Almost4x4

I was in the main convoy and overall it was a good drive. Thanks to marshals Hamdan and Alkhatib for a great track, also to Faisal for sweep and support, and of course to all the newbies for good company.
There was a few incidents of suffering and retries but only one incident of pop-out. I have a question that I think newbies need an answer to. What is the best practice when suffering? What should one one do? I know that this is situation dependent but I ask because from the few times today that I saw suffering it think the newbie reaction under the pressure of not wanting to slow the convoy down was a bit risky.

In the first case the car in front of me experienced suffering. I climbed the dune after he had, leaving reasonable distance. At the top i waited until he started climbing the next and then descended. With my car pointing down I could not see him as he was higher up, but he was suffering. By the time I had reached a level slope he was reversing down towards me with speed and would have hit me had I been hasty on the accelerator. (this was not a very big dune and he skimmed past as soon as i stopped) I believe he wouldn't have been able to see me the same way i didn't see his suffering.
The other incidents I saw briefly and just parts of because they were a few cars down the convoy from me but also from what i saw it seemed like panicked reversing. Of course reversing is the safest way to go down to retry, but shouldn' t the convoy know beforehand to stop? (this was a medium to small bowl with two or three cars in it excluding me).
To be honest I'm not sure if I know how to properly and safely react to a suffering situation I would probably try to quickly move out of the way by turning right or left to go down but i know sometimes this is not possible. I noticed Iskander using the radio to inform all that he is retrying. I liked this very much is that the way to go?

I hope that nobody gets offended from what I am writing this is not a rant or complaint or criticism on anyone driving skills as I myself would like to know the answer on how to best react to this. In fact had i been in your shoes today i would have probably done something similiar. In fact let me be honest and say that in one of my early drives with almost i have done exactly what am describing here it a result of being under pressure and not wanting to slow the convoy down. I thought it harmless at the time but today i got a different perspective of how it can be a little risky especially on faster paced bowl cresting drives where pile ups escalate rapidly.

I suffered a lot today. Sami, you are absolutely right. I, for one did not want to slow the convoy down but also the fast pace and high technical dunes AS PART OF A CONVOY were out of my league. I hope Chief or one of the Founding marshals would give us a talk about panicky behaviour/how to react to suffering.
I am so grateful to two people on this drive. Abu Khatib and Faisal.

On a lighter note, many drivers on this particular convoy have run the gauntlet to try for Intermediate.

Some dunes which many of them made second tries, I crossed first time :grin:

Inexperience and improper tires were my biggest hurdles today !!

I really enjoyed the Main Convoy trip today, and thanks very much to the organisers.
It was excellent practice to have a different style of lead and drive today. With such a long convoy it was remarkably smooth, and there were lots of interesting technical parts.
Great fun as ever!

Another excellent Friday morning adventure on the 4TH DAY of October!

This trip was as enjoyable as it was technical..
What more could we have asked for ?... soft sands , high dunes and more high dunes.

Definitely a level up which demanded that the driver use all his skills and techniques in his 'arsenal' ... and to successfully navigate the high dunes it was important to fully understand your vehicle and its limits .

I thank Hamdan & Al Khatib for this carefully chosen track ... it is trips like this that keep me longing for Fridays.
Thanks Faisal for the support at sweep.
Thanks to my fellow drivers for the good company during our stops.

[quote=Spencerj702;28288]Hope you are OK Defragmantor - what happened?[/quote]
Yea was my fault was in the left most lane on sheikh zayed road and using my gps ... didnt realize my car going started moving towards the divider and ended up scrapping my side by fenders both front and rear (thank god though i wasnt hurt or anything ) . At the end lesson learnt while driving eyes only on the road and nowhere else

Thanx all. See u next time
Best regards
Lamboo

coming soon....looooool editing the videos

glad you all guys had fun :)
for the safety questions, number one is to keep distance so all the convoy be safe, second is communication (this is why we have radios) , if climbing and descending dunes and cant see the car in front, a quick radio check helps alot, and dont worry am sure in Almost family there is no race or show off between any members, so take your time check on the car in front if they crossed safely then go ahead and enjoy the desert :) .. no one will blame you on holding the convoy
i remember in Liwa we were waiting for a good 25 min for Bu salem to check an exit for us in the high dunes and we couldn't see him even .. we only hear on radio "still checking for solution" which make it more exciting for us :D to explore what next

[quote=Maddie;28291]I suffered a lot today. Sami, you are absolutely right. I, for one did not want to slow the convoy down but also the fast pace and high technical dunes AS PART OF A CONVOY were out of my league. I hope Chief or one of the Founding marshals would give us a talk about panicky behaviour/how to react to suffering.
I am so grateful to two people on this drive. Abu Khatib and Faisal.

On a lighter note, many drivers on this particular convoy have run the gauntlet to try for Intermediate.

Some dunes which many of them made second tries, I crossed first time :grin:

Inexperience and improper tires were my biggest hurdles today !![/quote]

I really respect you being up-front about it. I am just raising what I think is an issue being faced by newbies. Hope the marshals can provide some tips and guidance on how to deal with suffering safely may it be from slippery tyres or even wrong gear selection (a problem i faced when I first switched from auto to manual gear around a year ago). I think the addition of informing the convoy over radio that you need to reverse might be sufficient as it will give the cars behind fair warning. This of course has to be coupled with all members of the convoy knowing who is two or even three cars in front of them.

Upon thinking about the issue i remembered that there are different system for different levels. The system for this in CM drives was stop and wait for marshal supervision even in minor stucks that can be self recovered if i remember the instructions correctly. I also remember from somewhere that there is a be overtaken and join back of the convoy type system (not sure where i read or heard this i think CMIYC). So i guess my question is do we keep to the CM type system or is there a middle ground at newbie or newbie+ level? I dunno maybe I am making a big deal out of a small issue.
Suffering is simply an inevitable side effect of learning how to drive in sands. I think it can be taken as a sign that one is challenging themselves and learning something and is not a bad thing, but care needs to be given that it is done with a calm and level head so as not to end up in risky situations.
Still again I have to say great drive really enjoyed it looking forward to the next one.

Just saw your post and thanks for your reply delta83. I think you are right. Communication combined with the fact that nobody in almost drives blames anyone for holding the convoy leads to solving the issue. The convoy would be aware and ready to stop and the pressure would be less on the sufferer reducing the chance of panic. The combination allows for safe suffering.