Friday Funday 1

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Loca
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Dear Almosters,

some of you might ask ... why you're at home writing this report rather than being on the dunes dancing the "Welcome to the Jungle V" rhythm ? wtfsmilie

Will tell you why in a minute .. TT TT

In fact, this is the report for "Friday Funday 1" (aka FF1) and this was my first drive in my new capacity of "support" Psmiley

I had managed to get a seat on both drives and the plan for the day was rich: full day on the sand grin

Lot of Almosters at the meeting point: all categories well represented ... Marshals, our newly appointed Explorers, Advanced, Intermediates, ... in a few words 3 packed convoys in love

[mention]JockJKU[/mention] , who organized this big thing, delivered the briefing and split us in 3 groups. First led by [mention]barish[/mention] , second led by [mention]Agalon[/mention] and third led by [mention]Scorpio[/mention] . Each convoy being supervised by a Marshal, respectively [mention]Solmaz[/mention] , [mention]JockJKU[/mention] and [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] plus [mention]presa[/mention] to reinforce the first one.

I was assigned 2nd lead to [mention]Agalon[/mention] and from my privileged point of observation I can tell he delivered a smooth and fluid drive which was not easy as we had a couple of heavy cars in the pack. The drivers did overall a good job with just a few distractions that resulted into stuck cars and 2nd try. However no real critical or dangerous situations so I think the drivers had fun. This was also confirmed by the smiling faces at the end of the drive thumbsup

Now back to the initial question, why I'm writing rather than driving? yuush ... being in support of the drive I did my best to help and rescue the stuck cars, under the guidance of [mention]SINGH[/mention] . We had a complex rescue with a Rover LR4 that got stuck and belly on the sand in an area where there was little space to manoeuvre. I tried to rescue the heavy Rover with my Pajero and my baby did put all her energies into that action. All of a sudden I heard a metallic noise, like a gun shot and unfortunately it was the transmission crying pity sad
As directed by [mention]JockJKU[/mention] we plugged a 3rd car to my Pajero (acting as the middle man) and we successfully completed the rescue. Since then my transmission was making very bad metallic noises and I had to shift from 2nd lead to sweeper position.

Luckily the drive was close to the end and I could complete it till the finish line. However my transmission was not working properly (and still accompanied by loud metallic noise) and a few times I had the impression that only the rear wheels were pushing. I had to take some risks and approach dunes at high speed in order to keep the pace of the convoy ... something new that I learned

Further learnings from the drive:

1. distance, distance, distance .. did I say distance? this is so important and should be the mantra of each driver during all the time of each drive

2. radio communication: call clear every time you disappear behind a dune and .. don't approach a dune if the car ahead has not cleared the area or has not called clear


That's all for today. Tomorrow is Hospital time for my Pajero and first day in the count-down to the next drive O_O


Now I stop and look forward to seeing the reports from this drive and from the Jungle that I'll have to explore next time x_x

Have fun and stay safe
Last edited by Loca on Sun May 05, 2019 8:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Mohamadahshan
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Fellow Almosters,

Friday Funday 1 was a dedicated trip to -10 members, but our generous Marshal Mr. Jock and the new explorers jumped in to give a chance for the 10+ as well, which basically means me mostly 😂😂 since most 10+ers of my batch are inters now. But I'm a senior newbie 😂 as Bu Salem says.

I arrived to the meeting point at 07:38 only 8 mins after meeting time. Which is a first timer since I joined the club. So we have to congratulate me on the occasion of not being last to arrive 😁.

There were so many members, so many different cars and people excited to hit the trails.

We were divided to 3 convoys. I was lucky to be 2nd lead for Scorpio. Excellent lead, my first time ever to drive close to him and watch his skills Mashallah. We didn't have any stucks throughout the drive. Only a couple of 2nd tries.. that includes me and Mr. New Intermediate Thiago 😂😂

Drive was fun, Thiago was basically messing around with me each stop, which was hilarious for me and the rest of the members.

It was a fun day, just as mentioned in the subject. Thanks to our lovely marshals for not leaving me out with no sands in my shoes 😁.

Happy Ramadan, see you all the the desert gazing series soon!
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This was drive number 7 for me and the best one so far. I was in the convoy led by Agalon and it was more exciting and challenging than any of my previous drives. There was a lot of driving up the sides of dunes and back down again on the same side and also driving in a straight line along the side of a dune where you really have to keep your speed/momentum up. I hadn't done this to any degree on previous drives.
During the trip there were a few cars that got crested, a few second tries and a very interesting recovery from soft sand that Loca mentioned above that ended up needing 2 cars to rescue the stuck one.
Every trip I learn more stuff, gain more confidence and have a great time. I can't thank you organisers enough for volunteering your time in this way.
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Hello Everyone,

Before anything I want to say Friday Funday 1 was a grate drive day and I enjoyed like never before I can tell you my heart was pumping a lot :D!!

At the time I arrived at meeting point there was already lots of hungry drivers waiting for brief to finish and to hit the dunes…

During brief [mention]JockJKU[/mention] divided people into 3 different convoys and leads were taken by new explorers [mention]Barish[/mention] [mention]Agalon[/mention] and [mention]Scorpio[/mention] who worked really hard that day to make our drive amazing…

I was granted with opportunity to ride with convoy No# 3 that was led by [mention]Scorpio[/mention] and floater [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] s followed by two inter drivers [mention]Thiago[/mention] & [mention]Rooies[/mention] who done their contribution to ensure everyone’s safety as well to keep everyone on track.

[mention]Scorpio[/mention] started carefully to warm everyone up probably due to coming amazingly high dunes and soft sand…
Approximately 10 to 15 minutes of dive I had one serious stuck on a side of dune due to not having enough speed to cross over obstacles but with help of [mention]Rooies[/mention] I managed to safely turn right and do 2nd try that result in successful pass over.

While continuing the drive, that adrenaline rushing through my veins, the excitement, the fear all at the same time kept pushing me to drive harder, faster, bringing more confidence into myself I calmed myself down and start enjoying the real off road drive that I never experienced before in my life even as passenger!! (Accept that Mini Punisher from [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] :D)…

During the drive we arrived at one dune that we supposed to basically make a U-TURN on top of it :D I think they call it Arch I got scared again :D, 3-4 cars ahead of me one jeep was struggling to make it and it looked frightening :D, when my turn come I simply floor it like I stool it and it was successful Arch that I ever done in my life.

After everyone passed that enormously big dune, we had small brake to check tire pressures and have a cold drink to cool ourselves, bit chitchat than we proceed with drive and everything was going smooth and fine almost until the last end where my car shuts down????? I turned on than it start over heating than I called on radio for support and as usual this is where [mention]Thiago[/mention] jumps in :D…
After examining under the hood, we found one small pipe that is responsible for oil flow was out of its place probably due to service that I done 3 days ago before drive the guys didn’t tighten it up properly.

After fixing the hose we were already back to track and by the time we reached the end spot there was already other almosters busy with inflating tires…

For me this was the most challenging drive I experienced and done it myself. I can promise you I won’t forget it never in my life, I just wish I had GoPro Cam with me to film everything!! The entire drive was fun, lots of everything was involved very valuable drive that I learned so much out of it…

During whole event there was no serious issues other than second tries and one time tire pop out that’s all.

Special thanks to [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for organizing the whole event and placing me to 3rd convoy [mention]Scorpio[/mention] o for leading it and making it difficult even for well experienced drivers - [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] for ensuring our safety and keeping us on track - [mention]Rooies[/mention] & [mention]Thiago[/mention] for helping out in every other occasion.

With Love
Tekton - Almost4x4
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Hello almosters,

This was my first official lead drive and I would like to thank the organizer [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for arranging this drive and [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] for giving me the opportunity to lead.

Well, before the drive started, I was pleasantly surprised to see my birthday cake. Thank you everyone for your kind wishes in love .

I opened my wings with the 10+ convoy and decided to drive around the rally ring track. Since the convoy was composed of both fresh and old 10+ newbies therefore, I kept the difficulty level accordingly to keep it safe yet challenging and enjoyable for everyone. I offered to the convoy a mix of easy/moderate sections in the track along with some difficult areas to pass through arr. . We had some second tries, pop-out, stuck with successful self-recovery during the drive but in general, the convoy performed well.

My advice to all who attended the drive:

1. If you cannot make the full climb, come down and try again but don’t fight the gravity
2. If you are going to make an arch and find that you cannot do it then make a smaller arch but don’t fight gravity
3. When you go sideways on a dune, please ensure that your momentum and angle is correct. If anyone of them is incorrect then you will find it hard to stay on the dune and the gravity will pull you down so, go down with the gravity in that case and don’t allow fish-tailing
4. There is no issue with getting stuck, pop-outs; just don’t fly on sharp crests and avoid sharp turns at high speed

I would like to thank Rashidjass for his valuable feedbacks during the drive and Inters [mention]Thiago[/mention] and [mention]Rooies[/mention] for their great support yuush . Hope you all enjoyed your time and learnt some new skills with this drive thumbsup .

See you soon in the sand…

Cheers!
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I want to start with thanking [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for the opportunity of my first lead with the club. It was new and challenging a bit to be able to keep the level proper for the batch.

Overall we did not have any serious situations, some second tries and stucks which were expected, considering the sharp straight crests we have done. There were a couple of instances also some drivers kinda flew due to high speed approach. As mentioned in the meeting, it is better to have stucks than flying cars (of course the best if none of them happen :) ). Most important thing is learning the lessons from these stucks and flights to adjust your driving for the next. One important note; always watch carefully the car in front to have an idea on how to pass. These drives are arranged to let you develop the skills while having fun so use the opportunity and give as much attention as you can.

We had one tricky recovery as mentioned above which was handled safely by supervision of [mention]JockJKU[/mention] . I have to say you made my job very easy with your eyes always on the convoy.

I have to give a big thank you to [mention]Loca[/mention] for the hard work in his first support. Sorry for the issue with your car buddy and i hope it is an easy fix and shortly you will be back.

Finally, thanks to [mention]SINGH[/mention] for being everywhere and assisting in all situations as usual, [mention]jose[/mention] for support and all our drivers for driving with us.

See you all next time...
Last edited by Agalon on Sun May 05, 2019 9:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Morning All!

Thanks to all that attended, and congratulations again to all our new Explorers who all decided to show up to this drive so we could have 3 convoys!

I was with [mention]Agalon[/mention] , [mention]Solmaz[/mention] with [mention]Barish[/mention] and [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] was with [mention]Scorpio[/mention], with the explorer taking the lead in each convoy!

Al Faqaa is great because we can drive all levels here, 10-, 10+ and Inter so depending on how each convoy is doing on the day, there are a lot of options for the lead to mix it up and make the drive as challenging or as easy as the convoy needs!

Congrats to [mention]Agalon[/mention] who did a great job, he served up a very interesting mix for the more experienced 10- and gave a good lesson on distance, speed control and straight cresting!

Thanks to [mention]Loca[/mention], it was nice to see a new inter turn up and get stuck in! Thanks to [mention]SINGH[/mention] and [mention]jose[/mention] as well for the support! I hope your car is ok [mention]Loca[/mention]!! We had a stuck that should have been straight forward but turned into a problem due to software in an LR4 basically crippling the car from doing anything! Will be an interesting project for Ben to find out how to disable this! In the end we needed a train style rescue!!

A very fun morning for me and so happy to see my buddy take his first lead and do so well!!

Hope you all enjoyed and see you next week!

Jock
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Hello Almosters!

This was my 3rd drive as a driver (2nd if you exclude the CM drive). I was very excited and a bit tense to be honest as my last drive was 5 weeks ago and it felt as if it was going to be my first time on the desert after such a long break.

First of all thanks a ton to [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for organizing the event and to our other marshals [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] and [mention]Solmaz[/mention], and our new explorers [mention]baris[/mention], [mention]Agalon[/mention], [mention]presa[/mention] and [mention]Scorpio[/mention] for joining the event and making it possible to have 3 convoys! And our special thanks of course to the Intermediate drivers who joined as support!

It was a big event with over 30 cars, almost resembled a mini CM event. It was a great view, watching so many cars lined up at the meeting point with Almost4x4 flags dancing in the wind!

There was a mini briefing delivered by [mention]JockJKU[/mention] with a nice short birthday celebration. We were split into 3 convoys, I was in the one with [mention]Barish[/mention] leading, [mention]Solmaz[/mention] and [mention]presa[/mention] floating and [mention]Johanna[/mention] as the second lead but I cannot remember who was sweeping (sorry!). I was the 5th car in the convoy, which was a mix of different vehicles (for a change!), that included, as usual, the FJs, a Wrangler, a Land Cruiser, two Prados, a Fortuner and my tiny Pajero.

We started off easy, but fast. To be honest much faster than what I had expected this being my 3rd drive and the pace was much much slower in the past 2 drives I attended. I don't think I had ever exceeded around 50-55km/h in the previous trips but this time I do recall seeing around 90km/h a few times (and not on the flat runs only!). We just hopped over a few tiny dunes (or more like small sand formations) and within a matter of seconds, we were among larger dunes.

This was the first drive I experienced climbing up the dunes, making an arch and then coming down on the same side of the dunes. Some were nice and easy but there were a couple of dunes where we would have to almost immediately start a second climb making a very sharp S shape with minimal distance between the dunes, which was a bit challenging, this being my first experience with such situations.

What made the drive particularly challenging for me was the number of different tracks ahead of me as I had a hard time differentiating between them, not knowing which track was the original one created by the marshal. At some points it was easy because obviously one of the tracks belonged only to a single car, so don't take that one simple, but in many cases 2 tracks looked almost identical (as in how many vehicles used them) or they overlapped in such ways that it was hard to understand which was the right one. No major issues there but apparently I chose the wrong track a few times and had a bumpy ride while looking at the other track which seemed a smooth drive!

I had 3 incidents overall in this drive, which were all my first-time experiences. I did lose a bit of control coming off a dune once, and the vehicle started dancing and making S shapes (after I'd completed my descend and hit flat ground) while I was erratically trying to get it under control and before I could do that I had drifted diagonally running over some vegetation (I had to pick quite a bit of bushes/greenery from my front skid plate at the first rest stop). I still do not know why this happened and what I could have done to prevent things from getting worse after I started making S shapes :(

The second incident was my front left tire going completely flat, all of a sudden I started feeling a weird vibration as if driving over compacted but wavy sand. I cannot recall if this happened right after I took a sharp turn or not (one of those moments when adrenaline had taken over I guess) but luckily we stopped just a short while after I started experiencing this as someone was stuck on top of a crest (I was about to radio asking to stop). Got off the car to see there was no air left on the tire, we quickly pumped some air and it looked OK (thanks to [mention]Rathica[/mention] and her husband for the moral and labour support here :)). No idea why or how this happened either.

The third incident was a second try, another first for me. I've been wondering when I would experience this as I was not stuck or had a second try in my previous 2 drives and just a few minutes after I questioned this there I was, reversing down slowly to make a second try :) Be careful what you wish for :) But this was a learning opportunity for me because I have experienced how the car starts digging in and how to make a judgement call whether to keep pushing or stop to prevent being stuck completely. I managed to stop pushing on time so avoided getting stuck, slowly reversed down and while I was trying to come back down in a straight line shortly before I hit the flat ground rear of the car turned way too much to the side and I couldn't come down straight. This was noticed immediately by our ever-watching marshals and [mention]Solmaz[/mention] was there radioing instructions. Luckily I was near the bottom of the dune so I just slowly turned the car perpendicular to the dune first (if this had happened at a higher level on the dune I would have stopped and asked for help, with the fear of rolling the car over) and then drove head first off the dune.

Overall it was a very nice mix of different experiences with the focus being on climbing the dunes on the side and coming down on the same side with a few straight crests and one nice drop! I would like to applaud [mention]Barish[/mention] as he set the pace and complexity wonderfully this being his first time leading a newbie convoy. I'm happy that I was part of this first-time experience for him :)

We had more than a couple of second tries and people getting stuck so the convoy had to stop multiple times. Honestly, this was a welcome situation for me because the drive level was higher than what I had expected and I've to admit that it was a bit challenging for me at times. Nothing scary or way above our level but challenging enough to push us in a safe way. Oh and there was one weird incident where the vehicle behind me disappeared and apparently somehow he joined one of the other convoys and our support teams had to go and bring back the stray :)

Towards the end of the drive we found ourselves in a bit technical spot and the marshals decided to change the track although we had 3 cars already into the area, due to safety reasons. I personally don't think it was a too complex spot (but then, what do I know hehehe) but the marshals know better and this once again showed how much this club focuses on safety, for which I can't thank them enough!

We finished the drive shortly after this change of track and drove back to the tarmac. I had to air up before getting back on the road as the petrol station was about a 10minute drive away and I really don't trust the terrible stock configuration I've (with the relatively low profiled side-walls). Most didn't have this need and drove off right away to the petrol station, where I was also able to catch up with them. Nice chat there as in after every drive. I was sad to learn that [mention]Loca[/mention] had an incident while trying to pull a heavy Land Rover and I hope that the damage is not too important and it can be sorted our quickly + without too much damage on the wallet so we can see [mention]Loca[/mention] back with us in no time!

Thanks again to everyone involved in the organisation of the event, it was as always a wonderful morning filled with great experiences. I've to admit, and I think this goes for most people, my eyes did search for [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] in the meeting point thinking he would make a surprise appearance although he had not registered for the drive but he was nowhere to be seen this time :)
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Hi Almosters!

We had a great drive with 3 levels and much was already told on this.

I was floating with the 5-, under lead from [mention]Barish[/mention], 2nd lead with [mention]Johanna[/mention], [mention]nabil_k[/mention] sweeping and [mention]Solmaz[/mention] floating around.

Barish did great track, suitable for 5- and some people experiencing for the first time the arches - going up on a dune wall and down on the same dune, like a vertical U turn :)
The idea on this is to understand your car traction and avoid sliding too much, what can be unsafe. As [mention]Taco[/mention] bell mentioned, this need practice, and within a few drives this batch will be mastering it!

The main point on this drive was distance (followed by communication).

I could see people too close to the front car, while others were so far that couldnt see the car in front of them. This lead to the need to overspeed after a obstacle to reach the convoy, like taco mentioned on his report. The idea is to keep a safe distance usually 30m from the car in front and keeping a good flow - no need for breaking and acelerating hard at every obstacle.
On this drive the only place that we need to do it 1 by 1 was at the "big" dune downhill at the trees, were for the safety of a newbie convoy a 1 by 1 approach is advised.

About the communication, if you lost the car in front of you and is looking for the track the correct approach is to stop, call on the radio and someone from the rescue team will come to you.
To keep driving trying to guess the right track might lead you to trouble, since there are tracks that might not be suitable for your driving level.

Overall the drivers were doing pretty good, the drivers could feel the level increasing and they are being challenged to increase their abilities, in a safe way, as expected from Almost 4x4!

Taco wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 11:04 am I did lose a bit of control coming off a dune once, and the vehicle started dancing and making S shapes (after I'd completed my descend and hit flat ground) while I was erratically trying to get it under control and before I could do that I had drifted diagonally running over some vegetation
[mention]Taco[/mention] what was happening is that you were "fighting gravity", meaning that you didn't have traction to do the line you were willing to do.
In this case you should have entered the arch in a higher speed. From the moment you felt the car was sliding, the correct approach is to accelerate and turn down. This will avoid you getting stuck on the side, what is dangerous.
If this is happening while all the convoy was doing fine, might be that you are will too much pressure on your tires, try to go 2psi lower, or your tire is too much "Tarmac oriented".
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presa wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 11:28 am
Taco wrote: Sun May 05, 2019 11:04 am I did lose a bit of control coming off a dune once, and the vehicle started dancing and making S shapes (after I'd completed my descend and hit flat ground) while I was erratically trying to get it under control and before I could do that I had drifted diagonally running over some vegetation
@Taco what was happening is that you were "fighting gravity", meaning that you didn't have traction to do the line you were willing to do.
In this case you should have entered the arch in a higher speed. From the moment you felt the car was sliding, the correct approach is to accelerate and turn down. This will avoid you getting stuck on the side, what is dangerous.
If this is happening while all the convoy was doing fine, might be that you are will too much pressure on your tires, try to go 2psi lower, or your tire is too much "Tarmac oriented".
Thanks for the valuable information! I felt that the whole thing started after I'd already come off the dune not while I was in the middle of the arch or on the way down but I could very well be completely wrong (I blame the adrenaline for not remembering clearly hehe). There is also the possibility that once off the dune, the ground maybe was not as horizontal as I remember it :) Let's see how it goes in the future and I'll try to be more careful and keep in mind your comments.

ps I've 265/60R18, terrible Kumho tires which by the way have the M+S marking on them and from what I've read in the forums here among old posts that there are absolutely not suitable for our use. The tires were almost brand new when I bought the car from the previous owner (about 4000km ago) and I just couldn't come around to changing them while they are so new. The tires may have also played a role as you pointed out.
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