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COVID19 Compliant - ABSOLUTE NEWBIE Morning Desert Drive - Al Qudra- Dubai - 1 Aug 2020


Frederic

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9 minutes ago, Frederic said:

DRIVE REPORT

Another lovely day in the Al Qudra sands....

I was glad to see so many new faces, all ready to hit the sand and learn the essentials during this drive. Most arrived well before 05:00 so me and @Wrangeld could help them with deflating. We always try to leave as early as possible to have the maximum drive time in the sand, so please try to arrive before 5:00 so you have ample time to deflate and receive the convoy instructions or ask to help for the radio and other details.

@SureshVNair you either forgot to set your alarm, or went to the wrong meeting point, as we did not see you nor you informed us that you could not make it. Shame as this spot could have been taken by someone else.

@Ashok chaturvedi was my second lead and drove very well, steering the Pajero LWB perfectly on the right track, and keeping a watchful eye on @mathewjo behind him, who drove well but will need to overcome the fear of pushing the car a little bit more, and that initial fear of the other side when crossing a dune is totally normal and will take a few drives before that settles.

@Ashy with the JGC managed well, this is not the easiest car to learn and i suspect there is lots of electronics holding the car back.

@Arun Mathew with the Green Jeep Wrangler struggled a bit initially, but after lowering the tyre pressure a bit you improved a lot. I hope the overheating alarm did not came back.

@muzamil hussain @Andrei @Kailas it will take me a little while to distinguish the Jeep Wrangler colours from each other (who drove which Wrangler), so my apologies. You guys managed very well, and also have seen the use of deflating further down to have better flotation.

@Ajiesh George Kannankara that Patrol of yours was sliding through the dunes without much effort. Very well done !!

@Jinesh Thomas your FJ cruiser has all the bells and whistles and looks great, you drove very well !

@Sajit Modiyil The Nissan Xterra is a fantastic offroad vehicle. Get yourself familiarized in switching off the traction aids and getting the right tyre pressure. Overall you drove very good !

@Erwin van Helden, what can i say about Erwin, except for the fact we could not miss to see that black H2 monster, that you drove great through the dunes by the way !

At the end of the drive, nearby the exit track, @Wrangeld had the honour of pulling the Hummer of the dune with the little TJ, and did this amazingly well. Unfortunately the Hummer was feeling a bit stubborn after the recovery and did not want to start anymore. Erwin noticed that the lever was in P, but the dashboard was showing R. A quick look on Youtube told us that in that case the transmission shifting lever underneath the vehicle has come off. And luckily we were able to clip it back in place and resume the drive towards the exit.

I hope all you guys had a good drive and initiation to desert driving. There is lots more fun to follow on the next drives. My main recommendation to all you guys is to practice deflation, test the accuracy of your pressure gauges by comparing with the gas station pump, to make sure 15psi is really 15psi and not 19psi. (BIG difference). Unfortunately many gauges are not very accurate, and it does not hurt sometimes to bring a second (different brand, type) gauge to double check. IF you have offroad tyres, you can deflate further down to 10-12 psi and will feel the positive result of that immediately.

The sand was quite soft and lots of the tracks were quite churned up today, looks like many other clubs or drivers had their fill on the long weekend. 

Quite a few had a flag and radio already, thanks for that. To the other drivers, please arrange these for your next drive. As you have seen the flag is very useful to spot the vehicle going over the dune. 

My apologies i was not able to do the debriefing after the drive, as i instructed Richard to take the convoy out to the Hamari well while dealing with the Hummer issue. I hope you guys enjoyed and please type your feedback on this topic !

Welcome to the club guys and i hope to see you all back soon !

 

Big Thanks to both @Frederic and @Wrangeld... appreciate the patience! Looking forward to the next drive

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On 7/31/2020 at 8:13 AM, Ashok chaturvedi said:

Dear Federic

I may have bought the wrong radio pair Motorola TLKR T61 Walkie Talkies since they dont have  the frequency tuning mode as been described on your web. It has 8 channels and 121 codes. 

wonder if I need to re buy the one prescribed.

Hi @Ashok chaturvedi

It was good to see your radio worked for now. If i am correct this will be your channel numbering:

MOTOROLA TLKR Channel 1 = CARNITY CHANNEL 1 (446.00625)

MOTOROLA TLKR Channel 3 = CARNITY CHANNEL 2 (446.03125)

MOTOROLA TLKR Channel 5= CARNITY CHANNEL 3 (446.05625)

MOTOROLA TLKR Channel 7 = CARNITY CHANNEL 4 (446.08125)

You won't be able to use our Carnity Channel 5, as this is on 462.8875 Mhz and your radio does not have this channel. The good thing is that we usually do not use Channel 5 (is our backup frequency). So for now you can keep that radio without issues. If you decide to buy another radio, we recommend either the Crony/Motorola MT777 or the Baofeng UV5R. Both are available in Dragon Mart.


 

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"Go as far as you can see; once you get there, you'll be able to see further."

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@Frederic thank you for all the instructions and help during the drive today!! You were great 👏👏👏. It was a fantastic morning drive and hope to have more with @Carnity. After the deflation I didn’t have any issues and the jeep just float on the sand !!! Attaching some photos that I took 🤩

 

C369508C-88F4-41ED-B69E-54766E3B9B96.jpeg

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Thanks all for the great time today. Loved it and @Frederic - I was the blue 2dr wrangler that wouldn't take left when you told him :)  indeed, dropping the pressure to 8 psi changed the way the car was behaving quite a lot. I would love to join future drives so please keep us posted of the next ones you organize.

 

here are some photos from me as well

37525DC6-F82A-4770-96EA-E70506D77AB1.jpeg

84B988F1-EC23-48AE-ACC3-2243E124574D.jpeg

D607A19E-DD04-4A2F-8043-295488273C3C.jpeg

CD396790-8D06-435A-B80F-79E98B954F23.jpeg

C6DC11F4-88B6-455A-8FE0-99F25B51A580.jpeg

0BAECFA6-20D1-4F95-BA78-F4E86EA04E5C.jpeg

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29 minutes ago, Andrei said:

Thanks all for the great time today. Loved it and @Frederic - I was the blue 2dr wrangler that wouldn't take left when you told him :)  indeed, dropping the pressure to 8 psi changed the way the car was behaving quite a lot. I would love to join future drives so please keep us posted of the next ones you organize.

 

here are some photos from me as well

37525DC6-F82A-4770-96EA-E70506D77AB1.jpeg

84B988F1-EC23-48AE-ACC3-2243E124574D.jpeg

D607A19E-DD04-4A2F-8043-295488273C3C.jpeg

CD396790-8D06-435A-B80F-79E98B954F23.jpeg

C6DC11F4-88B6-455A-8FE0-99F25B51A580.jpeg

0BAECFA6-20D1-4F95-BA78-F4E86EA04E5C.jpeg

Hahahahaha yes the Blue Wrangler I remember as you posted it few days before on the forum. Well done ! We have drives every week so keep an eye out on the forum as we normally post them every Sunday by 7pm sharp (be fast to sign up).

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21 hours ago, Ashy said:

Big Thanks to both @Frederic and @Wrangeld... appreciate the patience! Looking forward to the next drive

Dear Fredric,

 

A big thank you for you and your mate for total commitment to aid drivers at all time. 

Just a comment on tyre pressure yes most of the time the pressure guages are not very accurate but another aspect is also the heat which expands the air and can raise the tyre pressure by several bars. It would be a good idea to take a break and check the pressures. Just a suggestion

 

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30 minutes ago, Ashok chaturvedi said:

Dear Fredric,

 

A big thank you for you and your mate for total commitment to aid drivers at all time. 

Just a comment on tyre pressure yes most of the time the pressure guages are not very accurate but another aspect is also the heat which expands the air and can raise the tyre pressure by several bars. It would be a good idea to take a break and check the pressures. Just a suggestion

 

Very good point Ashok, yes in general it will go up 2-3 psi after two hours in summer. We started at 15psi in the morning but the sand in that area is very soft and we had to further bring it down to 12psi on most cars. 
 

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"Go as far as you can see; once you get there, you'll be able to see further."

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Thank you @Frederic and Richard for the support and nice drive. I did not expect that you would take us to the dunes in the first day but you took us there and it was really exciting and enjoyable. Thank you all and see you soon.

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On 8/1/2020 at 11:45 AM, Frederic said:

DRIVE REPORT

Another lovely day in the Al Qudra sands....

I was glad to see so many new faces, all ready to hit the sand and learn the essentials during this drive. Most arrived well before 05:00 so me and @Wrangeld could help them with deflating. We always try to leave as early as possible to have the maximum drive time in the sand, so please try to arrive before 5:00 so you have ample time to deflate and receive the convoy instructions or ask to help for the radio and other details.

@SureshVNair you either forgot to set your alarm, or went to the wrong meeting point, as we did not see you nor you informed us that you could not make it. Shame as this spot could have been taken by someone else.

@Ashok chaturvedi was my second lead and drove very well, steering the Pajero LWB perfectly on the right track, and keeping a watchful eye on @mathewjo behind him, who drove well but will need to overcome the fear of pushing the car a little bit more, and that initial fear of the other side when crossing a dune is totally normal and will take a few drives before that settles.

@Ashy with the JGC managed well, this is not the easiest car to learn and i suspect there is lots of electronics holding the car back.

@Arun Mathew with the Green Jeep Wrangler struggled a bit initially, but after lowering the tyre pressure a bit you improved a lot. I hope the overheating alarm did not came back.

@muzamil hussain @Andrei @Kailas it will take me a little while to distinguish the Jeep Wrangler colours from each other (who drove which Wrangler), so my apologies. You guys managed very well, and also have seen the use of deflating further down to have better flotation.

@Ajiesh George Kannankara that Patrol of yours was sliding through the dunes without much effort. Very well done !!

@Jinesh Thomas your FJ cruiser has all the bells and whistles and looks great, you drove very well !

@Sajit Modiyil The Nissan Xterra is a fantastic offroad vehicle. Get yourself familiarized in switching off the traction aids and getting the right tyre pressure. Overall you drove very good !

@Erwin van Helden, what can i say about Erwin, except for the fact we could not miss to see that black H2 monster, that you drove great through the dunes by the way !

At the end of the drive, nearby the exit track, @Wrangeld had the honour of pulling the Hummer of the dune with the little TJ, and did this amazingly well. Unfortunately the Hummer was feeling a bit stubborn after the recovery and did not want to start anymore. Erwin noticed that the lever was in P, but the dashboard was showing R. A quick look on Youtube told us that in that case the transmission shifting lever underneath the vehicle has come off. And luckily we were able to clip it back in place and resume the drive towards the exit.

I hope all you guys had a good drive and initiation to desert driving. There is lots more fun to follow on the next drives. My main recommendation to all you guys is to practice deflation, test the accuracy of your pressure gauges by comparing with the gas station pump, to make sure 15psi is really 15psi and not 19psi. (BIG difference). Unfortunately many gauges are not very accurate, and it does not hurt sometimes to bring a second (different brand, type) gauge to double check. IF you have offroad tyres, you can deflate further down to 10-12 psi and will feel the positive result of that immediately.

 

 

The sand was quite soft and lots of the tracks were quite churned up today, looks like many other clubs or drivers had their fill on the long weekend. 

Quite a few had a flag and radio already, thanks for that. To the other drivers, please arrange these for your next drive. As you have seen the flag is very useful to spot the vehicle going over the dune. 

My apologies i was not able to do the debriefing after the drive, as i instructed Richard to take the convoy out to the Hamari well while dealing with the Hummer issue. I hope you guys enjoyed and please type your feedback on this topic !

Welcome to the club guys and i hope to see you all back soon !

 

@Frederic Apologies... many things went wrong... No excuses, will make it all right and get my gear straight in time for the next drive. regret the inconvenience caused. Hope to join you soon on a new newbie drive.

regards

 

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