Cool Stars VIII

[brett]

Dear Almosters,
It was a full weekend with intermediate drives posted for the morning and another in the afternoon for the newer Intermidates. I initially registered for the intermediate afternoon drive. Then I saw that @Barish posted a drive for the 10- drivers in Sweihan also in the afternoon. So I decided to change to @Barish drive in a support role.

I arrived early at the now familiar spot with @Daggerfall arriving shortly after. Followed by @Bu_touma. Once the drivers assembled in the scorching heat @Barish did the berifing and informed the drivers that the conditions in this area would be very different from what they were familiar with from previous drives. The drive order was set with @Daggerfall leading, myself in the middle to help with recoveries, @BuTouma sweeping and of course “The General”Barish floating.

The sand was very soft resulting in a number of stucks and 2nd tries but in general the convoy moved at a decent pace. @Daggerfall kept the challenges at just the right level for the drivers – upping the level every now and then to test the drivers, when an obstacle became a little to difficult for the cars (or drivers) the level was changed accordingly. I was only called on once to extract a car from a crest the driver had failed to cross. On one particular climb I made the mistake of following the driver in front too closely, and I paid the price ! the car infront started to struggle on the climb and loose momentum – he did manage to complete the climb, but I had to ease off the gas and ultimately became stuck in soft sand. It was a long way reverse back to the bottom and I had a large tight bowl to my left. While reversing the bowl was like a magnet pulling we towards it, so I radioed “The General” for some guidance – he was there in a flash and gave the instructions reverse and “Floor it” don’t slow down. This was not the cautious approach I was attempting (wrong in this soft sand) so I was out in no time – no drama, the point being sometimes the standard advice we hear does not suit every situation. The eyes of an experienced marshal can quickly identify the best manoeuvre required to get out of a sticky situation.
Towards the end of the drive with the drives getting tired and perhaps lacking concentration we had a situation where the first car “flew” over a crest/cross manoeuvre resulting in a double pop out, he was closely followed by the next driver who managed to copy the actions of the first car – lots sand flying, wheels in the air, some risky moves, also resulting in a pop out. The 2nd car had started his climb cross before the situation of the first car was know resulting in the messy situation at the top – the popouts were quickly fixed – lessons learned (hopefully) wait until you know it is clear ahead before committing to a climb etc, be aware of the car Infront.
Thanks also to the Newbies who braved the heat to join the drive
@ahmed77moharem
@Chris69
@mrwkassem
@sandjose
@Suman

Thanks to everyone for a very enjoyable afternoon in the sand
Everyone made it to the exit safely finishing around 630pm for the hour + drive home.

[Daggerfall]

Hi Almosters,

It had been a while since I didn't drive in the desert, so I was very excited to drive this weekend. The selected area by @Barish was great for a start, and the majority of the members in the convoy was relatively experienced Newbies.

As mentioned by @brett we tried to find the limit of the Convoy and kept the level there with a little bit challenge for improvement.

Everyone did great and we didn't have any major issues (Stucks and Pop outs are part of the game) in the drive.

There are some points I would like to share:

1. Keeping the right distance is crucial! Not too long so you can learn from the car in front of you. Not too short so you can have enough reaction time to any incident and enough space for the car in front of you when it is in trouble.

2. Second lead is responsible for protecting the convoy if the lead is in trouble so should keep enough distance to react and follow the instructions of the leading car because whatever the second lead does the rest will follow

It was a great day despite the hot weather in the start. Thanks to @Barish for organizing the drive , Thanks to our intermediates and crew for the support and the newbies for good performance.

See you next time

[Suman]

This drive was held at Sweihan. We met at designated meeting point, needless to say it was hot and warm. It was my first time in Sweihan and the sand and high dunes look so much different.
We all completed the preparation and basic check for off-road journey. Marshal @Barish briefed on the drive and emphasized tire pressure might deceive us during the drive! He was spot on about it. We were advised to be nice to @brett who was in support and rescue,
and off we went behind the lead Marshal @Daggerfall. The whole convoy moved criss crossing the dunes and soft sand. And within a short while we hit the uphill climb and I was the first one to face the funny side of air pressure. After few tries and repeated refusal, I found out the tire air pressure of my car has moved up few notch and had to deflate the tires again.
After this I manage to pass this obstacle along with fellow Almosters. Few of us had our fair share of refusal and tries here. We continued playing on slope and Marshal @Daggerfall continued leading us from one thrilling side to the other. And came the moment, I flew over while passing the crest, had hard landing on the other side of the dune which resulted in pop out. Behind me @mrwkassem had 2 tires pop out! Marshal @Barish & @brett were on it and lead with example to fix the pop out & correct use of our tools. It was a moment which provided us valuable experience and example of camaraderie of Almost4x4.
Gradually we moved towards famous dunes of Nagra. We had a short break and took time to appreciate the nature and beauty of the land. We shared coffee, small bite of food and departed towards the exit.
At the exit, we all wave goodbye to each other. My car had a small silly issue and with the help of @ahmed77moharem ,
@mrwkassem &
@sandjose and over the phone trouble shoot from a fellow Xterra owner I was able to leave the place before it was too late.

Much appreciate to the Marshals, Senior Crew and Support and fellow Almosters.

See you all.again.

@Barish
@brett
@Daggerfall
@Chris69
@ahmed77moharem
@mrwkassem
@sandjose

[Barish]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to do some chg this time on Cool Stars series and wanted try beautiful Sweihan for our 10- members, which i later noticed that it was really a good decision.

We were discussing with @Daggerfall during the drive; your options in Sweihan is almost endless especially for a Newbie drive and this makes the area good for learning different obstacles. Bumpy climbs, soft sand, climbs with small arches, climbs with turns, etc.

We had a small but agile convoy, almost no stucks for a piece of respect to the reacue team , we had some second tries due to tyre pressure and we had 2 popouts only. We chged the convoy order later due to some power issues of some cars to help them to use fresh tracks.

Well done to all drivers, thanks to support team of @brett and @bu touma and thanks to @Daggerfall for the amazing lead to Nagra.

Dont forget: change never changes if you do not improve.

See you next time.

Barish

[Spyda]

Arrived at sweihan late afternoon to a hot desert around 44c full of excitement as I really enjoy sweihan and our Marshalls always give us a great line through. Daggerfall had come out of semi retirement to lead us and he did not disappoint.
He threw in some challenges for everyone In the convoy with some quite steep punchy climbs on very soft sand. The temperature and soft conditions as we start getting into the uae summer emphasised tyre pressure importance. With the tyres increasing 2-3 psi from the start in about 15 mins. Our Marshalls could see a few cars struggling so we has to stop and make the necessary adjustments.
Found myself with a couple of points to take away from this drive, the 1st is I need to get a few of the factory nanny's removed from my car that was cutting the power at high rpm preventing that little bit more i needed to complete one particular climb. Other thing is my own skill I need to work on feathering the throttle to keep the car moving and not get bogged down.

One incident involved the car I was following having a pop out, I managed to avoid the car and take a different line as the car was in view and not a blind manoeuvre. Thing I remember is looking in the rear view and seeing another car coming in hot. He double popped out and the result 2 cars in the same spot with pop outs, myself parked with them . I took away from this I should have just gone to the bottom of the bowl away from harms way as the car behind me came in too fast and popped out. Have to be aware cars all around can make mistakes and need to position one's self in a place to avoid collision if the car in front has an issue. Our Marshalls quickly dealt with the the pop outs and we continued our drive finishing with a beautiful view from nagra dune.

Daggerfall lead a great drive with Marshall Barish in his jeep watching and instructing from various positions around us. Rescue/support crew only had one rope recovery and the pop outs to deal. Most cars self recovered and had 2nd or 3rd trys.

Big thank you to the Marshalls and support crew for making these drives happen and taking the time to instruct/train us new newbies pull us out the sand when needed.