Almost4x4

Hello everyone,

Being lucky a bit, I was allowed to drive with all others.

Starting off with receiving our very own proof of vaccination and when done, it is very good to see so many of us taking this responsibility seriously!

The drive was organized (as usual) by @Barish and someone he is really good at teaching the first steps of offroading, being very patiently, clear in his instructions and still manages to keep the challenge level high. Big hats off!

I was designated to @presa convoy, as a sweeper (for the first time), being at the back gives a good overview of the performance of the convoy and in my humble opinion, people really did a good job considering the terrain.
This area is mostly technical on this level and maybe for some people it feels like slow. Believe that that is big misunderstanding; learning these technical skills will help so much when you advance the level and actually crucial to safety. Especially decision making later on, becomes a lot more easier.

I really enjoyed the drive, but feel sorry for @Gabor and @Jasper , they worked very hard!!

Thank you all for accepting me and hopefully see you soon again!

Tom

First of all I would like to thank Barish for organizing this drive and also many thanks to other marshals and supporting teams
The Drivers were divided to three convoys I was in Presa convoy
When we met for briefing Presa was really serious he told us that our convoy will have a different level of drive than the others convoys!!
He told us that we will drive to eggs and basket area which is a very technical area, and he told us that he had been in this area three times before and he rollover two times there ( i said to my self whaaaat !!! How I will survive there with my big fat Yukon )
Presa start give us instructions to cross this challenge and all of the drivers were fully concentrated, Presa looked at me and said: you will suffer a lot specially with your big car so you will be the 3rd car in the convoy so I can keep my eyes on you. So he give me an extra doz of stress and tension which is something good in this case
So after the briefing we started our mission
(For me the adrenaline was full and this kept me concentrated)
From the beginning I realized the difficulties that we will face in this drive specially when I started to hear in the radio that someone stuck or someone have second try… ooh my god it was really challenging crossing straight crests then small bowls then crest again and agin it was like roller coasters and to imagine how difficult it was our marshal even did second tries and even a pop out . (Presa told us about this in the briefing and he was really right he said: even me I can get stuck or have a second try or pop out this not a shame or a problem this really relies the stress from me we all here to learn)so after we fix the pop out we continue our drive and after a few minutes my car stuck on a crest ( it seems like after seeing our marshal pop out I lose my concentration and become soft with crests
We stopped many times for recovery and this something normal in this technical area because of that and because of leakage of time our marshal decided to take a short cut and guess what we didn’t inter the eggs in basket zone it was the intro to the area
(All of these challenges and we didn’t get in the real one !!! Maybe we are really lucky so guys who ever going to participate in eggs in basket challenge think twice believe me )
Finally although it was challenging drive and for me I don’t like the technical areas because of my big fat car but I really enjoyed it very much and I would like to thank our lovely marshal Presa for everything he did and for the supporting team for all their efforts to help us and keep us safe and to other drivers who were with me in this drive
I hope to see you all soon

What a drive, stars track, hmmm, actually we could not raise our head to look up to the stars, we started with a scary briefing by @presa who told us that the area we are going to is the area he personally almost flipped twice in, what?? and yes, we spent most of the time with refusals and recoveries, i think we have a new record of recoveries per one trip, i captured more than 15 in this video, there were many more.
This trip was not about speed, it was about how to maneuver between small dunes and find your way out, and how to get stuck in low speed.

The plan was to reach to Eggs in the basket area, guess what, we spent 3:30 hours driving on the way to EIB area but we could not reach to it, we had to stop almost every 2 minutes to recover one of the cars and Persa keep on telling us, we are still in the easy track, we did not reach EIB area
Less than 5 minutes after we started, persa had a pop-out, and that was just the start, in some areas we had 2 recoveries happening at the same time, less than 100 meters far from each other. We did not have enough room to correct our car direction after many inclines as we have to climp again immediately and there was no room for acceleration to reach to the required momentum, i had an idea of using both legs, one in petrol and the other one in brake, but did not do it
For me, it was the first time i use my recovery rope, once with @jeepers76 as he was stuck in a situation where he could not open his trunk door, yes he was stuck in a position where his bumper, spare wheel and trunk door were resting on the side of a dune and all wheels are deep in the sand. Gapor did not belive us and was telling Jeeper go back go back, untill he saw it and then decided to pull him. @Jasper had a sand shower here, check the recovery video link below at 1:37
Few minutes after that, i lost the track and i got crested in less than 1 meter long dune, i do not know how i did it with a lifted wrangler and BFG tires, it was a very sharp dune and that was my second time ever in a need for a pull. After the recovery, we struggled to go back to track, my bad, few rounds, many hits and over few bushes, we got back to track.

3 hours already passed, we have to head toward the exit but we cannot leave that easy, Persa had a refusal where we had to reroute, then 2 cars got stuck in the same place and both require persa interference to make sure both are safely recovered.

This is my first trip where i had to drive mostly in first gear, my car have 8 gears and i usually drive on 2nd or 3rd, i do not think we were able to increase the speed more than 30km/h, i was able to shift to 2nd gear only in the sabkha few minutes before our way out.

Big thanks to Persa for the amazing trip and the technical challenges, we learned a lot from you and looking forward to drive with you again where we can visit EIB area.
Recovery and support team, @Gabor and @Jasper, thank you very much, you spent most of the time outside the car under direct sun helping us in refusals and recoveries, highly appreciated.

Here is the recoveries video


And here is the rest of the drive, enjoy

Dear Almosters
Our morning started out with the quite long dive to the meeting point, cruising along the road I suddenly found myself behind @alshamsi_m I eased off the gas and stayed behind our intrepid leader in my mind thinking should I overtake? but decided to stay behind and observe, as it turned out I spent the whole morning doing exactly the same thing.
First off thanks to @Barish for setting up and planning the drive for the recently upgraded Newbies from last week’s CM drive. It was great to see some many eager Newbies ready for the next step in their Off Roading adventure journey.
The group was split into 3 convoys based on the skill level of the drivers – not everyone was a first time Newbie (including me!) this was my 2nd official outing in Wasp VII (yellow FJ). And again, I was given the unenviable task of 2nd lead in the convoy lead by @Alshamsi_m. Our Convoy consisted of @alshamsi_m lead, and under the ever-watchful eyes and guidance of @giorgio @rapailo as support crew and Newbies, total convoy of 14 after initial confusion at first with @rapailo neglecting to count himself when advising @alshamsi_m the total convoy numbers at the start of the drive.
Typically, a first time out in the dunes for the Newbies is a relatively simple drive to build the skills at a relaxed pace, of course in the newbies heads there is already plenty of action to get the adrenaline pumping. The track itself decided it was going to be a little more difficult due to the lack of any rain – the sand was extremely soft. The result being more pop outs than I could count, numerous second and 3rd or even 4th tries. Every time @Alshamsi tried to pick up the pace the call would come over the radio “wait up we have 2nd tries” or “wait up we have a recovery” and many many “hold the convoy we have a pop out”. As is always the case on these newbie drives @alshamsi_m called 2 or 3 pitstops and gave the newbies some mid drive pointers to remind them of the techniques they need to master.
I had a 2nd try go around on a very gentle and low crest! (I really need to exercise that demon) due to the flat light (I purchased polarized sunglasses today) I could not gauge the crest and of course gravity took over – I went with the flow and on second attempt I sailed along the crest and completed the maneuver. That particular obstacle took its toll on many of the newbies needing to have 2nd tries. Gravity applies to everyone!
We finally reached the destination at around 12 noon it had been a long hot morning in the dunes, the smiles on the faces of the newbies told the story – they had a blast. All 14 vehicles made it out under their own steam, although some may have been missing a few plastic parts and exhaust tips etc but all drivable!!
Thank you so much to @giorgio and @rapailo for ensuring the convoys safety and working tirelessly in the sun to safely extract the stuck vehicles and assisting with all those pop outs.
Take aways from the drive.
- Check your tire pressure – it makes all the difference.
- Don’t follow too close – don’t drop too far behind
- Radio communication, the importance of this cannot be emphasized enough.
- Gravity is not selective it is always the winner.
- Check your tools before the drive compressors etc that don’t work are just useless luggage.
- Summer is here have lots of water on hand and keep yourself hydrated.

Special thanks to my olbies partners in crime @Laarni @sparrow
@dorudoru
For stirring things up

Till our next adventure


Brett
Wasp VII

Stars Track X:

After every CM drive the first drive is dedicated to the new stars.
We had a high number of participants which led us to 3 long convoys. I was assigned to @alshamsi_m convoy with @rapailo supporting.

In these early drives it is expected to have a high volume of rescue. Second and third tries as well as assisted recoveries along with pop outs are always in the menu.
Driving in the desert is not as simples as we may all think. It is a multitask process that takes time to master. The driver has several task that needs to perform while driving:
a) maintain safe distance
b) keep the momentum
c) calculate and control the acceleration
d) radio communication
and the list can go on and on.

For the members that did get in trouble in this drive I have to say JOB WELL DONE you have started learning. For those that did not get in trouble get ready it's coming soon.

In these early drives you will understand how well the club that you have chosen is equipped to deal with all short of problems and it will build your confidence that you are at the right place and time to grow to a capable off-roader.

Closing my report I would like to thank the organizer @Barish as well as the rest of the marshals and rescue teams and drivers.

Looking forward to see you again in the next drive

Until then drive safe

Starts track X

First of all, big thanks to @Barish for accepting me to join the ride without taking the CM first (as it was last week).
This was my very first ride with ALMOST 4x4 and I came as a complete beginner. I read all the theory I could find to be prepared and packed all recovery gear from the list.
Even before I arrived to the meeting point, my first mistake was to set the alarm clock incorrectly to 6:45. Luckily my wife woke up 6:05 and we departed in time.

Finding the meeting point was simple enough, withing minutes I showed our vaccine certificates and got he badges and 4x4 flag to replace our plain red one. I knew I should deflate, but didn't know how much - but I got a friendly pointer from a fellow FJ driver (Sorry, didn't get your name). Then struggled a bit with the radio to enter the frequency mode and I was set.

The briefing was short and I got allocated to @Barish convoy. As a complete newbie the briefing felt a bit too short, but I really didn't know what to ask. We got pointers to deflate to 10 psi, got the UHF channels and convoy number. Guess I'll follow the tracks and hope for the best.

I was the last car with a sweeper behind me. Big thanks for James for looking at my back and encouraging me during the stops! To my own surprise, the car and myself performed quite smoothly and I was able to follow quite confidently. On a steeper climb I didn't have enough power and stopped. This was the moment I was taught to turn off all track controls . Reverse and floor it and I was up! During the while ride I didn't dig my self which sounds like a good achievement given its my 1st ride ever, I was limited by few 2nd/3rd tries. Although I secretly wanted to test out L4 and crawl mode, but guess there's always next time.

In the end where we went to high speed ride to the exit I was delayed by my 2nd try and lost vision of the convoy. I sped up and followed the tracks and within the minutes I got visual and rejoined the convoy.

Overall the ride was thrilling and for me the technical challenges were quite interesting. My wife enjoyed the every minute of it and I got a dose of excitement, fear and joy (of passing the cliffs).

Surely I learned that I need to learn on keeping a good distance, look forward in case I need to stop earlier in a better spot and to not be afraid to step on the acceleration more firmly.

Looking forward to join the next newbie ride!

Good morning Almosters!

Firstly I wanna thank to @Barish for organizing this trip.

Secondly I give warm KUDOS for @Jasper and @Gabor who were doing rescue at our convoy. Both worked really hard on this Friday morning and were nothing short of stellar!

About the drive: this is a nice area to drive, with a mix of small dunes, some flat areas, some soft sand and many areas with small dunes pack closer to each other. If you can navigate areas like this, you are doing fine!

I was with the experienced convoy, meaning drivers that already drove a few trips with Almost4x4. The convoy was set in a order to allow a better flow.

Due to the heat and technical area, we drove only 7km in 2h30. Since weather was getting hot, and it was already +3h after starting, I decided not to enter the sweet spot, near EIB area, but I believe that the drivers had enough challenge for a day. There will be other drives in this area were the drivers will try the sweet spot, were dunes are even closer to each other, with softer sand! I recommend you keep an eye for Friday 13th drive :) and if you are smart check the trip reports from the previous trips!

When heading out, in the direction of the Al Qudra Solar Farm, we found some "man-made" dunes. This areas where the caterpillar moves sands left and right are very dangerous, since the sand usually are very soft, so you will get stuck immediately.... we manage to stay clear of most of it, with the exception of a single climb, with less than 2m, that lead to a few 2nd tries, stuck and so....

Around 11h30 we stop near Al Qudra Solar Farm with everyone safe and tired, although some might even want to drive more

As mentioned by The Wise One, please focus on:
a) maintain safe distance (there were many time people pack on the same bowl when the car in the front had a 2nd try)
b) keep the momentum (moving car is a safe car)
c) calculate and control the acceleration (dont fly!)
d) radio communication (so the convoy is safe)

Get ready for next Friday were we will have another drive for the newcomers!

Thanks for making the arrangements for the drive @Barish , another great event with the Almost Family and thanks to @alshamsi_m for the wrist band after I had showed my confirmation of the two doses of Ashrafzanaka…..

We had a quick briefing focused on the recently transition of the Newbies and then to the convoys before we were off. There was a fair selection of vehicles, with thanks @Flor being second lead and myself in sweep, the convoy stacked up as usual with Pajero’s at the front followed by every thing else.

Thanks to @Barish for the great route, I am sure there were some challenging points for the convoy as we have some nice crests, good lengthily drops and a couple of steep climbs. The convoy had a smooth flow with some changing terrain so a lot of fun.

We had a couple of second tries and a few crested, me being one of them I am proud to say, I also notice one of the support crew being crested so as a point to the recent Newbies, it happens to everyone at some point so needs to be taken in your stride. I believe the Almost drives are all about the experienced support team sharing their experiences and learning, you learn your vehicle and your capabilities within the vehicle so that you have a fun safe drive.

We were supported by @optimus, @Rashidjass and @Youssef.Abdelhady, all giving very precise advice to the Newbies, a great convoy with some shared technical experience but overall, another phenomenal event.

Some Key Points for the new drivers:
• Keep a safe distance from the car in front especially when it gets a little technical (close dunes)
• Do not let the vehicle get to far ahead of you …. Bit of conflicting information but depending on the terrain.
• No radio chatter, this should be left to the support team
• Do not fight gravity
• Have fun and stay safe

During the drive, @xtreeme99 wife shared some home made sweet spicy nuts, a real treat and very morish so thank you for that.

Have a great week ahead and we look forward to seeing you in the sand.

Hello Almosters,

I want to start off by thanking @Barish for making this happen. I've been waiting for a drive for a long time and was finally able to join this one.

The convoy that I was assigned to was being led by @alshamsi_m with @brett as second lead, @giorgio and @rapailo as support crew. We were a fix of Fjs, Wranglers, Prados, Pajero, Jimny and a Raptor.

This was my first time driving the FJ with the club, so a big part of this drive for me was also to get comfortable with the car and learn it. I thoroughly enjoyed the drive as it had a mix of everything, steep dunes, soft technical areas and a couple of high speed climbs where we got to floor it. We had the usual second tries and assisted recoveries in the convoy as expected at this level.

Soon after we started the jimny had a pop out, maximizing on the opportunity @alshamsi gathered everyone around and gave a masterclass on how to fix a pop out. A class that turned out to be very important as the drive progressed (I think we had 4 5 pop outs) . As a newbie, one of the things that intimidated me were pop outs. There is just something about seeing a tire out of the rim that scares me. Well you know when you are running away from something, it chases you back .

There was a section of the drive where after coming down from a steep dune, we had to take a sharp left and then floor it to climb another gradient. As I was coming down from the dune, before reaching the end, I turned my steering sharp left (I know it was not very smart of me) . The car continued straight down and when the tires hit the bottom of the dune, because they were turning left and were at an angle, the front right tire poped out. I heard that dreadful sound of the tire being dragged by the rim and knew instantly I had a pop out. Called it out on the radio and within seconds had the support crew and other come to my rescue. We weren't able to fix the tire because the bead was bent and we weren't able to seal the tire with the rim properly so ended up replacing it with the spare.

I would like to take a moment and appreciate the marshals and the support crew on how helpful and supportive they are. Throughout the day they had to make several recoveries and before my pop out we already had 3 pop outs, despite this they still had high energy and patience. Nothing but massive respect for them.

To wrap it up some key takeaways from the drive for me are:

• Pop outs can happen, don't be intimidated by them, they aren't something to be scared of

• Always carry a lot of water, the whole pop out situation meant we were out of the car for a long time in the heat

• Its a good idea to carry gloves, I had no idea how hot even the spare tire was

• Don't make sharp turns, specially when going down a dune

Dear Almosters,

Thank you very much for organizing this group. It’s definitely unique and everyone is trying to help at any time.

I was part of Stars Track X route organized by @Barish and I was assigned to convoy led by @alshamsi_m with @brett as second lead, @giorgio and @rapailo as support crew.

Shortly into the drive we had a first pop-up and I was happily surprised how helpful everyone was to fixing the tire. :) Also very good learning lesson conducted by @alshamsi_m who explained each detail of tire fixing in the sand. I was surprised how much experience the crew has with this situations and made everything look normal.

Sometime after, another pop-out due to some soft area and this time I couldn’t stay aside.. took my brand new shovel and with my digging experience I tried to help. Of course my eastern Europe digging “style” seems not suitable for desert.. got hot very fast... and thanks again to @giorgio and @alshamsi_m for teaching me how to do it properly .. I managed to support a little bit. It seems straightforward… but trust me it’s different.. and lesson learned. Next time you can count on me Let’s get stuck!

I also enjoyed a big drop from a dune, something which alone I would not even remotely think of doing and thanks to radio encouragements.. I went down.. . Cameras were on and everything went nice and smooth. Very nice achievement for me personally

A challenging part of the trip was when trying to stay on a crest, part of it was I couldn’t see very well the top line (I understand I should have worn polarized glasses) I almost stumbled and came close to a stop together with radio encouragement “not like that” Another lesson learned.. better to head down and try again rather than force the dune and get stuck or even roll. I guess I have to work on understanding when to force and when to go for a second try..

Overall it was a very pleasant experience, and now I’m extremely eager to come next week.. to discover new things!

Special thanks to @brett for giving me the first orange sticker to have it on my car .. and believe me… feels so go now in traffic I even lower the window on traffic light.. for other to see me.. yeaaa.. I’m going to desert! Nice thing was that it happened at the end of the trip and felt like.. oki, maybe I somehow earned it as well.. as a prize for not getting too much stuck ..only 2/29.. but all beautiful crests!

Thank you a lot for this opportunity and really looking forward to see you Friday!

Best regards,
Dan