Almost4x4

Hi again Almosters! What a good day to start the season, at least for me

I have not done a drive since the Salalah trip, due to some issues with the car, so today was a perfect opportunity to start off. A good early morning start in Al Faqa area, with the weather much improved, a good amount of people in the convoy, led by our marshal of the day @giorgio , nice pace, with good amount of strait crossings to practice speed and power, which I still need to control, flying is not good (at least not in a Toyota )

A few adventures in the day, several stuck situations and second tries, but all went well. Hope @Laarni issue will have an easy fix, fingers crossed.

Thank you all the team, the floating marshals, @rapailo and @Rashidjass , and of course all the supporting members @brett @Ehab @PedroLeal @Mahmoodyasin @Tomvanhouten and @orlantsev for all your patience and support.

Looking forward for the next drive!

LuckeyM

Hello everyone,

Big plans for the day, but it went somehow different. One of these things you discuss upfront a drive and of course stuff happens during....

This area is one of my favourites as so much is possible here. This day, we went for a 5- drive with a lot of drops and straightcrests exercises. Great to get a feeling for the car!!

After some time, some complaints came in from @Laarni mentioning that she heard a noise from the rear end. Couldn't find it directly, but then after some time we could see the shock was leaking at one of the couplings. Nothing bad, but time to stop.

Our apologies to the convoy and marshals for having to leave early.

Hopefully see you next time again

Tom

Thank you @giorgio for hosting us in yesterday drive and extended thanks to you and the support team for a safe and fun drive.

Al Faqa is indeed a versatile region, it throws at you technical areas as well as long and tall dunes. I liked very much the theme of practicing straight crossing multiple times, it helps in getting in synch with the car, and to find the right amount of throttle and momentum to cross the crest with the objective of avoiding a refusal or getting crested. Practicing descending at the right angle and speed is equally important.

Thanks again for a great morning drive and hope to see you all soon.

Best regards

Mario

One of my favorite area to lear off-roading specially cresting. Great lead by @giorgio and amazing support by floating marshals and advanced members.
Enjoy watching

Set tha hook - newbie trip

Hi all
It was wonderful to return back to the sand after a stretched traveling schedule.
@giorgio did a to the point briefing, mentioning all the vital tips before the convoy hit the track.
The drive was a mix bag of flat, high drops and maneuvering around the technical areas. The convoy responded well with a single negative point of not maintaining the right distance from cars ahead. With marshals on the watch and realizing it quickly, the convoy had to stop and go through another briefing which made things look a bit better.
There we stucks (which are always better than flying) with some regular customers that made our intermediates get to practice and polish their recovery skills.
A nice and smooth drive ended on the clock to see some happy and excited faces.
Thanks @giorgio for a balanced lead, @rapailo and @Rashidjass was the e watch. @brett , @Tomvanhouten @Ehab @Laarni @PedroLeal for the support and @orlantsev for floating.

Till next time
Mahmoodyasin
White FJ cruiser
(Blizzard)

Hi Almosters,

As always after a CM drive we have a 5- drive to welcome our new members to the family.

The trip organizer @SINGH unfortunately was not able to attend so I was asked to take over his drive.
The selected area was the Al Faqaa area which is a source of endless opportunities even for an intermediate level drives.

During the briefing the main points that were highlighted were: Radio communication and proper distance. Main exercise of the day was multiple straight crests enabling the drivers to repeatedly practice momentum and throttle control. The terrain had a mix of challenges starting with small to mid size straight crossing ending up to small technical and bumpy ride just to wash it down with a sort fast relatively flat terrain experience.

As it was mentioned earlier the drive was shortly interrupted for a quick second briefing that highlighted the importance of safe distance and radio communication.
To all the drivers i had to highlight the importance of the proper distance. To much of a distance will result to loss of track or disconnection of the convoy something that we phased more than one during our drive.

The convoy over all did quite well with several short interruptions but nothing that the recovery team and Marshalls could not handle.

Practice makes perfect so keep driving and in the long run you will see how all what now you see as challenges will become second nature.

Closing my report I would like to thank all the support team Marshalls and drivers for the great time on the sand and I am looking forward to see you all on the upcoming drives

Dear Almosters


It was great to see the new members from last weeks CM drive joining us as Newbies to continue their journey to develop their skills for driving safely in the desert - welcome to your new 2nd family.

The other reports have clearly outlined the trials and tribulations of the drive so i won't bore you with a reiteration. Suffice to say my Viking Rope saw plenty of action. overall a great morning and everyone did extremely well. i look forward to joining you all again as we enter the winter driving/camping season.

Thanks to @giorgio for the great lead and track selection. Thanks to the ever watchful guardian angels floating and keeping us safe @alshamsi_m @Rashidjass @orlantsev @rapailo @Mahmoodyasin .

And of course the usual collection of intermediates on hand to assist with recoveries @Tomvanhouten @PedroLeal @Laarni and @Ehab there to capture the events on film

until the next instalment - stay safe and enjoy the sandpit