booy for the support and @Scorpio for second lead. Its very important a have a good second lead in such areas where we had many surprises after the sharp and high crests.

Thanks @SINGH for sweeping and all other members participated and performed well so we had great time (At least I did you're kidding, right )

Everybody went home sound and safe which makes a drive "success"

Someone made us listen " Thunderstruck" from radio on the way back and maybe its time for another one! cool

See you in the next adventure!
The Thunderstruck teaser was a clue for you that we did not have enough and we wanted more but you did not bite the bait. 🤣🤣🤣
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Daggerfall
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giorgio wrote: Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:13 am
Daggerfall wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:59 pm

Someone made us listen " Thunderstruck" from radio on the way back and maybe its time for another one! cool

See you in the next adventure!
The Thunderstruck teaser was a clue for you that we did not have enough and we wanted more but you did not bite the bait. 🤣🤣🤣
The Sun was down. Going back to the Dunes in that area, we would have to change the drive's name to " Kill Zone "

arr.
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giorgio
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Danger Zone:

Chosen grounds for this drive was our return back to Abu Tais area. This drive was posted/scheduled earlier in the month and among the intermediate drivers there was constant talks of how this drive will be one of the most challenging ones. Having a seat to this drive would not have been easy, so the day of the registration most if not all the qualified intermediates, where with the finger in the trigger hopping to get in. The true of the matter is that since you had to have more than 4 intermediate drives under your belt some of our intermediates could not register and that kind of eliminate the competition for a seat. Nonetheless the seats were taken in less than a minute and the lucky ones got to drive it.

This drive was set to be an afternoon drive starting at 2pm sharp. Arriving at the meeting point it was like an FJ symposium, a total of 9 Fj's 2 jeeps and 1 Extera ( this car will never stop surprising me of how well it does off roading. Good job [mention]Abu Odai[/mention], to you and to your Nisan You Guys Rock).

Drive was organized and led by [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] which for second lead he picked [mention]Scorpio[/mention]. [mention]presa[/mention] and [mention]SINGH[/mention] were placed within the convoy and our other two Marshall's [mention]Booy[/mention] and [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] were floating.

The drive brief was short and to the point, bringing everyone's attention to the challenging terrain of high sharp dunes and hard sand ( since it was raining none stop for over 24 hours).

I was placed No 6 in the convoy behind [mention]Issa[/mention] and right after me was [mention]Nabil[/mention]. The drive started on a smooth small to mid size dunes giving the convoy the chance to warm up.
From the get go we all realized that the sand was playing trick on every one of us. The traction as was anticipated was unpredictable, changing from hard to soft back to hard several times even within a single dune.
One had to be careful to control the throttle and ensure that during the climb he will adjust his throttle to maintain the proper speed to approach and make the side crest. The change in traction was making the task way more challenging than usual.

I want to say that for the first half of the drive there was an absolute silence on the radio with the exception of few clears that were called. The drivers were all glued to their steering focused and quite sticking to the leaders track as much possible.
The drive as the time was passing was getting more challenging by the mile. Dunes now was from mid to big size and our leader was increasing the level gradually but steadily. The more we performed and staying with him the more he will increase.

On this first part of the drive there was no calls for anything more than some second tries. No stops, no incidents like pop outs, let me check my tire pressure none of these at all. Pure non stop driving.

The composition of the track was equally shared between BIG arches, climbs, and side crests. The big opened spaced dunes were giving all of us the chance to scan the terrain and anticipate some times to what line the leader will choose. Needless to say that in many cases the leader chose to pick the line that look like Ohhh Sh....t line. But this was supposed to be the drive that will make us all feel how is to drive on a higher level.
Somewhere passed the mid of the drive the terrain became more challenging throwing on us (besides the big steep dunes and unpredictable traction,) ditches. the latter start appearing everywhere. On top of the dunes right on the path of side cresting, on the decent path etc. And this is where the radio started become active. Calls were coming one after the other. Calls for second try, 3 meters to the left, watch for the ditch, don't come, hold the convoy, clear and all short of radio transmission's were going on and on. We were all on adrenaline high the speed was mostly on high mode and we all trying hard to keep it up.

And of course that led to the unavoidable call. Pop OUT. This radio call started by one driver and it spread like a disease through out the convoy, counting of a total 4 pop outs in less than 90 min and 1 damaged bumper.

The drive brought us at the end to a very challenging climb with a nice side crest just to land on the other side in our favorite playground. THE WALL.

There after we received instructions form our leader ( play safe, don't fight, and take turns one at a time) we all took turns testing our cars and abilities. We all have the chance to have multiple turns (honestly it is never enough but even if you stay there all day it wont be enough) until [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] call the convoy to assemble to exit the desert as the time was passing and we needed to get back to the exit point.

The drive out was relaxing, calming all drivers down giving us the space and time while driving to recall and review the drive and the entire experience that we just had.

For me I will place this drive in one of the best drives I ever had and I will say that it worth every effort, financial expense and sacrifice been made so far just to feel that seance of accomplishment at the end of a drive like this one.

I am sure that this is the begging of a different level for drives that may come in the future like Thunderstruck Top Gun etc, and I am sure that all of us will try hard to make our-self worth to be part of them.

I would like to thank all supporting team as well the organizer and the rest of the drivers for such a thrilling experience.

I feel we did all great and looking forward to see you all again on the upcoming drives.
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presa
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Hi Almosters!

This was my first time in the area, unlike 80% of the convoy, so I was allocated in the first part of it.

The drive started slow and steady, unlike usual [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] intermediate drives, but after 15min, when everyone was warm, he increased the level to proper WTF...

The difference in traction, as mentioned by [mention]giorgio[/mention] were very noticeable and you could be climbing with full traction, then no traction, then sliding with half traction... you could see the different lines being draw in the walls and before reaching the side crest point, by different car setup and driving style.... was a very different than usual drive!

The drive is danger zone due to the unpredictable dune formation, were you can side crest and find a nice beautiful 50m bowl that you can floooooorrrrrrr, or a 5m ditch, were you would get a popout, like happened more than once.

Being around car #5, the track was already messed, so it was a constant fight for some virgin sand to get better traction... I wonder at the back!

Aside from the area and the sand that was very muddy, the drive were very smooth, fast and with an impressive good flow! I am impressed by how a convoy of 10+ cars can keep this pace without any problem for so long!

Before finishing thank you for our leading marshal [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] for organizing this trip, thank you for the floating marshals [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] and [mention]Booy[/mention] and to everyone that complete this drive! As Giorgio pointed out will be a drive to be remembered!
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Hello Everyone,

It was one of the memorable drive for me. Not only because that I enjoyed a lot but learnt a lot as well….like how to drive on a terrain that has varied level of traction zomg .

We had the briefing by [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] who told us that we are going to drive in one of the chain of dunes that is adjacent to the subka and at the end of the drive we will take the subka to exit. He was to lead and I was placed as the 2nd lead; [mention]presa[/mention] was in the middle and [mention]SINGH[/mention] was sweeping. [mention]Booy[/mention] and [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] were floating around. Since the drive was partially exploration one therefore, no one was allowed to float other than marshals.

The drive started in a easy mode and gradually picked up the pace. It rained in this area and the sand was firm to hard; but in some areas it was soft too wtfsmilie . And let me tell you that on last Friday, I had one of my tire cut in Liwa and couple of days before this drive I had put a new set of tires in Megatron and this drive was a test drive for me to see the behavior of those new shoes. When the drive commenced, I started getting weird feeling of mixed traction; I thought “Oh, the new shoes you're kidding, right ”. But later on when I heard everyone saying almost the same then, I understood it’s the sand that is the culprit :? .

Experiencing different level of traction every now and then regularly, was not something that I would ever welcome but it was part of the game and took many of us out of their comfort zones. I remember steaming behind Daggerfall and suddenly I used to get some extra traction out of nowhere and the car used to move like a bullet and consequently I used to ease on the gas to calm it down and next moment I used to find myself in a soft sand and had to heavy my foot to keep the momentum ORLY . Driving at the 2nd lead position is for sure different than driving in the middle or at the end of the convoy and it would be worthy to know the experience of each of every almoster who was part of the convoy that day. This sand attitude kept the same till the end of the drive for me but I don’t know if the convoy behind me also felt the same throughout till the end. The difference was just that I was acclimatized to it by the second half of the drive and was able to adjust more quickly to the changing level of traction.

Regarding the drive itself, it was amazing and I enjoyed every bit of it. Somehow I felt that it got over very quickly although we drove for good 4 hours or so…like as they say ‘Time flies when you enjoy :lol: ’. We flattened many high crests and challenged many big dunes. At one point, Daggerfall did a straight crest and radioed me to not come and hold until further instruction. Actually, there was a nasty ditch after that crest just big enough to accommodate only half of the car and that ditch was followed by a drop so it was a balcony ditch :roll: :evil: and he went into it but somehow by using some of the marshal’s magic he escaped from it yuush .
After couple of minutes, when he told me to come, I only heard come and do the straight crest and did not hear that he had also said to take 3 meters to the left. Yes, I followed his track and as expected went into the same ditch :shock: . Now, Rashidjass took that 3 meters to the left and came right beside me to find out that I am resting inside the ditch :lol: . And Booy also came to one side to check what has happened actually. So, now I just told myself if VF-1 can do it then Megatron should also try its best ninja . This was the time for the FJ magic button; it worked and I managed to get out of it also. What a relief and proud moment to hear from marshals ‘good job’ in love .

We had many second attempts and few pop-outs also in this drive and I would say again that the unpredictable behavior of the sand that day played a big role in all of them. The drive was full of high arches, big climbs, side crests and gave everyone a chance to practice and improve for higher level drives. Being the second car in the convoy, I was able to follow the exact footsteps of Daggerfall. Many a times I saw him touching the crests but not going to the other side and in those few seconds between I saw him avoiding those crests and touching those crests myself I used to think ‘why we did not go to other side?’. Let me tell you something what I felt when I touched those crests; I felt that the visibility to the other side was zero (I mean it was a blind side crest into the unknown :!: ). Side cresting, I understand, is going into the unknown anyways but when you are about to ride on the crest, you would have noticed that you start to see the other side of the dune or start to get the feeling if it is safe or not. For me, our marshals always keep the safety of the convoy their utmost priority and whenever they feel its unsafe for anyone in the convoy they abort. Thank you Daggerfall for this wonderful lead – I loved it in love .

Towards the end of the drive, we reached to the wall of fame where marshals allowed us to play in a disciplined way arr. . Everyone tried to challenge their limits there and it was fun driving on that wall and watching others doing the same. When it was sunset, the lead car signaled everyone that its time to leave. We crossed the dunes easy and came on subka and drove on it all the way back to the road where the drive ended. Hearing ‘Thunderstuck’ on the radio on the way back to exit was a proof that it wasn’t only me who felt that the drive got over very quickly…there are so many greedy members out there too :lol: .

Thank you all for your company; it was a great afternoon. Thank you Advanced for your support and Marshals for your guidance and lead.

Cheers 8-)
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Booy
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Hello everyone,

For these types of drives, we need to get further out of the cities to find the bigger, untouched dunes. But it is certainly worth the extra time and effort to get there.

I arrived early with Yousef, and decided to go for a quick spin on the wet dunes with fully inflated tires. After my few minutes of solo fun, the others started arriving and we prepared the cars for what was to come.

@Daggerfall did not disappoint in serving the convoy with climbs, high crests, side sloping, driving on walls - everything this area had to offer, we enjoyed to the full.

Thanks for a great afternoon in the desert, with very good company.

See you on Friday - possibly on your tail in "All Lead X"

Regards,

Booy
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Daggerfall
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Thanks to [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] for the amazing video!

" I feel the need, the need for Speed " cool

Drives Black FJ " VF-1 Valkyrie " , Mob: 050 725 09 31
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