COVID19 Compliant - Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - Faya-Tawi Khatimah - Sharjah - 25 Sep 2020

[Emmanuel]

@Roshan Abraham thanks for advising us. Get well soon.

[Rizwanm2]

Hi @Emmanuel I just took my X out from service but noticed clanking noise when I'm braking. And it's getting louder. Will skip tomorrows drive and get it checked properly. 

I'm very sorry for the late notice. 

[Christian Andras]

@Emmanuel Can you please do me a favor? I can’t still get it out of my head how it happened that I was sure to be on this drive, and then suddenly I wasn’t. Can you check the logs? Did I take myself out of the drive by mistake? Or any of the admins did? Thanks.🙏 

[Heisem]

@Emmanuel , @Chaitanya D can you explain how did you manage to put the tire back on the rim when a pop out happens? Because i was under the impression that its very difficult without proper tools like in a tire workshop. 

[Chaitanya D]

5 minutes ago, Heisem said:

@Emmanuel , @Chaitanya D can you explain how did you manage to put the tire back on the rim when a pop out happens? Because i was under the impression that its very difficult without proper tools like in a tire workshop. 

To put it in simple steps

1. Use a 2 tonne (min) floor jack kept on a wooden plank as a base on sand, lift the car where pop out has happened.

2. Once the tyre is off the sand, we pull it back on to the rim sufficient enough the allow the air fill back into the tire through the valve after clearing the sand from inside the rim using water ( preferably a stream )

3. Once the pressure builds up, the tyre pops back in.

 

What happened in the morning today was a very tricky situation because we were on the top a soft sand dune, the car was stuck in a supersoft pocket and with  very little area for us to put in a jack, clear the sand and pull the tire back. But , we could manage to get out of it thanks to @Emmanuel and fantastic support from @Islam Soliman too. Appreciate the whole convoy members who waited patiently 🙏 for almost an hour.

The tire with pop out needs cleaning on inside and  balancing once you are on tarmac.

[Chaitanya D]

Fewbie Drive with  @Emmanuel  at Faya: What I could see from the Center of the convoy

It was great to see the members RSVPed for the drive arrive well in time at the starting point , which was slightly inside the tarmac.  We started our drive right at the foot of tall Faya dune , which was studded with crosstracks probably from yesterdays “dune bashers” who had played quite a lot in the area and hence decided to climb from the side. All drivers made it to the top of Faya and we continued further crossing the dunes and bowls behind Faya.

All was well until there was a twin pop out on one car in a very soft pocket of sand. In fact the sand was so soft , whatever sand we cleared by shovelling kept coming back making it a very tricky situation. Thanks to trip lead @Emmanuel and @Islam Soliman we fixed this twin pop out and once again we started again, alas but for a very short while . The car with pop out had a bent left front fender rubbing against the tire and hence had to be on tarmac for it to be taken safely for a repair.

After returning to continue our drive we continued through the Faya tracks, crossing camel rock and entered the Fossil rock area. All members did their fair bit of much needed play climbing the dunes and coming down. As we were close to finishing time Emmanuel decided to exit the drive and we headed towards ADNOC on E102 (Sharjah-Kalba Road)

@Gregory Perkin did his task as second lead with confidence communicating and following the suggestions from the lead. Thank you!

@Luca Palanca Falsini managed his V6 Fortuner very well, except for one crest probably because still it was too early as we had just started the drive and was getting warmed up.

@Islam Soliman managed his huge V8 GMC very well. Great to see how you are driving better with each drive, and yes a fantastic support for fixing the twin pop out. Thank you!

@andy_macdxb was driving his Pajero well untill his drive was cut short and had to exit out as it was too risky to continue with something hard rubbing against his front tires. Steering is your friend when driving on sand and it is definitely not a good idea when the front tires are not freely moving. Hope you get your car fixed soon, not to forget get your tires cleaned and balanced.

@Rajeevan Vickneswaran drove his Wrangler LWB well, climbing and riding the ridge perfectly. You have a great car which you can safely push as you progress further.

@Ilya Golubinsky did not break a sweat with his Wrangler LWB as well, fantastic driving and always willing to try. 

@Heisem was hardly heard on the radio with his FJC which simply shows how well you drove. 

@Adam Marston did the job of sweep to perfection communicating well and making sure all the cars were moving in the convoy. Thank you!

We appreciate all members who waited patiently while we fixed the pop out lasting almost close to an hour, effectively reducing the time we could spend riding on sand. But sometimes things are beyond our control and the idea was to have the car moving as soon as we could and exit out safely.

Some Stats from the drive 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Chaitanya D

[Gregory Perkin]

Nice report @Chaitanya D thanks.

What is the app you are using to log this data? I like it 

[Islam Soliman]

@Emmanuel @Chaitanya D and all the drivers on today’s morning drive at Faya.. thanks for being there and hope you enjoyed the drive .. I know there was lots of waiting but part of the learning is to expect the unexpected and deal with it..

@andy_macdxb hope the damage to your front bumper is not significant and hope to see you soon on the sand..

 

Never leave a fellow Carnity behind, Great team work to handle double pop outs in a very tricky spot..

 

 

[Emmanuel]

@Chaitanya D thank you for your wonderful report and great help during the drive. 

@andy_macdxb Please keep us updated. 

@Islam Soliman thank you for your support. Good that you took a photo.

@Christian Andras I really don’t know what happened to be honest. Checked with the admins and no one deleted your name from the list. 

 

[andy_macdxb]

Hey Friday drivers, a couple of things I must say. Firstly thanks to Emmanuel, Chaitanya and Islam for gettting Pajero back on track. They worked expertly as a team and listened to each other's suggestions with patience and consideration whilst remaining as "COVID-aware" as possible, not easy. Secondly, I thank all the other convoy drivers for their patience, I know how much of the drive time was eaten up by that recovery and having been there myself (to a lesser extent) I can sympathise. So huge thank you to the trio of recoverers and a big thanks and apologies to other drivers. Obviously, these things are never intended. Good news is the Paj is driving like a total wreck, you all probably got back to Dubai before me, because driving was limited to 40kph, and we'll see, but I think some time will be spent in a repair shop. It is a shame we didn't take any pics of the recovery as it would have highlighted the severity of the situation, but tbh nobody seemed in the mood for taking the time out, myself included. Onwards and upwards, strength and honour and hopefully your next drive is less impacted by a desert recovery. Also, thanks to Greg for loan of his spare comms, please note it was sanitised before return.