Morning Fewbie Plus Desert Drive - Big Red - Sharjah - 12 Feb 2022

[Davie Chase]

@Hisham Masaad once again great drive, fantastic scenery, really enjoyed the pace today and the climbs. Unfortunately I need to go to the gym as we did not have any shoveling so I could not get my daily exercise lol. So that of course is a tribute to the great driving by the team. 
super SL by @Joji varghese and CF support by @Looperalways a pleasure and of course sweeping with fínese at the by @Thomas Varghese@topgear
@Junaid120120 @Rsjiv Samuel @Davie Chase @Sunil Mathew @Chris Wing @Daniel Yang @Thomas Varghese you guys were brilliant and great company as always, great to see ild friends as well as meeting new people.

have a great rest of your weekend see you all soon 

[Thomas Varghese]

Absolutely agree with @Davie Chase. A very fast paced drive which made me think if @Hisham Masaad has already started training to see how fast he can take a convoy through semi technical areas to compete for next year Desert Champion contest. Enjoyed from start to finish. Despite the pace, the soft sands, cross tracks the convoy performed very well. The CF @Looper could enjoy his drive as everybody drove well with minimal refusals and ZERO stucks which shows the strength of the convoy in negotiating such terrain. Everybody from the 2nd lead @Joji varghese, @Junaid120120, @topgear, @Rsjiv Samuel, @Davie Chase, @Sunil Mathew, @Chris Wing, @Daniel Yang drove with finesse to the leads satisfaction. 

See you all soon in the sands.

Some pictures posted in the gallery for all of you to enjoy. 

[topgear]

It was my first visit to the Big Red. The name in itself intimidated me. After this drive, I felt that I should have visited sooner. This area delivered in spades in terms of driving pleasure and challenges. I am also humbled with the tall dune that I was not able to climb. Perhaps next time. Thanks to @Hisham Masaadfor taking us here and giving us all the confidence and assurance. Thanks to the great advice and support from @Looper and @Thomas Varghese

Besides Hisham, the rest of the FJers were also fantastic. You guys kept me humble and reminded me that its me who need to improve, the FJ is fine as-is 😆 @Junaid120120 @Rsjiv Samuel @Chris Wing  But honestly, appreciate the camaraderie and sharing of driving techniques and modification ideas  

It was great driving with the rest too, as usual, @Joji varghese @Davie Chase @Sunil Mathew @Daniel Yang

Drive with you guys soon!

[Hisham Masaad]

Fantastic drive. All what we can call our drive yesterday. Seeing every one making it exactly on time or even earlier, shows how thirsty are these guys for driving and enjoying the desert, deflating all stress of a working week, which I hope mission achieved. As soon as we had all ready, started moving warming up, and slowly pushing the level, and found all are coping, and like asking….. can we have more?? From my side as lead (and I am sure all leads), usually after sometime, I try to match and meet the lower level of drivers. But you guys, were all way up and no low level. The fun in this area, and since no much climbing challenges, is attacking smooth dunes with some speed. This will compensate other challenges which we find in other areas. The fun and challenge is to keep the pace, paying attention, keep having momentum and keep moving. @Joji varghese you were amazing SL. @Junaid120120 you was with me last week and this week, and for sure big improvement. @topgear you didn’t need more drives to improve, one drive itself was enough for you to know your strength and capabilities of your car. Sure, will be always a room for improvements. @Rsjiv Samuel @Davie Chase @Sunil Mathew @Chris Wing and @Daniel Yang glad to see you again, I have no comments, all were masters. @Looper thank you for your support. @Thomas Varghese glad to see you again after long time, thank you for watching our back, for all the nice photos. Thank you for the coffee @Rsjiv Samuel

For the records, below is drive summary and what have you done in the desert 😁

See you all again in sand, and which you nice week end, and week ahead.

Take care

Hisham

[Chris Wing]

@Hisham MasaadWonderful drive as usual! Thanks a lot for making these drives so much fun for everyone. 

All drivers were absolutely amazing and was a pleasure to drive with all of you! @Joji varghese @Daniel Yang @topgear @Junaid120120  @Rsjiv Samuel @Davie Chase @Thomas Varghese @Sunil Mathew @Looper

@topgear It took me well into fewbie plus to be able to climb tall dunes, I just couldn't figure it out. The trick: put it on L, get some momentum, smash it just before you get on the dune then keep the car close to the redline, steering slightly left and right when needed. It'll go up easily. I still struggle sometimes with dunes which require a lot of momentum because you cannot put it on L from the beginning, so more practice needed there. 

[Looper]

A little late in the day for a post but better than never. 

It was long time since I drove here and was my first drive under the stewardship of @Hisham Masaad. This area is a spaghetti of tracks - you would be hard pressed to see even a single square foot of land which has not been used and abused and the fun is in navigating them masterfully. The specific characteristics of the Big Red area which are for our enjoyment are:

1. Those medium sized dunes between camel rock and Big Red - it is fun navigating them at high speed non-stop 
2. You get to use your manual gear here - the automatic would not work all the time - especially on those tall dunes.
3. And finally of Couse the Big Red and Camel Rock themselves.

In this drive we did everything and more. and a big thanks to @Hisham Masaad to lead us on a wonderful trip round the area.

All were present ahead of time and ready to go and we hardly had anything that can even be called refusals. Everyone gave their top performance and drove masterfully.

Few observations - 

1. In the desert one needs to have a good distance between cars - which means you not only not drive too close to the car in front but also not too far away. I noticed a few were driving a bit too far from the car in front. Please be mindful that you might not only lose track of the convoy also in certain cases it can be troublesome because you will miss how a specific dune needs to be tackled. 
2. There are hundreds of permutations and combinations that affect a climb up the dune or navigate in the sand. There is a element of chance that everything falls into a perfect place, and you achieve great heights and often silliest of things go wrong and you don't. All I have to say here is don't worry - you will come here many more times - do it many more times as well. As you drive more and more you will learn to manage all those tiny permutations and combinations that can go wrong and achieve it - just give some more time. 

Thank you @Thomas Varghese for your services at the rear end of the convoy and ensuring the flock is moving. Also, a big thank you to all present @Joji varghese, @Junaid120120, @topgear, @Rsjiv Samuel, @Davie Chase, @Sunil Mathew, @Chris Wing and @Daniel Yang see you all in a new drive very soon.

Edited February 16, 2022 by Looper