RALLY MARSHAL - COMPLIMENTARY DRIVE

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Laarni
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Dear all..hope u all have a very nice day ahead..
COMPLIMENTARY DRIVE... thats the name of the drive..but this drive is a significant learning stage for all newbie like me..

so to it begins with rally marshaling...and a complimentary drive after, or a reward / price watever..  but things didn't go as plan and then rally got postpone for some reason, but then we still get the complimentary drive anyways... anyways..after receiving inbox to where we are going to drive i got curious specially finding out that is was an advance and intermediate territory...but at the same time very much excited and looking forward till the day comes,

D- day comes..its AL FAOW..upon reaching the meeting point, i emidiately see the big dunes beside us...and there's only one thing in my mind...mannn.. its going to be fun. after everybody comes and deflate we been assigned to our designated convoy line up.. Lead by @alshamsi_m followed by tom, brett and me and mpodroid and so on..and floating marshal Bouybouy!

we then start driving and yeah...watever is happening is all new to me..the driving style and new technique ( cresting ) im always tense at the beginning of any drives but this time im not nervously tense..but excited..specially with this new type of dunes and tracks...and jeep in front of me which makes it more exciting for me..we did a very nice swing, cresting a bit, slope, arches and then congratulations to me i got a POP OUT!!! hitting a lump of nasty sand with plant, but then everybody gathers to help me...so after fixing my pop out we continue driving..but...i forgot to put my car back into 1st gear..and left it with drive only...i manage to get through some of the dunes but climbing to a bigger dunes makes me notice that something is wrong...its funny but frustrating at the same time..but lesson learned..a lot happen..2nd tries and some jump for me...but over all its a very nice learning stage, fun and exciting...specially there's a naughty marshal ( bouy!!) running around teasing and adding fun ( confusion) to everyone, and at the same time learning us how to be focused on our own tracks,

i can add more but I will leave a space for others to tell their side of the story
and the drive came to an end leaving me a very significant lesson...keep distance..

might be a repeated words THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR MAKING THIS DRIVE POSSIBLY!!  but i always mean it from my heart..

@alshamsi_m thank you for always giving us your precious time, @Booy thank you for the complement that gives us more courage, @Tomvanhouten thank you for being supportive as ever @James thanks for always saving everyone to being the sweeper @brett thanks for the bread ( thou I didn't take) @asadwrangler @doruduro @kriskian @mpodroid thanks guys for participating with all of us, hope to see u all more in the sand
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mpodroid
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Unexpected (registered for the desert rally), but pleasant complimentary drive: @alshamsi_m told us in the briefing that we were going to do arches. Cool!

We had many of them, like dancing queens ;-)

Interesting new rule in Almost4x4, that I never realised so far: split friends, do not let them drive in front of each other,
so the have the possibility to learn and adapt to different driving styles.

I had quite a shock, looking at @Laarni doing a sudden stop, just a few second tries in the convoy, some due to short distance from the preceding car and not enough time to react.

Before closing a big thank to the marshals and specially to @Booy: he floated around the convoy, patrolling, watching over us and - even - covering and protecting us with his car from other approaching convoys: impressive! (at the end of the video).

If you don't care where you are, you ain't lost.
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Tomvanhouten
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Hello everyone,

unfortunately, but understandably the rally event got postponed, so it was decided to just drive the complimentary drive. There we were in this lovely area where high dunes are mixed with technical area's. What a treat!!

A quick safety briefing of @alshamsi_m revealed, we were not going to have an easy drive. Mostly the point of "don't fight gravity" was highlighted, which meant we were going up and down Psmiley
We started the drive immediately with a somewhat higher dune doing arches and multiple sides... ok, everyone was awake and off we went with the promised mixture of driving styles and techniques.

I really enjoyed driving behind @alshamsi_m , which was doing the exact pace which was required to keep the convoy on it's toes. @mpodroid and @Booy were supporting all around. thanks to both of you!

In my opinion excellent Friday morning exercise and a lovely drive.

Thank you all for the company and see you next time,

Tom
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brett
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Dear All,

Another report from the little yellow jeep
The Complimentary Drive graciously arranged by the infamous @alshamsi_m and the ever present @Booy.
thank you guys for creating this drive for us, it is as always greatly appreciated.

We arrived at the meeting point and immediately started deflating and then chatting with everyone.
@alshamsi_m did a quick safety briefing and explanation of the area we would be driving, he then set about to set the convoy order.

Before we headed off the little yellow jeep decided to complain about having the kill switch activated and would not come out of park and into gear. after several tries of turning ignition on and off, kill switch on and off etc the little yellow beast finally behaved, complied with the instructions i was giving to it and off we set.

i don't know what it is with me at the moment but my development of driving seems to have been going 1 step forward then 2 steps back ! first few dunes and i was fishtailing all over the place i had to abort one of the first crossings as the tail end was slipping away and gravity took over, so it was a very quick and not very pretty abort to follow the drift of the tail. After recovering we continued on and before i knew it another aborted maneuver. This time with copious amounts of sand flying through the open window into the cockpit (Imee was not impressed !). the best way to describe the early part of my drive - it is like when you are riding a horse and you think you are in control only for the horse to remind you you are not ! and it ignores all the signals and instructions you are trying to force it to do. !

I realized my tyre pressure was messed up after starting at 10psi after only 20min all 4 were at 16psi ! i dropped all the tyres to 9psi. Received so welcome pointers from @Booy and continued on my way. Things had greatly improved as i started to calm down and not hit the accelerator so hard that all wheels were spinning and sliding. consistent speed and gentle input, i was now driving at a much more acceptable level.

the Super Bowl was indeed very impressive. We didn't reach the heights of the more experienced drivers but it was still a real thrill to drive it. Even more entertaining to watching @Booy doing the full height of the bowl and having a real blast.

My apologies to @Laarni who had to endure driving behind and erratic jeep at the beginning and then towards the end of the drive when i inadvertently. dropped of a crest that was not the intended track. leaving @Laarni stranded at the top not knowing if she should follow or not. all ended well. that last 10 -15 mins of a drive is always potentially unforgiving.

So the drive came to an end, we all arrived safely at the finish where the egar attendants inflated our tyres for a very modest fee.

My Takeaways of this drive
- ensure tyre pressure is correct at the start of the drive
- flooring it is not always the best approach
- try and keep a calm and focused mental state.
- it is ALWAYS a learning process - there are no shortcuts

thanks to everyone who joined the drive it is an awesome day in the dunes.
Thanks again to @alshamsi_m @Booy for leading the way and keeping us safe.
@mpodroid the videos are amazing


And the rest of the crew i know i am missing some sorry
not sure why the tag function not working properly ?
@Tomvanhouten
@James
@dorudoru
@Asadwrangler
@kriskian
Until the next Adventure

Brett
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James
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What a great start to the weekend……. a relaxing drive to the meet location, windows open fresh air, met the usual suspects on the way so formed a mini convoy, me in sweep.

A brief thoroughly enjoyable chat with the memorable’s reliving the last drive, all the wow’s, real open conversation that I must add is fairly rare (only at the weekend drives), nothing hidden, just optimistic shared experiences with a lot of positively charged fun discussion, a quick role call @alshamsi_m with some action points, areas we will visit, a history lesson that was great, identifiable safety points that with the Almost family I have found to be paramount and then to the positions and we were off, one of my favorite places as the sweep, makes it a little more challenging but you can push the tail end of the convoy, loved every second of all of the challenges. Got stuck but the power of the reverse up a slope should have its place in history, no need to think twice, just go back and up then forward and over.

The dunes crested up and over, lots of demanding uphill chasers, with the LC, you lose momentum, speed and the revs just go down and it is game over, lots of options to try and keep going but you follow gravity, but I must say most of the higher lines were followed as long as there was enough of a run up.

Great to have that level of a drive and track, I cannot find the exact wording to describe to event… from a, who would like to Marshal to a come on let’s go, total commitment from the Almost lead @alshamsi_m, Marshal @Booy. Second Lead @Tomvanhouten was great to see the convoy in its entirety as it swept further up the dunes, great line of sight to see the flow from the back well managed without any major gaps.

Great climbing dunes, some cresting with drops and only one pop out with the now excellent standard of support response so we can get going again. Mind you, @dorudoru “was” known as the pop out champion now just crested but all credit due, he was told to hold, which he did in a safe place, maybe too safe… all credit to @Booy, bring your shovels and we as we normally do, Lead from the back, dug him out and then the Atrac played it role and freedom so well played @dorudoru.

Towards the end, we had a few Jeep, Porch and Iron….. all doing photoshoots.. am sure they had so much fun….not, we also met with a few other convoys trying to maneuver into our chosen path…. Not going to happen @Booy, influenced their line and flow to let us all pass so thank you there.

I have watched all of my videos of the day, thoroughly loved every second but not IT savvy enough to put the compilation together.

As a final, thanks to @mpodroid for the video, I have hours of absolute adrenaline busting video’s but it never really reflects the action and fun, your video share puts an entire new level of capturing the event so thank you, and this song shows your age which is OK as I am sure there are some just wondering who this is.

I have to thank the Almost family who took part, the technical discussion, the maneuverability of the vehicles, what to and not to do and how to make it happen, all very positive, was a great event so a final big thank you to @alshamsi_m and @Booy. Not fogetting all of the achievers of the day: @brett @Laarni, @Asadwrangler, and my company of the day @kriskian and @alshamsi_m cousin @S.ALSHAMSI Saeed - some great conversation and shared knowledge around the Porsche capabilities in the desert.
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mpodroid
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James wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 8:50 pm
As a final, thanks to @mpodroid for the video, I have hours of absolute adrenaline busting video’s but it never really reflects the action and fun, your video share puts an entire new level of capturing the event so thank you, and this song shows your age which is OK as I am sure there are some just wondering who this is.
Thanks @James.

Happy that you like it: editing these videos takes me quite a lot of time, but I like to review our drives with some good music. BTW, I do not know about you, but I like music recorded between the 20's and 80s', almost before I was born ;-)

PS Music title and authors are showed by youtube if you click on "show more". The beauty of YouTube is that it is legal to use copyrighted music: I lose the possibility to monetise, but that's not the goal of sharing them
If you don't care where you are, you ain't lost.
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