Changing Stars I

User avatar
brett
Crew
Crew
Posts: 204
Joined: Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:08 am
Location: Dubai
Has thanked: 1294 times
Been thanked: 830 times

Dear Dune people,

The name for this drive is enticing as it eludes to the point there maybe a series of changing stars drives coming in the future.
a big shoutout to @Barish for organizing the drive.

The location was again in the area of Sweihan AD the had previously been difficult to reach due to covid restrictions. As i had taken part in the morning drive, i decided to head straight to the afternoon meeting point and arrived 1.5 - 2hrs early. So I played around solo in the dunes for awhile until everyone started to arrive. by now it was getting hot with the temp around 38C.

Barish gave the briefing and assigned convoy positions. there was a wide selection of cars and drivers for this 10+ drive. @rapailo was to be our lead with @Barish @orlantsev and @alshamsi_m floating and watching over us. for support we had intermeadiates @mpodroid @Rooies @Tomvanhouten sweeping in Big ReD.

the usual suspects in the main convoy @AndreAJ @Asad @CARLOSS in the very new FJ, @dorudoru at 2nd lead, @ImranFJ @jcarlosgarme , @jjone , @Kevin , @Laarni , @Mehdi @piotr and @Stephan

The Drive turned out to be a real challenge - the tight technical areas, extremely soft and unforgiving sand. sharp drops, steep climbs, crests you name it @rapailo threw it all at us. i lost count of how many pop outs, 2nd and 3rd tries, recoveries, self recoveries etc. the pace was fast but with the number of popouts and 2nd tries etc it was hard for the convoy to find a rhythm. but it was a fantastic afternoon and stretched into the dusk hour as we finally emerged from the dunes after fixing one last popout in the dark.

What an amazing day in the sand
there are many takeaways from today ! the important one
- every drive at any level is a completely new learning experience.
Until the next Adventure

Brett
Red Baron
User avatar
dorudoru
Intermediate
Intermediate
Posts: 63
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2020 7:27 am
Has thanked: 132 times
Been thanked: 160 times

Hello Everyone,

With the re-opening of the Dubai - Abu Dhabi border, driving to the meeting points is getting quite interesting. It is generally the first time of starting from these meeting points and we really don't know what the area is like. Quite fascinating again driving in the unknown.

We gathered up just on the south side of the E95 near Al Ain Farms. Nice to see the usual suspects! Especially the ones in new cars with loads of blue underneath in love Mabrook @CARLOSS.

We had a short briefing by @Barish. @Barish and @alshamsi_m would be floating and our beloved explorer @rapailo is going to lead (exciting! one other unknown). And luckily, I was assigned as 2nd lead behind him blank

@orlantsev, @Tomvanhouten , @mpodroid, @Rooies as support.

Short breifing, quite fast lining up and off we go. In the begining there were few nasty ditches and even before we hit to our first dunes there were several stucks, second tries. Some days are like this, somehow the convoy can't find the rhytm as @brett mentioned and flow of the convoy is quite interrupted. This was one of those days where we could only cover 35kms ind 3.5 hrs.

And it had reasonable explanations, this was quite new and challenging area for us, many excavator tracks ruined the beautiful dunes. It was hard work for @rapailo to keep us safe under these circumstances. He did a great job and bring us back in one piece without any major issues.

I guess 15 minutes after we started our founder called on the radio and anounce that he is loosing steering fluid and he had to leave. It is so sad, losing our founder from the beginning. Wishing fast healing for Mando!

We drove to Nagra and came back to the meeting point, the area is beautiful, not really crowded or not too much tracks apart from those excavators. However, those excavators make a great mess in desert, very unpredictible and they are generally popout material. I guess, we should follow the advise of @rapailo and remove the spark plugs of those when spotted. :ninja:

At the end of the drive, Rapailo increased the speed and thats where I just fell into an artifically formed ditch due to these lovely excavator tracks and get a pop out. It is amazing what FJ magical buttons can do in an experienced hand. Rapailo took Yeti out of that situation with a pop out and fixed to pop out under 4 minutes. It was fantastic to see how talanted and experienced our explorers are.

Thansk again for our marshals, explorers and the support. It is so mind blowing to see how the club developed us from zero to a safe driver in the desert. I can't still believe that we did this much of progress. Special thanks to our beloved founder!

A last note to @Mabubaker, we had chance to taste the lead of both @giorgio and @rapailo. I think it is time to follow you yaeh am not durnk . Please consider this request.

See you in the sand!
Last edited by dorudoru on Sat Oct 09, 2021 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Mehdi
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 21
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2020 7:14 pm
Location: Dubai
Been thanked: 10 times

Hello Almosters,
the day after this colourful outing, so many memories!

A big thank you to @Barish for having launched this outing on A.D.
I also think of course to the other marshals( @alshamsi_m , @rapailo) , and to the whole rescue and support training team (I hope I haven't forgotten anyone) as @orlantsev , @Rooies , @Tomvanhouten , @brett , @mpodroid ...

As for me, I was happy to be back on the sand with you after some months of interruption, and with a new car.
Indeed some of you knew me at the wheel of a pajero LWB 3.5, and here I am today on a FJ Cruiser.
It was a return among you, but also the baptism with the FJ, new car, new sensations.
I had asked to participate in a lower level outing to get my hands on it, but the convoy was already full!
Anyway, a growing pleasure as the kilometres went by, punctuated by a few stressful moments!
But the main thing was to have fun in complete safety, and to continue to learn these little tricks from the benevolent elders.

Thank you all, look forward to see you again on a future ride.
Last edited by Mehdi on Thu Jan 27, 2022 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Mabubaker
Marshal
Marshal
Posts: 86
Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2017 8:21 am
Location: Abu Dhabi
Has thanked: 153 times
Been thanked: 146 times
Contact:

dorudoru wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 8:30 am
A last note to @Mabubaker, we had chance to taste the lead of both @giorgio and @rapailo. I think it is time to follow you yaeh am not durnk . Please consider this request.
Noted. My pleasure :graffiti:.... 2nd lead position identified.

Thanks,
M Abubaker
User avatar
dorudoru
Intermediate
Intermediate
Posts: 63
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2020 7:27 am
Has thanked: 132 times
Been thanked: 160 times

Mabubaker wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 11:47 pm
dorudoru wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 8:30 am
Noted. My pleasure :graffiti:.... 2nd lead position identified.

Thanks,
M Abubaker
ORLY looking forward to it grin
User avatar
Kevin
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:18 am
Location: On my way…
Has thanked: 4 times
Been thanked: 46 times

Hello all,

Firstly another thank you to @Barish for organising the trip and seeming to be everywhere in the convoy while Marshalling, also thanks to @rapailo for leading us astray… I mean leading the convoy 😉.

A special thank you to @alshamsi_m for his tireless energy for the club, sorry you didn’t get to finish the drive with us TT TT .

Also a big thank you to our media mogul @mpodroid, who not only provided the usual support and media coverage of the drive but sacrificed his disco music so that I could borrow his phone charger… true “Almost” spirit.

This leads me to what I thought was the theme of the day, previous reports mention the challenges of the drive and the many pop outs that incurred. I would like to hi-light the speed at which many of our Newbies came with shovels to help in the speedy resolution of each instance.

Sorry I won’t mention everybody that helped because I wasn’t at every pop out and I am terrible at names 😔. However @AndreAJ was quick to put his back into helping his fellow drivers toward the back of the convoy, along with @CARLOSS, @jcarlosgarme, @piotr and @Tomvanhouten was frequently seen with tools in hand providing supportive instruction to newbies and their first experiences of pop outs.

Another hi-light for me was being last in the convoy and causing @Tomvanhouten a real challenge sweeping in Big Red 😂. However my best efforts at switching speeds, gears and erratic techniques (My usual driving) didn’t thwart his mastering Big Red, those of us at the back were able to witness two well executed escapes from tricky soft bowls and some good energy management.

Altogether a drive which while not as smooth as some may have hoped, provided a lot of learning opportunities and a demonstration of true camaraderie spirit.

Thank you Almost 4X4 and all of you Almosters.

See you all in the sand soon!

Kevin
User avatar
Tomvanhouten
Intermediate
Intermediate
Posts: 190
Joined: Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:25 pm
Has thanked: 1078 times
Been thanked: 1075 times

Hello everyone,

There we were again, after some exciting 'fuel ridicules' with Big red, we managed to arrive jusssst in time. This is absolutely not my style, hate to be late, so apologies to the organizers.

The drive is area was lead by our @rapailo which in my opinion did really good in this messed up area...heavy machinery took the smooth tracks away and destroyed the Nagra dune exit, but ok, we are offroaders so we take it as it comes, great job!

My learning curve in Big red was quite steep, but once I found the secret, I wished to be upfront...this machine rocks! Out of the way everybody!!!!!!

As mentioned before, arches, technical, tricky ditches and a chewed up treasure were on our tracks, eventually all was conquered. Nice one everybody!

Thank you @rapailo and @Barish for planning this track, very useful in my development!

See you guys soon,

Tom
orlantsev
Advance
Advance
Posts: 49
Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2014 5:37 pm
Has thanked: 119 times
Been thanked: 326 times

Hello all,

Coming to the drive meeting point I realized that I never drove in the area coming from this entrance. The medium sized dunes looked so appealing that the temptation was high to just drive into them as soon as possible. First I had to make a pictorial of @Rooies Patrol. On Thursday I discovered that the antenna direction on Patrols is different. This makes the snorkel installation different. In my case the snorkel would overlap the antenna.

I was assigned to sweep the convoy. The first issues emerged as soon as we left the road as several cars were doing second tries in a soft sand area with ditches as extra challenge. Soon after due to @alshamsi_m forced departure @Barish asked me to float. The tracks from bulldozer were so big that you could easily do a side crest over them. All in all there were countless second tries, recoveries and pop outs. Even though there were dealt with very efficiently there have not been any 10 minutes of uninterrupted flow. When we reached Nagra dune in anticipation of play it was a disappointing sight. First the trash all around (which is not new), and second the purposely destroyed run up. It took maybe 4 or 5 trials to find a right unbroken track before I could have a decent climb.

The plan was to do a circle and return to the starting point. As the number of issues was not getting less the darkness has descended on us while we were still few km away. The convoy got disconnected when the first few cars already reached the inflation point, but the rest of the convoy were still struggling to overcome one climb. Finally, when everyone was through with it @barish asked me to lead the convoy to the exit.

So all in all many interesting challenges and recovery practices. We can only hope that the desert retakes over and we can again enjoy this area on a virgin sand.

See you soon
User avatar
piotr
Intermediate
Intermediate
Posts: 52
Joined: Mon Jun 22, 2020 2:05 pm
Has thanked: 59 times
Been thanked: 216 times

All,
It all started with a couple of surprises - one, a new name for the drive "Changing stars", which as @Barish later explained should become a series of events. Two, the meeting point was called deep in the Abu Dhabi region, close to AlAin, so are that Newbies rarely venture - great start!

After1.5h drive from Dubai, there was a mix of new and "old" names in the meeting point, as always great to socialize a bit before the adrenaline kick in :), despite the heat (40deg, still!).

We were lead from Al Ain farms to Nagra and back by @rapailo, a difficult task as it turned out given the desert was spoiled throughout by bulldozer tracks TT TT pissed off wtfsmilie . Despite that @rapailo managed to lead us with a brisk pace through some very technical areas, but also arches, walls and bowls, all in very soft sand. We had to stop a number of times due to some popouts (kudos F1 popout fixing team! meta knight ), few stucks and second tries, only proof that the terrain (and the trenches!) was quite unforgiving. That's what offroading is all about!

Personally I was happy with the performance of my car during the drive, also getting more confident negotiating more tricky spots. One learning is that any trouble in the convoy needs to be radioaed asap as it gives time for the group behind to react.

Overall we covered 34km, driving for 3.5h.

Big "Thank you" to our lead @rapailo with floating @Barish @orlantsev and @alshamsi_m, and also the usual group of supporting intermediates @mpodroid @Rooies @Tomvanhouten - thank you for your time, I had a great drive!
User avatar
CARLOSS
Intermediate
Intermediate
Posts: 153
Joined: Sun Sep 20, 2020 2:10 pm
Location: Dubai
Has thanked: 727 times
Been thanked: 874 times

Hi everyone!

I guess that Changing Stars’ drive meaning was not supposed to be “Changing Plans” as I could imagine @rapailo constantly changing the route because of these nasty trenches all over the place OSMILEY . Still, he managed to do a nice & safe drive for us which I fully appreciate thumbsup . Also, many thanks to @Barish for organizing the drive and @alshamsi_m for taking care of us (until Mando decided to finish the drive by herself patapon ) as well as all the supporting team @Tomvanhouten , @mpodroid , @orlantsev and @Rooies .

Usual suspects were also present with an outstanding performance so hats off to @AndreAJ , @dorudoru (nailed the second lead thumbsup ), @Kevin , @Laarni , @Stephan and @piotr .

My drive went reasonably well with a pop put and one second try (in front of founder’s eyes…as usual playingsmiley sad ) so, still need to test a different pressure set up for the front tires as 2 pop outs in 2 days in flat areas is not normal whut …will increase it a bit in the new drive. Most likely it is my fault, but I would prefer to blame the new tires for the time being Psmiley

Special mention to my friend @jcarlosgarme as he managed with only 10 drives to keep the pace in a difficult terrain and not giving up any time even though his white Pajero had a tough time playing with FJ and Jeeps, mainly. Well done mate! thumbsup

See you soon in sand

Carlos
Post Reply