Almost4x4

Hi Almosters!

We had a great morning drive, on this Friday, after the opening season for camping on the night before.

I was assigned by trip organizer @Barish to be with the 10+, lead by @rapailo, myself and @Daggerfall floating, while @mpodroid and @Bu Touma were in the convoy.

A few months ago I took the same group at the same area and the improvement is quite noticeable as @Ehab mentioned. Flow was good but radio communication was below average for the level.

Some drivers at the middle of the convoy were changing the track, what made it difficult for the drivers at the end of the convoy to keep the pace. When you are the the middle or back of the convoy is important to check not only the track from the car in front of you, but the track on the ground, so if someone changed the track you can easily identify and correct it. Most mistakes were due to climbing a dune with a lower than necessary approach angle, what leads the car to slide downward and difficult to climb the dune. That said convoy did finely for the level.

I am attaching a drawing from the angle problem on the cars at the back of the convoy.

We did about 40+ km and finished the drive around 12h00.

All,
After a great camping night, the day started also on a high note, with a Unlimited drive for all Newbies. Given I had my 3yo on board I joined the 5- convoy for a smoother ride, and that worked very well - no complaints from the back seat :)

@giorgio led us with a steady pace through the rolling dunes, with the convoy performing well with very minimal amount of issues we only had a couple of recoveries and a few second tries (to my son's disappointment, he was hoping to see some nice pulls after not going out with me for almost half a year ).

In this drive I realized how much progress I made during the year with the Club - what at the beginning looked like "insurmountable" challenge (there were a few of those steep climbs on soft sand) after a number of drives becomes an enjoyable place to push your car ;) I am 100% confident with the Club and our dear Marshalls support all Newbies will get there!

Thank you @Barish , @Rooies and @Tom for support, and @Flor and @brett for second-leading (there were a few quite tricky spots there, so well done!!).
@giorgio - thank you for a great drive, we had a lot of fun!

Overall we covered 31km and drove for 2:45h (2h moving).

Nice drive in technical area. Newbie did quite well considering the difficulties of the area.

After issues with my eyes, making impossible to focus and read, I am finally back and here is my video report.

Special guest in the second half of the video, our marshal @Abu Jimmy and final scene chasing him at 130km/h

Finally, I've also have a new setup, which made greatly improved my editing workflow, allowing me to complete the task in much less time:

• New version of Insta360 Studio 2021 makes possible to do reframing on PC instead of iPhone/iPad

• new macbook pro 14 M1 pro: soooo fast and smooth reframing and editing

This was one of those drives that makes everyone aware of their skills and abilities. I believe that most of drivers did very well and some of drivers made a good progress since last drive with me. It is important to have this kind of drives as learning is at high phase.

Support in my convoy was great. Apart from @presa and @Daggerfall floating and assisting convoy intermediates did a lot of work.

I would advise to pay attention to distance and radio communication especially in technical areas. At this level and number of drives drivers shall start to have their own judgement of the dune and not require necessarily to have an eye contact with car in front. This means that there is no reason to be close to car in front.

Drive number 100 with my ALMOST4X4 family.

It was a nice morning for a drive, we met at the meeting point & I saw my long lost buddy @Loca , have not seen him in ages. We went through the drills & afterwards chatted & caught up.

There was 3 convoys, 5-, 5+ & 10+, I was in the 5- with @giorgio leading & @Flor was second lead. @Tomvanhouten was sweeping & @Barish was floating. I placed myself in the middle of the convoy & had the "problem" cars infront of me, Pajero, Pajero, big Patrol, Prado.... .

The going was good, few starts & stops, but slowly everybody defrosted & we started moving nicely. We had a short break which gave @AntonT time to fix his flag, then we were off again.

@Flor got herself into a nice stuck & it was rescue time. Under the guidance of @Barish we got her out, but then I was stuck . @giorgio lend a helping hand & we were off again. Later @giorgio got himself stuck in a difficult position, we had to be gentle not to break anything & we got it done without any issues or broken axles.

There were a few more stucks, but we got it sorted quickly. There were a few places were I thought we would have pop outs, but that never happened.

We ended in Al Qudra were we inflated, greeted & went our separate ways.

Thank you @Barish for organising the drive, @giorgio for leading & @Tomvanhouten for helping me with the recoveries.

Till we meet in the sand again, stay safe.

Greetings
Rooies

Good evening, everyone!

Quite difficult to say anything about my first drive with almost4x4 without emotions, but I'll try.

Some magic helped me reach @alshamsi_m and joined 5- convoy with his help last Friday.

I did my best not to ask any questions regarding different what ifs after the short briefing. I just decided to learn by doing, and it helped. One more luck was to be close to the head of our convoy led by @giorgio.

I cannot say the drive was too difficult, but it was full of challenges like ditches and high dunes we had to climb onto without acceleration. @Rooies effectively and quickly saved everyone who stuck in dunes. It was a really impressive performance!

What is truly unique I have to underline is the friendly and supportive atmosphere in the club! Bravo to the founders who built such a society of off-road lovers.

So, there are a lot of skills to learn and endless drives to complete before crossing of Liwa at night)).

After packing up from the camp overnight in the Al Faqa area after the meet and greet BBQ evening I headed to the meet point for the first morning driving in a while to find a number of drivers had already arrived. As I was already deflated I was ready and raring to go.

We had a short briefing from the excellent organiser, @Barish, where we were all split into our groups of 5 or less, 5 or more and 10 or more drives. I had the privilege of being lead in the 5+ group by @alshamsi_m himself!

It is always a great experience following one of @alshamsi_m tracks. This drive was no different. The weather was perfect, the sand just right and a group who were all keen to learn from the experience.

Personally I felt I did well at the beginning of the drive but then had some issues with getting stuck on a few crests. I thought this was only due to the fact that this was my first time driving in the desert with a car fully laden with my camping and BBQ (from the taking part in the challenge) equipment. Although I think this was partly to blame it was not the whole story.

After my 3rd stuck situation one of my fellow Almosters (sorry did not get your name) suggested that my tires looked like they may be over inflated. So at the first opportunity I stopped and checked the pressures and found that although 3 of the tires were only slightly over where they should be, my front off-side was running at a very high 25 PSI. This was caused by the rising temperature from my initial check when leaving the camping area in the early morning to the mid point of the drive. Once I reduced the pressures to 12 PSI all around, the drive became much easier. A good learning to always check the pressures before the drive starts and at intervals in the drive.

The drive then continued well until we had a very tricky pop out situation with the F150 in the group. It was in a very awkward area for fixing the pop out and because the weight of the vehicle everyone had to help out to try and overcome the situation. It took 6 shovels, 2 jacks and the entire group to work on the car. Luckily we had some very experienced marshals to guide the process. We eventually managed to get the tire back on the rim but then were faced with damage to the tire so we decided to make sure that he got out and drove directly to the exit point.

The drive definitely provided me with a lot of learnings which is all that I want from Almost 4x4 at this stage, so I am very grateful for the experience as always.

Can’t wait for the next one...