Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - The Hot Stuff Drive - Lisaili - Dubai - 25 Jun 2022

[Ale Vallecchi]

This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and strictly follow these guidelines.

MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: 

• COVID19 Precautions
• Mandatory Safety Requirements
• Ban from Carnity Off-road Club
• Two Way Radio Guidelines

 

Drive Details

Level:  Fewbie and above 

Meeting time: 6:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions)

Meeting Point: Dropped pin
https://maps.app.goo.gl/fduqYeVmWgDWxzFm8

Action Plan:  There comes a time when most off-roaders start feeling the heat, and begin to withdraw to the cool and safety of their A/C'd homes. That is the time when I prefer driving in the desert. Not only there are fewer tracks, but it's also the season that really makes you feel like you are in the desert, the type we had always imagined, and seen in movies: hot, dusty, extreme, worth the challenge of crossing and taming. 

After all, as President Truman said, "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen". So, if you accept the challenge, and choose to "step into the kitchen", get ready for a hot and fast drive (speed tends to keeps your cars cooler, and allows them to "float" better on burning, liquefying, sand), where all skills will be tested, in particular technical driving as well as faster criss-crossing. 

Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance.

What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

Approximate finish time: 10:00 AM (including the possibility of a 30 minute extension to reach the exit)

P.S. Only join if you have a compressor to inflate your tires after the drive.

 

LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE:

• Limited to 10 cars maximum. RSVP will close on Friday - 12 PM.
  • If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list
• Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS.
• Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS.
• Members that do not confirm the terms of the COVID requirements will be removed from the RSVP list.
• Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others.
• Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month.

 

PLEASE RSVP ON THE CALENDAR

 

[munkybizness]

My mind immediately went to the Rolling Stones 🙌

[Ale Vallecchi]

6 minutes ago, munkybizness said:

My mind immediately went to the Rolling Stones 🙌

@munkybizness I though of Donna Summer's Hot Stuff 😈

[munkybizness]

3 minutes ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

@munkybizness I though of Donna Summer's Hot Stuff 😈

And together, your convoy will be...

[Jessica Lambert]

Apologies, I won’t be able to make it, not feeling so well today. Extra disappointed cos I finally have the new prado! 

[Ale Vallecchi]

Dear Desertnauts

getting ready for tomorrow's drive, let's state the obvious: it will be hot....the weather, and hopefully the speed at which we'll do our best to drive. Our main goals will be two: 1) make sure we handle criss-crossing at our best:; 2) once that'll be established, drive with stealth through mostly long range dunes, a few sabkhas, and occasional technical areas. Our target, will be first to reach Solar Park, and second, hopefully, carry on all the way to Qudra.

The meeting and deflation point has been added to the drive's post: please come with a full tank, and deflate to as low as your tires' set up will allow, considering the height and thickness of their walls (low tires needing less deflation), but always not more than 13 PSI. 

The convoy order will be as follows:

@Andrew McCarthy in Second Lead

@Joseph Sebastian at #3

@Imran Kashif #4

@Paolo Pellegrini at #5

@Sunil Mathew at Center Forward

@Sam K at #7

@Federico Galbieri #8

@Gurcharan Mehta at #9

@Gerrit Bus #10, and 

@TT_Dubai will close in Sweep.

Please tune into Carnity Channel #3 (446.056).

See you tomorrow, with the goal of leaving as early as possible, after 6:00 AM. Have a nice Friday evening.

[Sam K]

Good evening @Ale Vallecchi, Im going to drop out unfortunately. Wife has picked up a shift tomorrow and I'm gonna have to be on kids duty. I would have loved to join your drive as I've heard a lot of good things about them. Sorry for that. I look forward to drive with you soon.

Good luck everyone, safe ride and enjoy.

[Joseph Sebastian]

@Ale Vallecchi thanks very much for a very intense and challenging drive! Two stucks, one pop out, a couple of refusals and a close encounter with a bush(!) meant a great learning experience for me with more more ridge riding and crossing than probably I have done till date in all my drives put together 😅. And the liquid-soft sand and good pace meant the adrenaline was high and focus was total. Thanks also to @Sunil Mathew for the assistance and @Imran Kashif for keeping an eye out behind me. And @TT_Dubai for valuable sweeper support. Look forward to seeing you all on the next sand adventure... 

[Sunil Mathew]

We started off at around 0620 am from the lisaili camel tracks,  getting into some technical areas for a short warm up run, reaching the wider dunes of lisaili, when @Ale Vallecchi decided to push the envelope and get the maximum out of our fewbies with some ridge riding and criss crossing. Thats when we had our events of the day...3 pop outs and 4 tugs !! I hope @Paolo Pellegrini, @Joseph Sebastian had very important take aways from the drive. its not about getting  pop out or getting tugged, but its about whether we understand why it happened and to fine tune our driving in order to prevent it from happening next time.

When getting on and off ridges, i wish to add some pointers which i learnt during my earlier drives , from the man @Ale Vallecchi himself !!

1. If you overshoot the ridge on your first chance , please exit down and do not attempt to fight gravity and climb back up, its not going to work. You can always loop back and try again or rejoin the convoy safely. 

2. Our technique should be to angle your car to smoothly get on the ridge and ride "square" on the ridge for sometime and exit down.

3. When you exit down, drive into the slope, not slide into it. These are exactly the words Ale uses to coach us - i still hear these ringing in my ears  - "wheels pointing down", "dont slide into it, steer into it"  etc

4. Be careful, where you stop your car and at what angle you stop. With soft sand all around , you never know where you are going to sink when you start moving again. Try to stop on flat areas or at an angle so that gravity helps you to ease out of the sand.

5. Stopping on a ridge is a strict no-no. If the driver in front struggles or gets stuck, please exit down while you still can, so that we have one less recovery to attend to. I have made the same mistake myself during my earlier drives. 🙂🙂

@Gerrit Bus with his loooong gladiator, crested once to be pulled out by @TT_Dubai..i saw you flying off the dune on your second attempt...😄😄.. pls post the videos 

Good to see and drive with Tim, @TT_Dubai who  remains a fewbie by choice  --- we started our @Carnity journey almost at the same time ..i still remember your manual wrangler, the LC and now you have an FJ...looks like you are now settled with your choice 😉 😀 

Pleasure meeting and driving with the others

@Andrew McCarthy - great SL

@Imran Kashif - great Driving and  involvement in our pop out episodes with his jack and sound advices..  Just to hint that at Carnity, we dont jump the convoy order even if the car in front gets stuck or slows down, struggles etc. unless it is required from the safety point of view, temporarily. 

@Federico Galbieri driving very well behind me..at couple of crossings , i think i made it a bit difficult for you while trying to avoid churned sand and altering the tracks slighly, apologies 

@Gurcharan Mehta our second drive together..as usual , very well at ease with your modified LC

 

As per my GAIA stats , we did almost 78km when we exited at Qudra, good for a fewbie drive!!

And thanks to @Ale Vallecchifor the opportunities to perform recoveries and all guidances during the same.

 

Hope our paths cross again on future drives!!

See you all!!

 

 

 

 

 

[Paolo Pellegrini]

1 hour ago, Sunil Mathew said:

We started off at around 0620 am from the lisaili camel tracks,  getting into some technical areas for a short warm up run, reaching the wider dunes of lisaili, when @Ale Vallecchi decided to push the envelope and get the maximum out of our fewbies with some ridge riding and criss crossing. Thats when we had our events of the day...3 pop outs and 4 tugs !! I hope @Paolo Pellegrini, @Joseph Sebastian had very important take aways from the drive. its not about getting  pop out or getting tugged, but its about whether we understand why it happened and to fine tune our driving in order to prevent it from happening next time.

When getting on and off ridges, i wish to add some pointers which i learnt during my earlier drives , from the man @Ale Vallecchi himself !!

1. If you overshoot the ridge on your first chance , please exit down and do not attempt to fight gravity and climb back up, its not going to work. You can always loop back and try again or rejoin the convoy safely. 

2. Our technique should be to angle your car to smoothly get on the ridge and ride "square" on the ridge for sometime and exit down.

3. When you exit down, drive into the slope, not slide into it. These are exactly the words Ale uses to coach us - i still hear these ringing in my ears  - "wheels pointing down", "dont slide into it, steer into it"  etc

4. Be careful, where you stop your car and at what angle you stop. With soft sand all around , you never know where you are going to sink when you start moving again. Try to stop on flat areas or at an angle so that gravity helps you to ease out of the sand.

5. Stopping on a ridge is a strict no-no. If the driver in front struggles or gets stuck, please exit down while you still can, so that we have one less recovery to attend to. I have made the same mistake myself during my earlier drives. 🙂🙂

@Gerrit Bus with his loooong gladiator, crested once to be pulled out by @TT_Dubai..i saw you flying off the dune on your second attempt...😄😄.. pls post the videos 

Good to see and drive with Tim, @TT_Dubai who  remains a fewbie by choice  --- we started our @Carnity journey almost at the same time ..i still remember your manual wrangler, the LC and now you have an FJ...looks like you are now settled with your choice 😉 😀 

Pleasure meeting and driving with the others

@Andrew McCarthy - great SL

@Imran Kashif - great Driving and  involvement in our pop out episodes with his jack and sound advices..  Just to hint that at Carnity, we dont jump the convoy order even if the car in front gets stuck or slows down, struggles etc. unless it is required from the safety point of view, temporarily. 

@Federico Galbieri driving very well behind me..at couple of crossings , i think i made it a bit difficult for you while trying to avoid churned sand and altering the tracks slighly, apologies 

@Gurcharan Mehta our second drive together..as usual , very well at ease with your modified LC

 

As per my GAIA stats , we did almost 78km when we exited at Qudra, good for a fewbie drive!!

And thanks to @Ale Vallecchifor the opportunities to perform recoveries and all guidances during the same.

 

Hope our paths cross again on future drives!!

See you all!!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks @Ale Vallecchi @Sunil Mathew and @TT_Dubai for the ride. 

It was lot of fun for me because popout is fun when you realize you gonna have one few moments before it happens and when you get stuck in a ridge because you shouldn't have gone there in the first place! So great lesson learn for me!

I liked the ride, the speed, the changes in scenery and the group. Everybody so helpful and friendly. Looking to @Ale Vallecchi floating so naturally and gently over the dunes like an experience sailor it is always "spettacolare"

Edited June 26, 2022 by Paolo Pellegrini