More Sand

[Muhittin]

Thank you everyone for this nice drive.
here are some photos:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... cd4e5e0de4

[video=youtube_share;WyyiPJe1tH0][/video]

[Sridhar]

I would like to begin with an advance apology for the loooooong report…..but couldn’t help it.

This morning, a flock of over 30 newbies, advanced drivers and Marshals descended at Nazwa shops with the usual pomp and gaiety. A little after 8:00, Bu Salem’s whistle reverberated around Nazwa and the crowds quickly congregated for the pre-drive brief. Drivers were segregated into 3 (-5, 5+ and 10+) groups and were ushered to the deflating area at staggered intervals in the same elegant manner as aircraft are handled on taxiways. :038:

One on hand, I was proud of being officially upgraded to 5+ group (congrats to mates who made it to the 5+ group today); and on the other hand, was nervous as usual. Our convoy was led by Yoghybear with Abu Jimmy at the tail, thank you both gentlemen. Tool inspection preceded the drive, and once the marshals were satisfied, the convoy set off and I was in the middle (5^th car). We moved at a reasonable pace, and drove up the pink rock from behind and after a short break, we continued towards Al Badayer, where we finished at 10:50 AM, and were the first convoy to cross the finish line.

On a technical note, we were introduced to side cresting (in the shape of “S”), cresting over dunes at angles, riding on top of crests over multiple dunes at a time, as well as small dunes with sharp angles. Add to it, the sand was hard at places and very soft at others. The main challenge for me today was speed control. For the first time today, I started looking ahead and shifting gears in anticipation, based on judgment of terrain (sand softness and climb angles, etc.) and the fact that I did manage to complete the drive without any issues made feel very satisfied in the end.:smile: Many thanks for Organizers and Marshals for selecting this wonderful track and I hope I get a few more opportunities to drive on this route.
During the break atop Pink rock, we checked tire pressure using 3 different gauges; mine, Orlantsev’s and Vimal’s – all three identical gauges (Bush Ranger) – read 8, 11 and 14psi on the same tire. Had to settle for the average. Need to visit petrol station soon to calibrate my gauge as well as my new EZ deflator that I bought last night.

My “Confidence”, in short Mr. C :037:, owns and drives another car, which is similar to mine. Mr. C had accompanied me all these years like a shadow to wherever I went without a second thought. But, ever since I started taking detour off the beaten paths with ALMOST 4x4, Mr. C seemed to have changed his mind. He started parking his car at Nazwa shops / meeting points and take a nap waiting for me to return; and then used to follow-me back to home or elsewhere. This strange behavior continued till this morning. This morning, however, Mr. C decided to give it a try and followed me, albeit very slowly and trailed way behind my car. But I am glad Mr. C is giving it a try now, I hope he will improve with time and technique and hopefully one day become as good as me, but……CAUTION……I should always keep an eye on Mr. C, so he never overtakes me ever.
Sincere thanks to Marshals and Organizers for the splendid drive, fellow drivers and my passenger, who all made my day. Thank you ALMOSTERS; I remain, craving for MORE SAND.

[Arun Pandyat]

First of all thanks to Marshals and organizers and fellow members for making this trip successful.

We all gathered at Nazwa shops and splited in to 3 convoys. First convoy was lead by Paul for the 10+ and the second convoy lead by Yogibear and sweep by Abu Jimmy for the 5+ and the 3^rd convoy lead by Strab and sweep by Abu Salem for the 5- Newbies.

I was in the 5+ convoy and it was bit fast phase. Also the rout was mix of soft and hard sand.
In some areas in soft sand I was struggling to cop up. After the first phase we stopped after the pink rock. Initially the tire pressure set as 11 PSI and when we stopped after pink rock the pressure was increased to 14 PSI. Believe this was the reason for the struggle and after that again reduced to 10 PSI and didn’t feel any problem further. The increase from 11 to 14 PSI was new for me.

In the drive in between I lost the track and sorry Solmaz, Vimal and Apo54 if I put you in trouble.
Honestly what I found myself is, I was slowing down in some curves/turns to avoid pop-outs and was afraid to hit the dunes hardly (in more speed). (I had a bad experience in crocodile drive – my both front shocks were broken). So I was slowing down and think this is the reason for loosing the convoy. I have to find some solution for myself.

Over all the trip was smooth and in the trip nobody was stuck and in few areas some had a second try.

Once again thanks for the organizers and marshals.

Waiting for the next trip…

[momo]

Newbies 5- drive was mostly smooth, recoveries were fast. I enjoyed the drive and foxy was doing well on sand, floating on sand with BFGoodrich 275 70 16. Thank you Abu Jimmy for the pressure advise, during drive it increased to 10 psi at front 9 psi at rear tires but it was perfect pressure, no digging and no pop-out. That is the essential thing.
We were all happy to see Margarita back after she got lost, thanks to Strawb for rescuing her.
Alshamsi, thanks for the sweep and rescue, your car is always looking nice on top of dunes while you watch at us.
Regards to our convoy I enjoyed the drive with you.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1898[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]1899[/ATTACH]

[orlantsev]

Adding my bit to the reviews. I was in 5+ this time. It was great to see that people took the warning about the tools seriously and everybody came well prepared.That meant that nobody was sent home. It happened again for the second time in a row that I was the second car in a convoy just behind the marshal. Until now I have not decided for myself if it helps or otherwise. On one hand I benefited from observing Yoghy and tried to imitate to the trajectory, speed etc. On the other hand I did not know where he was headed and hence had to react faster and change the direction when required. While you have some adrenalin of clearing the obstacles before everyone else does, you also miss out the action behind you if somebody gets stuck or something....Also you have so much confidence in the marshal that he would clear the obstacle ahead that you tend to keep shorter distance than advisable. So what the surprise it was when Yoghy did no make it out of the bowl from the 1st attempt. Was it to test my reaction?Overall, it was a pleasant stress-free drive. I am off for few weeks. Going back home to see family. Wishing everybody all the best and exciting next drive which I regret to miss.

[Just Joseph]

This is my first Newbie Drive (5-) and my first trip report too, so I'll focus on my lesson learned and observations.


Convoy Summary
More Sand 5- (10 cars)
More Sand 5+ (10 cars)
Third Convoy (more experienced group)


Sequence of events
Meet & greet at meeting point (on time!) - Happy to see smiling faces and some of the members I met on my Club Member drive
Breifing before hitting the sand - very important discussion and must be given 100% attention
On the sand - We reached the point to deflate tires
The drive begins - We started on small dunes and gradually moved to higher and more challenging yet exciting dunes.
During the drive - There were few times that drivers got stuck and recovered, couple of pop-outs and the challenge keeping distance that pretty much delays the runs but not the fun.
Back to Al Badayer and home


Now. The lessons I learned
1. Communication - on this kind of activity, communication is paramount & knowing to how communicate is a skill to learn too! For me these are two important aspect of safety. ("you need to Identify yourself, then communicate your concerns..." - I recall having this conversation with AbuJimmy on the Camp)
2. Distance between cars - maintaining 3-5 cars distance is essential and often easier said than done. This allowed me to copy the actions of atleast one of the drivers infront me. Copy but NOT paste! seeing 2 cars is just pure advantage. I learned that you can use this distance as an advantage to correct mistakes of the vehicles in front. ("3-5 cars distance..." mentioned few times by Marshal's - BuSalem & Strawb during briefing)
3. Tire Pressure - during my CM drive I was running at 12-14 psi on my Jeep JK 2D (may varies on type of car). This drive I was running at 8-10 psi and it was amazing how the car moves. Because of this pressure I was also careful on my turns to prevent pop-outs.


These are the 3 key things that lingers on my head while driving back home, I also recall I came across some similar post in the forums.

Happy reads! Cheers!

[bombays]

missed out on a great drive ,was out of town , awaiting next drive after a break of 21 days. back in town..

[desert_jellyfish]

This truly was a great drive! I found there were quite a substantial number of stucks and pop outs which forced us to take flat ground in the end while returning to Badayer but all in all, it was a great learning experience as always!

I've started to learn more about my car in terms of tire pressure, gearing (automatic tiptronic), traction control, and more.....which i'm very happy with

I would like to thank Abu Jimmy for his patience at Badayer shops after the drive while checking my tools (even though I was missing a shovel!) because if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have known that the jacking board i have isn't right. Thank you Strawb for the track and the drive, some great dunes we over came and thank you alshamsi for keeping a watchful eye out on us

Thank you all drivers, passengers, and participants for making this a safe and fun event!

[Paul]

Hi everyone

On Thursday night, i landed at about 22:00 and excitedly checked the Almost4x4 site for the PM..... There was a message from Bu Salem saying he was sorry, but i could not join the drive.... i felt upset, but continued reading..... i could not join, i was to lead the Convoy 3. Hoo Ha, new challenge. This was a big step.

At the briefing Bu Salem split up the groups and told me to take Convoy 3 to Pink Rock and back to Al Badayer, Safari style..... and get there at 11:00. So off we went.

We moved off into the the sand and stopped to deflate and have a quick briefing.

I tried to pick a nice flowing Safari style route. This was not always possible. Everyone drive exceptionally well and we had no sticks or pop outs during the entire drive. We reached Pink Rock very quickly and i realised we needed to cover a lot more distance as we were moving too fast and we would be at Al Badayer way to early..... So I just zig zagged through all the interesting dunes i could find.

Thanks to Armin for being second lead occasionally picking a better route. Thanks to Suhail and Adnan for being rescue and sweep. Rescue was not needed, only an occasional request to slow down and let the convoy regroup after one or two people made "second attempts" at some of the tricky bits.

Well done to all the drivers, you guys impressed me.

Thanks to Bu Salem and the Marshals for giving me the opportunity to do some Lead driving practice. It was a fantastic experience that was made easy by having a great bunch behind me.

Regards
Paul

[shaju nair]

This is my first post in here. I just came to get my toolsinspected and Strawb did it. Thanks Strawb for your comments and inputs on mytools. Since I was already there, I decided to join the 5+ as a passenger withSredhar. Had one of my best time, really enjoyed it thoroughly.
Hope to join the group for a drive soon.
Have a good week ahead all of you.