COVID 19 Compliant - Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - Faqa - Dubai - 19 Mar 2021

[Wrangeld]

Lawrence_Chehimi @Lawrence_Chehimi

Hennie Schoeman @Hennie Schoeman

Hardik Mody @Hardik Mody

Arun Mathew @Arun Mathew

Baskaran P.R @Baskaran P.R

Antony Calvin @Antony Calvin

William Fernandes @William Fernandes

Aus Alzubaidi @Aus Alzubaidi

Sreejith Sreenivasan @Sreejith Sreenivasan

Nizam Deen @Nizam Deen

Imranaasghar @imranaasghar81

It's Thursday tomorrow and I will be publishing the convoy list and the radio channel ... so if your plans suddenly changed and you are not coming. Tell us now so we do not plan as if you were coming on the drive. 

See you soon in the sand. 

[Arun Mathew]

@WrangeldI am in for the drive 🙋‍♂️

[Aus Alzubaidi]

Hey @WrangeldI I have left the drive already on Sunday due to a family commitment. Sorry if it wasn't reflected on the portal. 

[Wrangeld]

Just now, Aus Alzubaidi said:

Hey @WrangeldI I have left the drive already on Sunday due to a family commitment. Sorry if it wasn't reflected on the portal. 

Hi Aus, 

 

No it was not reflected. But thanks for letting me know. 

[Baskaran P.R]

Hi @Wrangeld I am in for sure👍

[William Fernandes]

Looking forward to the drive @Wrangeld thanks

[Wrangeld]

Hi All, 

Here is the convoy list for tomorrow morning.

Morning Newbie Faqa 19th March 2021
Attendees	Level	Car	Radio	Pos #
Wrangeld	Marshal	Mitsubishi Pajero SWB	Y	1
Sreejith Sreenivasan	Fewbie	Mitsubishi Pajero LWB	Y	2
Baskaran PR	Fewbie	Mitsubishi Pajero LWB	Y	3
Anthony Calvin	Fewbie	Toyota Prado	Y	4
Nizam Deen	Intermediate	Jeep Wrangler SWB	Y	5
Arun Mathew	Fewbie	Jeep Wranger JK	Y	6
William Fernandes	Fewbie	Toyota FJ Cruiser	Y	7
imranaasghar81	Fewbie	Toyota FJ Cruiser	Y	8
Lawrence_Chehimi	Fewbie	2019 Nissan Patro - Y62 Platinum City - White	Y	9
Hennie Schoeman	Fewbie	Jeep Wrangler	Y	10

It's a nice short convoy tomorrow. Let's see how far we can get in the direction of Last Exit. If we can avoid problems then we will be in for a nice long leg stretch. 

We are using radio channel 3. Please note the starting time is 6.00 AM. I was out in the desert today at midday - I can tell you that starting early is a REAL good idea!

So please arrive, deflate, put your flags up and we will leave as soon as possible. 

See you soon in the sand. 

[Imran Asghar]

Guys I'm at the spot but can't see you 

[Wrangeld]

Post Drive Report

After collecting our strays from cancelled drives and starting off at the wrong point, we got under way and briefed while moving in the hope of getting to cover as much ground as possible. 

Things were going well until @Lawrence_Chehimi had a popout that took longer to resolve than might have been ideal. On the other hand, it was a chance to show how to deal with even a challenging situation where jacking the car did not work as planned. 

And that was the feature of today. A few very understandable refusals and a small number of quite time consuming recoveries which meant we did not get to play as much as I wanted but we did have an excellent drive through fantastic scenery and in the end covered more than 65km in some of the softest sand we have faced for some time. 

Here's some specific feedback that you may find useful. 

@Sreejith Sreenivasan Thanks for acting as 2nd lead. I was a little shocked that the SWB 3.8 does not have a diff lock which does make it a little more challenging to recover. You need to be a little more patient in self recovery and use a little less gas when you blip blip and than make sure to take advantage of the momentum once it starts. 

@Baskaran P.R bigger Pajero, bigger problems? Not really. You are in control of the car, no question - until you're not. In the self recoveries you should take a little more time before you start to act, think, and relax. The problems get more difficult to solve if you force the problem. 

@Antony Calvin I like the way that you drive the Prado. Good control of the power and no problems in trying again if you refuse on challenge. I think that sometimes you are still, however, a bit tenative with the power, when you don't need to be. 

@Nizam Deen I think that you enjoy the responsibility of helping out your fellow drivers - a great indicator of the greater levels of experience that you have. You have the basics nailed. Now you need to spend more time looking at the recovery situation to see if a different approach can help, as it's not always going to be possible to use the obvious solutions. 

@Arun Mathew great and faultless drive. You're ready for bigger challenges in drives. 

@William Fernandes This was a good drive for you, because you needed to self recover quite a lot. That might seem contrary to waht you want to hear, but the more self recovery you do at this level, the more it will help as you progress. Better to make mistakes here, than on more extreme drives. 

@imranaasghar81 it's such a pleasure to have you on a drive. Your enthusiasm, contribution and skill are there for all to see.As is the progress you're making each drive. As I was not behind you I cannot say if improvements are needed. It looks to me like you have the Fj under control. 

@Lawrence_Chehimi It's a big beast to handle your Y62 so don't be surprised when it bites back from time to tme. You know why the pop out occurred, you can prevent that happening again by not fighting gravity. The thing is that the weight of the car makes any mistakes you make like this more pronounced.   

@Hasan Wahlan fantastic you made it to our drive and a pleasure to have you with us. Not sure if it was the soft sand, but it did seem on some occasins that the power delivery in the car is lower than expected which means you need to try to make you way through obstacles with a re try. Nothing wrong with that, in fact I encourage people to retry rather than force. I would just like to know if this is the car or you sometimes don't take the right lines.

@Hennie Schoeman great sweeping. In control throughout and really goog guidance given to the drivers when in trouble. Thank you. 

See you soon in the sand. 

[Lawrence_Chehimi]

Thanks @Wrangeld for the amazing drive, every week we learn something new, today i experienced a very early pop out just few minutes after the start, looking back at my dashcam video, it seems I made a very sharp left turn just before the crest. Not a good thing to do with a heavy vehicle having street tires inflated at 12-13psi!! Sometimes i get to learn the hard way😂.. Still need to go get the tire cleaned from inside although I didn't experiences any vibrations in the steering wheel on the highway...

@imranaasghar81, thank you for your frequent alerts whenever you face steep bump ahead.

 

@Nizam Deen and Richard thanks again for your efforts fixing that pop out.