COVID19 compliant - Friday Evening/Night Fewbie Desert drive- Murquab to Solar Park - Dubai- 11 Jun 2021

[Kailas]

Good Afternoon,

Thank you all for joining me last night. We were able to maintain the momentum throughout the drive. The convoy did exceptionally well; allowing me to tick box all the plan I had in mind which were:

✅ Step up the speed and drive through the Murqab track- I did not have to slow down as the convoy was easily catching up without any issues

✅ Practice Ridge riding and Criss crossing before sunset: We had new fewbies joining us. To give them a taste of ridge riding & criss crossing, we were able to find some candidate dunes and practice one by one.

✅Night driving from Lisaily to Solar Park- After sunset, we had long distance to cover. The convoy managed the night drive easily with least refusals and stucks. We had reached the exit point before planned time. Well done everyone👍

✅No Pop out- We did not have any pop-out during the drive, which means every one's driving approach angle was good.

@Thomas Varghese- You did a great job in communicating and giving the proper instructions as second lead. You were driving very close to me most of the time, giving response time in case I had to re-route. I do understand X-terra might not able to power up like Wrangler, in that case you should accordingly delay the start to make sure that you do not come close in any situation. I  emphasis SL keeping constant distance during night drive because unlike day drive, the lead will not have a clear visual ahead. There are chances lead might encounter a sudden pocket / drop. This did not happen yesterday, but could happen in future, so make sure you don't go too close.

@Fabien Monleau-  Good to see you cope quickly in the fewbie level. In the ridge riding & criss cross practice session you did really good. Well managed self recovery when you got refusal👌. Rather than just pulling you out, we guided you to self recover. The key is to not panic, and good movement with steering during self recovery. I was impressed with 76 LC's power, it just came out easily in 4L.

@Gok Krish- You were flawless in your position and executing the responsibilities given to you . The idea of putting an experience driver before new fewbie was to make sure slight re-routing if track is churned, make sure Wade can follow you at all time without loosing site. Also👍 👍 for the split second maneuvering and brake when @Fabien Monleau had a refusal. Your experience really come in handy there!!

@Wade Pat2- Same comments as Fabien, you quickly adapted in FB level. You did great in ridge riding and criss-crossing. Couple of crested situations, with more fewbie drives once you're back from vacation, you will master in crossing dune with right amount of acceleration. Well done on your first fewbie👍. Enjoy your break.

@Farouq Owdeh- I could hear your HEMI roaring in the front. You managed well. I was told you had a bit of fishtailing, please make sure that you steer down when you loose momentum, driving in Dubai dunes which are relatively small, you might get away with fishtailing. But you drive mostly in Abu Dhabi, with huge tall dunes, things can go really wrong when fishtailing.

@Rob H- You were fantastic as a CF and in handling your Thundra. You handled recoveries and assistance while refusals very well.

@Ehab- Ehab has got so good in driving that I could put him behind CF and not worry about him. 👌

@Chaitanya D- Having Chaitanya in my drive, I could leave the convoy with him and focus on leading. Thanks a lot for your support. Good to have you🙏

Please find the stats of the drive below. And special thanks to @Thomas Varghese for the brilliant night shots of our convoy. (check out the gallery) 

See you all soon!

[Thomas Varghese]

[Thomas Varghese]

[Chaitanya D]

@Kailas enjoyed the drive thoroughly . Perfect pace for a nice bunch of drivers, and exit on time which was fantastic.

@Thomas Varghese thank you for some nice pictures of everyone, being second lead .

@Rob H thank you for managing the recoveries well .

@Fabien Monleau and @Wade Pat2 did really well, @Farouq Owdeh appreciate your commitment to come all the way from Abu Dhabi for the drive in Dubai, @Gok Krish and @Ehab as usual you just breezed through the challenges. Well done 

See you all soon on sand, Enjoy your week

 

[Thomas Varghese]

Thank you @Chaitanya D for the appreciation. The fact is I didn't like the night pictures as my lenses were dirty and it shows in the final rendering. The dust on the lenses won't show in day time pictures but yes it appears in the night pictures as it scatters the light coming from the powerful headlights like an unruly prism. Unfortunately when I decided to carry my camera I knew the lenses were dirty and it might show but it was too late to sit and clean them as I would have missed the drive then. The night time pictures with a DSLR is not as smooth as a point and shoot camera or a smartphone as too much attention has to be given to the settings to properly capture the scene. Its a time consuming process and you cannot do it in a hurry. 1st of all its impossible to take pictures at night handheld with a DSLR as any shutter speed less than the camera lens focal length is going to result in camera shake. TRIPOD is a must. I had to use the tripod as shutter speeds were more than 3 seconds instead of the usual 1/50 or 1/100 or 1/250 and faster speeds depending on light condition during daytime. Night time photography is more creative than daytime as you can produce streaks of light emanating from the car headlights or tail lights which when properly processed gives a stunning look. You cannot do all this in the middle of a drive. We have to dedicate a drive completely to capture night time driving pictures with a DSLR. The results will be stunning though. The focus of that drive should be only photography and not drive challenges. Hopefully you will organize a drive soon focused on night time desert driving pictures. I would love to take a motion blur picture of the cars during twilight hours if possible as I don't have an ND filter to stop down the shutter speed to less than 1/30 sec during daytime so that the motion blur is captured. It gives a sense of motion and emphasizes on the motion of the car instead of just still photographs of car I take now.  

[M.Seidam]

@Kailas superb drive report loved your tick points . Kudos and hope to drive with you soon pal 👍

[Ehab]

Good morning everyone, thank you @Kailasfor the amazing drive and thank you @Chaitanya D and @Rob H for the support

 @Thomas Varghese  @Fabien Monleau @Gok Krish @Wade Pat2 @Farouq Owdeh

Enjoy the videos