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COVID19 Compliant - Absolute Newbie Desert Drive - Al Qudra - Dubai - 11 Jun 2021


Chaitanya D

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5 hours ago, Neil Jarman said:

I took the YJ out a little earlier this evening and even though this is the newbie drive and i don't want to be the last minute cancel guy, I just need some (more) driving time to not be the pain in the convoy guy tomorrow. I'm also kinda hoping that SImon's Dad might be available to borrow at the next drive?! 

I agree to covid conditions

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12 hours ago, Chaitanya D said:

Dear friends ,

 

 

Please note the convoy list for tomorrows drive below.

Ensure you have read and agreed to Covid precautions,  if not no drive. Thanks to all those who have done it already. 

Please ensure you arrive well in time so that we seniors at Carnity - myself, @Lorenzo Candelpergher and @Brette will personally check all the mandatory requirements for your cars and then guide you all in deflation and getting your cars prepped for what will be a wonderful start to your desert adventures in a covid safemanner. Ensure you step out of your cars with masks and keep social distance. Welcome 🙏

Please note some of you have nil, some little, some good and some excellent knowledge of offroading and hence considering a group/convoy we all have to get down to the level of the person driving with "nil" knowledge. Please be patient for a detailed discussion on safe practices, for recoveries and learning together. At Carnity it is always a team sport and we all - as much as we can - go in and out together. 

While we all are into this as a hobby , we are not certified mechanics and will advise you what to do the best of our knowledge- unbiased, in case if we have any situation which is beyond our control. It has happened very very rarely, so lets not really worry of that as of now.

Bring your off - road gears - whatever you have in terms of deflator, flag, suction cups, radio , compressor, shovel and a Radio. The most important being compressor as the air compressor at Last exit is generally out of order or extremely super slow.

I will be waiting exactly at the location shared - in a Black Xterra with hazard lights on, watch out for this old Car .

Lorenzo with his Black Rubicon will be a bit further up into the dirt track from where we will actually have a briefing and start off the drive.

image.png.34c48893f2b8b86d12588b7fb4c77f04.png

We will use Chanel 1 for Radio coms

My contact number in case if you need is 0529970964.

See you all tomorrow

 

Agree

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13 hours ago, Neil Jarman said:

I took the YJ out a little earlier this evening and even though this is the newbie drive and i don't want to be the last minute cancel guy, I just need some (more) driving time to not be the pain in the convoy guy tomorrow. I'm also kinda hoping that SImon's Dad might be available to borrow at the next drive?! 

Hi Neil, sorry I just read your post, hopefully it is not too late. I am not sure what you meant with borrow me, but if I am of any help, I’ll be glad to help you

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Just wanted to thank @Chaitanya D @Lorenzo Candelpergher and @Brette for the great drive this morning and for dealing with a lot of ups and downs (see what I did there?) with all of us.

It was a great intro to riding with Carnity and I learned a lot. 

Can't wait for the upcoming drives with all of you.

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Thank You @Chaitanya D @Lorenzo Candelpergher for this amazing experience.

To be honest there’s nothing more one should expect because you guys are already going not just the extra mile but Miles to help people out and make an amazing experience to remember. Please stay the same! 🙏🙏

I will never forget this and infact look out more for such drives.

Thanks very much.

Cheers!

BR
Vikas

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Dear Desert Wanderers, 

An off-road drive is always a beautiful way to start the weekend and the effort of waking up in the middle of the night is definitely worth the experience. 

Today's convoy had a good chance to explore the bright sand dunes of Al Qudra and to have a first taste of what driving off-road with @Carnityentails: beautiful landscape with great views, great fun at the steering wheel (or in the passenger's seat) as the iniital fears and hesitation slowly fade away and the chemistry between drivers and vehicles starts to develop, occasional close encounters with gazelles and oryxes. 

Thank you @Chaitanya D for the nice track chosen today, which progressively increased the technical difficulties as the drivers gained confidence with the terrain, allowing everyone in the convoy, both the real absolute newbies and the ones who had already some previous experience on the sand, to enjoy the ride always in complete safety and making sure everyone was comfortable with the level at all times. 

From my privileged position as Center Forward, I had eyes on a good part of the convoy and I think we had very a few interesting learning points today worth mentioning. 

@Roy Armale,  you did very well in 2nd lead, carefully following the Marshal's instructions at all times. You even made it to the top of the long climb that we later decided to skip: as you realized by yourself, momentum is key in such situation; with time all drivers will gain confidence and understand when pushing a bit more is a necessity. Well done!

@Clay Neddo, your past off-roading experience, even if in different terrains, was definitely recognizable. You always managed well, with a couple of refusals at tricky spots, all self-recovered, promptly applying instructions from the team. I heard you saying you didn't believe it was possible to get out of one those situations.. You'll discover your Pajero can do way more than you think it capable of! Today, for example, a good takeaway for everyone was that, in a refusal situation, doing a bit of full left - full right steering (which displaces the sand at the sides of your front wheels) can do wonders. 

@sachin suvarna,  it was very clear this wasn't your first time in the sand. You managed your Pathfinder very well, nice and smooth throughout the drive. Kudos! 

@Simon Ducos, I guess you had experienced some desert off-roading, probably as a passenger, with your father. For the portion of the drive when you were in front of me I could see you handled your Fortuner with confidence. An excellent start. 

@Haris Javed, yours is a very difficult car to drive off-road: very capable, but not easy, as it it powerful, but big, long and heavy. I have learned off-roading on my Nissan Patrol Y62 as well and I loved it; it will take some practice to learn how to control the fishtailing and how to avoid abusing the great power you have under the hood, while making friends with momentum and gravity. I could already see you were starting to learn how to countersteer when fishtailing (i.e. steering counterintuitively in the direction of your tail when it goes sideways): in a few drives you do this more instinctively and learn how to combine it with a bit of gas to correct the situation better. Then you will start discovering the full potential of your great car. An excellent debut for a true absolute newbie! 

With @Haris Javed and myself the whole convoy also had the opportunity to learn another important lesson today: if the car behind you is not in your rear view mirror, announce it and hold, otherwise the risk is that whoever follows you, regardless of how experienced he/she may be, may lose his/her way, as it happened with me today, when I chased the wrong tracks not having seen in which direction you had gone while I was helping another car behind to get unstuck. Equally, if a stuck is announced, it means a recovery is required, which will take time: in this case, again, it is advisable to stop on a flat area and wait. 

@arjumand, your car is a legendary off-roader, greatly respected in the UAE, and is a beauty to see. It will do amazing things with you at the steering wheel very soon, when you will start learning how it behaves on the sand. As with Haris, controlling your fishtailing will be one of your main achievements along with getting to understand how to be gentle on your throttle. You have good A/T tires, which you could probably deflate down to a bit less than 15psi (maybe 12psi, which will allow a larger foot print of the tire and therefore more traction), from which you'll certainly benefit in soft stand, which is where you struggled a bit today. 

@Vikas Bhatia, I had you in my rear mirror all the time and I appreciated your cautious driving: you kept your own pace whenever you felt you had to slow down a little bit, but you came across the most challenging spots unscathed. Your few stucks and refusals happened at tricky spots, and made you learn three important things: first, momentum is key, as in both occasions you lost it and stopped in a moment of hesitation; second, power is not your friend when having a refusal, as too much spinning will make you dig yourself more in the sand and third, stuck happens and recovers with tugs are absolutely part of the game; if you don't get stuck while learning, it means you ar not challenging yourself enough. Very well done!! 

Behind Vikas I had little visibility. I guess @Brette@Brette, whose great and experienced support was key at the back, will be able to add more precious comments on @Marwan Haddad and@Roy Dsouza

@hasan hamadeh  I guess today you learned that no matter how strong your F150 may be, the desert can be stronger... Hopefully your car's worrying noise will be an easy fix: very well done when driving out your car with limited traction. Another important lesson for the day, especially in tricky situations like the one Hasan faced, when forced to drife in 2WD, is radio communication: listening carefully to instructions and executing manouvers accordingly is key for successful recoveries. 

Kudos to everyone for an excellent start of your off-roading adventure. I look forward to driving again toghether! 

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Drive Report:

Dear friends  

@Roy Armale, @Clay Neddo, @sachin suvarna, @Simon Ducos, @Haris Javed, @Vikas Bhatia, @arjumand, @Marwan Haddad, @Roy Dsouza, @hasan hamadeh pic below at Richie's bar in Qudra area

20210611_074223.jpg

It is always special when you join a club to enjoy as a hobby and over time you have learned so much to share with new friends who join in. Absolute newbie is one drive which is always so fun for all the seniors to impart and introduce all the safe practices.

This report of mine has been made easier by @Lorenzo Candelpergher who has beautifully described what all you need to do as he was having a birds eye view on the entire convoy being in the center. Thank you so much.

To high light a few more learning points:

1. Please learn to improve on what all you learnt and experienced today - , deflations, approach, throttle control and using the gears/diff locks to get out of situations.

2. Keep to convoy positions at all times, keep a close watch on cars in front and behind you.

3. Radio communication and acknowledgement is prime

4. Please follow advices given by the seniors - which will help you get out of a situation without damaging your car.

5. Do not venture out on a different track on your own.

With regards to deflation depending on the style you drive and which tires you are running you can go down to 15 psi for normal road tires and 12 psi if you have off road all terrain tires. You can keep reducing by 0.5 psi as you progress till you get that sweet spot where the pressure will be perfect to get the best performance of your car for your style of driving, without risking a pop out. You will learn and experience this as you progress and join more drives.

From now on you all have done a fantastic debut with Carnity and are welcome to join more drives in future. Remember to get your mandatory off road gear by next time you join - Radio (and program it), Shovel, Deflator, Compressor and a off road flag. More information on these in the link below 

Please join in the whatsapp notification group for announcements on drives planned. The drives for weekends go live for RSVP on sunday at 7 PM. Please note to choose your drive correctly as these are generally full within minutes. Link to join below 

If you feel you have more experience and would like to upgrade your level to more challenging drives then you are welcome to do a self declaration as per the link below which will be reviewed .

Some stats from the drive in the picture below - of course you can reduce 8-10 km which we drove for one car to be exited 

Screenshot_20210611-164911_Gaia GPS.jpg

Last but not the least - immense thanks to @Brette and @Lorenzo Candelpergher for joining this drive and supporting. They have shared some great tips with you all, which you need to improve on.

Hope you all had good fun joining this club. I wish to see you all soon on some other drives . If you have any queries / suggestions - you are welcome to ask here by tagging me as Chaitanya D.

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

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