Afternoon Fewbie Desert Drive - Waiting for Iftar: Faqa Loop - Dubai - 9 Apr 2022

[Krishna R]

@Ale VallecchiAny chance of including me?

[Ale Vallecchi]

11 minutes ago, Krishna R said:

@Ale VallecchiAny chance of including me?

Dear @Krishna R, even though you are #1 in the waiting list, precedence goes to those drivers with no scheduled drives during the weekend. As it looks like this would be your second drive, those without drives will move ahead of you, if someone drops out. Let's see if anything opens up, before being able to evaluate. Thanks for asking.

[Ivan P]

@Ale Vallecchi I need to cancel... sorry,I hope someone can step in 

Have fun

[Ale Vallecchi]

2 hours ago, Krishna R said:

@Ale VallecchiAny chance of including me?

Hello @Krishna R. You have made it into the drive. Can you please confirm that you will be able to join? Thanks a lot. 

[Krishna R]

@Ale Vallecchiyes confirmed and looking forward

[Mahmoud Taha]

20 hours ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

Dear Desertnauts

let's prepare our drive tomorrow by sending out a few information about the terrain we'll cross.

The meeting point is on a sabkha (those very flat and wind-swept flat areas between adjacent areas of dunes), just north of Faqa Town, which you can reach making a right turn off the Dubai-Al Ain Road, just before the actual exit to Faqa. Follow the tarmac, lined up by a mix of dunes and camel farms, until you'll see the convoy meeting up.

In general, we'll expect to find soft and warm sand. Therefore, we'll need to deflate accordingly, in my opinion between 14 and 10 PSI (deflate to low PSI's only if you have tires with relatively high and thick walls, while very powerful cars - the big trucks - may deflate a little less).

We'll start the drive entering a set of soft technical dunes located between the proper Faqa "plateau" of ling range cordons, and the newest Solar Park developments (the very visible solar "chimney"). We'll be driving across the soft slip-faces, so we'll minimize the criss-crossing in these area, and will prefer to drive along the dunes as much as possible, to find suitable open corridors between cordons. After sometime, this area will open up, allowing faster driving, and easier crossings. We'll eventually reach one of 2 sabkhas (a nearer and a further one, depending on the convoy's behavior), which we'll use to loop back toward the Faqa Plateau. Here we'll find taller dunes, with some deep bowls, and very long cordons and ridges, that we'll try to ride and cross whenever suitable. We plan to exit just before sunset.

The convoy order, at the moment (barring drop-outs and new entries) looks like the following:

@varunmehndiratta in Second Lead

@Jessica Lambert in place #3

@Paolo Morresi at #4

@DP1011 will be at #5

@FiNaR at #6

@Pierre de Maigret will be in the center of the convoy

@Gerrit Bus will drive at #8

@Felix Obst at #9

@Harshal will take position #10

@Beide Worku will be #11, and

@topgear will Sweep.

The Carnity Radio channel we'll be using is #2 (446.036).

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow afternoon (please do not be late).

 

@Ale Vallecchi any chance to be added to this drive ?

[topgear]

@Ale Vallecchi thanks for putting this together esp on the weekend with very few drives available. Great sharing of knowledge from you during the drive. We had lots of issues but we patiently overcame them with yours and Varun’s leadership  

@varunmehndirattaThanks for leading the second part through the long range and technical areas 

@Krishna R I hope your car issued will get resolved and ready for the sand next weekend. Hope it is nothing major  

To the rest of the convoy members @Jessica Lambert@Paolo Morresi @DP1011 @FiNaR @Pierre de Maigret @Gerrit Bus @Felix Obst @Harshal @Beide Worku, thanks for coming out. Hope to see you all soon. 

[Beide Worku]

@Ale Vallecchi your pre-drive instruction is commendable, complete with the mini FJ  

@varunmehndiratta glad to witness a lead in the making, props!

@topgear thanks for being a great sweep and saving my plate. 

Always fun to go for a spin with fellow roadies, see you on the next one. 

[Harshal]

@Ale Vallecchi - Thanks for the drive. You showed the true quality of leader by allowing Varun to take over the second part of drive. Which was first for him. And I always love your briefs. You thought me about how not to get crested when driving the long car. 

@varunmehndiratta- I agree with Beide. Great Marshal in making. Your drive was fast with least stops

@topgear - Thanks for the sweep but did not get to talk to you. Next time

@Krishna R- Sorry that you had to exit due to the car. Hope it is fixed it by now. 

The drive was fun. We had multiple unscheduled during first leg. Each of this is a learning opportunity for us.

Second portion was fast and fun.

[Gerrit Bus]

@Ale Vallecchi thanks for a very enjoyable afternoon drive. Always learning new things under your excellent lead.

@varunmehndiratta congratulations on your first, and well executed lead drive in the second half. Looking forward to more with you. 
Fellow Dune Bashers. Below a link to some Gladiator POV videos of our drive. 
https://photos.app.goo.gl/AAxPns9S99rnmPHLA

Edited April 13, 2022 by Gerrit Bus