COVID 19 Compliant - Evening/Night Short Desert Drive - Around Qudra - Dubai - 23 May 2021

[Gregory]

Thanks @Chaitanya D and support team for a great drive! Also looking forward to more mid-week drives where possible. 

[Chaitanya D]

4 minutes ago, Gregory said:

Thanks @Chaitanya D and support team for a great drive! Also looking forward to more mid-week drives where possible. 

Noted with thanks, we will arrange as soon as we have leads  and support available.  I / we are working to the best of our abilities to make it happen

[Zed]

1 hour ago, Sunil Mathew said:

Thanks for all the shovelling and shoving by @Zed and others, who i could neither meet personally post drive nor know  by name, apologies for not tagging you guys!! I am definitely indebted , and shall make it a point to payback to the community, once and if i get opportunities.

No worries @Sunil Mathew, it's a team-sports so we're glad to help whenever we can & have the tools. I offered to tug back with rope, but the Dr. prescribes that you should learn self-recovery 😅, so hope you learned something yesterday ☺️  I know we're in the same rank, but here I'm just sharing my tips I learned over the months to avoid that cresty-sticky situation:

1. When I was driving the Y62 Patrol, for some reason sometimes there's hesitation at the feet when going over dune. Maybe it's the scaryness of flying, or maybe afraid to wreck the car. To overcome this, just visualize you're driving an old car (don't be afraid to wreck it), and flying's a bit better than getting stuck. This will push your feet to the pedal and not let go during that crucial moment.
          
2. Be one with your car. This sounds like a Yoda trick, but after hours of driving the same car, you can "feel" what your car is going through: from the right-foot, to the right-leg, to the brain, "feel" and process these inputs. It helps to put the driver-window down when practicing: when the car is losing power, there's that specific sound the engine's making and you can feel the "loss of power" through your foot, then in split-seconds decide whether to put more gas pedal or if pedal's already maxxed out, accept the fact that you didn't have enough momentum and stop to reverse and try again. Forcing the car when it's already crying "i don't have enough power" usually is when I get stuck 😁

[M.Seidam]

1 hour ago, Zed said:

Maybe it's the scaryness of flying, or maybe afraid to wreck the car

At the beginning of the ladder it’s natural I guess .

I believe after bit of practice it becomes better and the “ leap of faith “ will strengthen by time especially when you are following the car in front and not being the first car . Now every one know that being a leader entails not only experience but bit more than a leap of faith 😉

Edited May 24, 2021 by M.Seidam

[Chaitanya D]

2 hours ago, Zed said:

flying's a bit better than getting stuck

@Zed, I would say getting stuck is way safer than flying.

I/We want you to get that fine balance by repeated practice crossing a dune straight up/down and while criss crossing as you progress- first on a small dune, then a medium, then a bigger and a sharp crest.

By flying you risk breaking something ( a bumper/fog lamps) to be the least, or a flip if it was worse - both of which is totally avoidable. If you fly while criss crossing you risk a roll over as most of the times you are entering the slip side of a dune.

While you practice to get that balance, you can get stuck 100 times and I/we will recover you 100 times (Here comes the importance of having strong rated recovery points at front and back.), but all do it fairly quickly. None other than @Karthikeyan Govindarajan would agree. Good to see how he is finding that balance in quick time

[Zed]

2 minutes ago, Chaitanya D said:

@Zed, I would say getting stuck is way safer than flying.

ah true, i meant to say flying "a bit", not like Fast & Furious style of course 😂

But yes, once you find the balance, you won't fly crossing the dunes even a tiny bit 😁

[Thomas Varghese]

13 minutes ago, Chaitanya D said:

@Zed, I would say getting stuck is way safer than flying.

We want you to get that fine balance by repeated practice crossing a dune straight up/down and while criss crossing as you progress- first on a small dune, then a medium, then a bigger and a sharp crest.

By flying you risk breaking something ( a bumper/fog lamps) to be the least, or a flip if it was worse - both of which is totally avoidable. If you fly while criss crossing you risk a roll over as most of the times you are entering the slip side of a dune.

While you practice to get that balance, you can get stuck 100 times and we will recover you 100 times (Here comes the importance of having strong rated recovery points at front and back.), but all do it fairly quickly. None other than @Karthikeyan Govindarajan would agree. Good to see how he is finding that balance in quick time

Thank you @Chaitanya D for the explanation. I had the same belief as @Zed in the beginning and was flying over the dunes. Then @Rahimdad taught me the fine balance of throttle control. As drives progressed under you and all the marshals the technique got fine tuned. Its now become as ordinary as driving on tarmac. Yesterday I learned a valuable lesson from you to never reverse back without getting out of the car during a refusal and surveying the terrain before attempting self recovery. Actually every drive is only increasing the experience more and more especially under trained marshals like you. Thanks for the valuable advice. 

[Thomas Varghese]

17 minutes ago, Zed said:

ah true, i meant to say flying "a bit", not like Fast & Furious style of course 😂

But yes, once you find the balance, you won't fly crossing the dunes even a tiny bit 😁

Its easy @Zed. You have done 12 drives now and should come naturally to you by now. Your statement about being one with the machine and all is the key but to become one you have to give full attention to the machine and understand its capabilities. Let me share a small tip - Give as much as acceleration you need to get to the top meaning not very much not less. Once you see the ridge of the dune crossing your side mirror ease the accelerator and start slowly applying brakes once your car becomes front heavy. After that your car will slide down without any issues.  

[Thomas Varghese]

And please don't push your car when you see someone getting through. His car may have more power or he may have more experience than you. No shame in learning by making mistakes. I say this especially when you do slide sloping. Never never let your car sway like a fish or in other words fish tail. Please exit down when you feel that your car has started to sway from rear. It will lead to a roll over and bad things can happen. All the marshals advice this even on advance drives as this is the most important point to learn. Getting crested or exiting during a slide sloping maneuver is not as bad as having a flip. You get to drive another day and prove yourself if you observe this most important rule. If not you will have a car with serious repairs and you will end up emptying your wallet and getting afraid of these maneuver's. Also steering on sand is very important. Never steer hard to push the tire off its beads. This will end in a very nice exercise for fixing a pop out.   

[M.Seidam]

...“Find a way , or fade away” don’t remember though where I came across that ... yesterday I realised it so let’s start 😄 ... arranging the stuff quickly and getting in my truck along with my little companion who was in a hurry more than I was till he shouted “ dad the bag “ 😱💡... luckily my foot was still on the break paddle while the gear ⚙️ is still on R .. it’s still not a stuck situation but it would be worse when you reach the meeting point and the radio is in the bag forgotten ! ( first positive )

To my surprise almost half of the convoy was already ready to launch by the time we reached ( half an hour ) before 6pm and after triple check the meeting time was correct which made me really 😊 saying to my self we will not fade away today ( second positive )

Driving on the dirt track heading east and south till we reached the long range dunes and the action begun in a relatively  slightly faster pace progressing slowly slowly in a Newbie drive manner perfectly synchronised and scaled by our Maestro lead @Chaitanya D of a 15 vehicle convoy long with excellent response. ( third positive ) 

maybe this was the longest convoy I participated in so far , with experienced drivers that some of them got already promoted to FB level on the same day while the remaining half were from experienced IM drivers who excellently supported and enjoyed supporting the drive in all and all ( 4th positive )

off-course the meal with no spice is not enjoyable. Our first one was offered by a nice “ royal crest “ ( pict in Gallery) which was dealt with in an educational mode to our fellow driver and no rope was needed ( 5th positive ). 
 

With sun incline became steep kissing the horizon it’s no longer seen behind those long dunes .. RSVP time 🤣😀 and on the clock we all lined up to plan for the next week booking. Thank you 🙏 

Almost pitch black and we found way by illuminating the path via our head light ... smoothly exciting rhythm till we got our second stuck situation from back of the convoy in quite nasty pocket. I loved the approach and the way we discussed it among the seniors till we find way and in no time we were on course again ( 6th positive ) 

My seventh positive I got the chance to meet and drive with new faces  whom I knew from the forum and it was a real pleasure 🙏🌷

@Darren Brooke @Gregory @Sunil Mathew @Anoop Raj @Wade Pat2 @Zed @Karthikeyan Govindarajan @Ehab @Thomas Varghese @Gaurav Soni 

Thank you guys for making that evening so enjoyable 

@Hisham Masaad @Craig Finlayson and @Tbone it’s always an honour driving and being part of the team 

last but not least I extend my big thanks to our lead and friend doctor Chaitanya @Chaitanya D well done 👍🙏

 

cheers all 🌷

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by M.Seidam