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As expected ., the ride was action packed with the lead @JeromeFJ cruising through the huge dunes ... as though it was a flat ground for you....and the raptor following it with big two flags .... 👍 great ride and super in sync guys ... the whole convoy just drove as though they had known the place before.... Will be looking forward for more fun ... 🙂

@ChrisW as @Gaurav says the 360 images have flattened reality and it is difficult to see from the images the ridge etc. but basically what happened here was as you approached the cross over, you were slightly low on the dune so angle of attack was ever so slightly off. Therefore, as you tried to make the cross over you turned upward on the dune face forcing gravity to pull the rear of the car toward the base of the dune. This then resulted in you not getting two wheels either side of the ridge before crossing over to the other side. at this point you continued with the maneuver, and once you have one front wheel on one side and one front, plus both rears, on the other, the vehicle starts to rotate it then digs in slightly and changes direction rapidly. This resulted in the car snapping around to the right but as you kept the throttle pinned you were able to make the cross over, however, the situation could have ended in a cresting or worse could have dug in and rolled. However, on the second dune you had a similar experience, but the result was entirely different, as the car started to slide to the right you steered into the slide to correct it and naturally the car headed towards the ground and you exited the side slope safely and re-attempted. Two very similar occurrences, one which went well as you learnt from your first one that did not go so well. hence why we teach not to fight gravity, and not to continue on to complete a maneuver that should be abandoned when the better course of action is to steer down towards the ground and re-attempt.

Great drive @Islam Soliman lots of variety. Spectacular sunrise with balloons coming in to land, a variety of technical areas, shrub navigation, fields of green, sideys and fast pace areas near the end followed by green fields a wonderful wildlife’s tour section with large herds of Arabian Oryx, Arabian sand Gazelle and I believe a large Lizard was spotted too. All drivers did well adjusting to the terrain and learning the sand still has multiple layers of moisture and how that affects vehicle dynamics. I consider this my first real support drive so thank you all giving me plenty to do, as we had a few refusals, crests and stucks to deal with, a tire deflation, loose battery, license plate instantaneous detachment and an underbody cover removal. We had a chance to use shovels , ropes, zip ties, jack, various tools and ratchet straps. @Johannes Roux did you get that tire checked and a new battery holder on order ? @Prithvi Raj key in learning for all of us is finding that right level of momentum for your vehicle, you did well. (I was an expert in stucks and crests) @Nizar Shawwa great to see you improving particularly coming down sleep slopes. @Faraz94 good second lead , hope you get a new cover for the havall soon. See you next time. @Stan @Manesh @Danny G i have posted some photos in the gallery.

Congratsss, and very happy that this car stays in good hands and good club 👍

Congratulations @Emanuel

@Carnity Here is the new owner of The White Rhino! Congrats @Emanuel !!!! it turns out that the White Rhino has a preference to Canadian owners ! 🤣 Enjoy it man ! I am sure you will give it all the love and care it deserves!

Well done Chris, to introspect on your action, to make you learn faster and safer, we all learned the same way. I cant comment much, as I havent seen you and these insta360 images have flatten all the key details tbh. Keep it up.

Thanks @Zubail you can upload images in the respective drive gallery https://carnity.com/gallery/category/2042-newbie-lisaili-adventure-dubai-11-may-2023/

expert rope pull 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏 https://photos.app.goo.gl/PEL1Jpw6MWz2iSfG8

Morning all - thank you for a really enjoyable drive. @Gaurav great leadership as always, and @Davie Chase thank you for helping me out down at the tail end! I had a good learning moment yesterday about the risks of sticking with a ridge crossing rather than rejecting and turning down with gravity - I thought I'd share the following still images and invite @Davie Chase to perhaps share a few of the mentoring words he gave me during the break about what went wrong, and what to do differently next time... The first six images are start-middle-end looking at the car, and the latter four images are the same timeframe but with a "drivers eye" perspective of approach, mid-move, exit.

Thanks a lot, it was amazing experience and beautiful views.. when we were not concentrated on driving))

Thanks for the great drive, @Islam Soliman you are a newspapers star today)). Congratulations!

What an awesome afternoon drive. The weather started off warm but we had a pleasant breeze during the briefing under the trees. Starting off heading east practising the basics of up and over crossing of dunes, we built up confidence and doubled back towards the e75 where we took a quick break. From here we headed east again towards Qudra. Some ridge riding and sidies helped us navigate past the mud rock and mud flats that are still around from those rains. We eventually hit Cresent lake and did a quick reconnaissance of the area, stopping to see if the FJ on the hill needed rescuing, before following the bike track out. 2km from the exit I managed to slide off the side of the path and get well and truely STUCK. @Vanessa8580gave me a quick tug, and we started inflation with a beautiful sunset. Everyone drive great in very varied terrain! Thanks @Ale Vallecchi @Andrew John Melvill and @Vanessa8580 for leading us from Ghantoot to Qudra. 50km of sand! Well done everyone 👍👍👍 Please add any pics you want to share to the gallery https://carnity.com/gallery/category/2041-newbie-ghantoot-searching-for-oryx-abu-dhabi-11-may-2024/

Congratulations on the your new you @Mike M.

Great session this morning @JeromeFJ, thanks for the fun and your endless patience with everyone, that makes a difference. It was quite a rollercoaster! See you soon 🚙

Definitely a memorable drive today ! Nice sand conditions, a group of determined and very capable drivers, and a beautiful play area. A few of us were still sleepy during the briefing, but after the first 5 min of the drive, everyone was fully awake. The tall dunes of Sweihan were a perfect warm up, straight into the action. From one big bowl to the next high dune the convoy was flowing. Stay in the move, Don't break the flow, Watch your lines were the motives of the day. You all did really great, and I used this opportunity to really let you experience the thrill of a drive at higher speed, when we have to use the terrain and the shape of the dunes to progress faster. As you have seen, this also requires a very accurate driving, and understanding the dynamics of the car, as any mistake will immediately take you out of the game. Nothing major occurred, but we had a tricky situation with 2 cars stuck one above the other with a steep incline, (one with a pop-out)... and rocks below! We managed to reach the top of the Old Lady dune, and to enjoy the other set of high dunes close to Al Ain Airport. Very well done @Luke K P @Aser @Shaun J @Julien Recan @msa @Rk ram @Cristian @Frans M, this was really a FB++! Waiting for feed back and pics in the gallery (I see already a first batch), enjoy the weekend, and see you next time.

While offroading, we cross dunes by using different methods, based on how the dune is formed and what the drive level is. Once you have spent some time in the desert, you will slowly start to pay more attention to the dune formations and how we cross them. Once you reach Intermediate and Advance level, you'll need to start learning how to read these dunes in order to navigate and create your planned routes in the desert. As a rule of thumb, the prevailing wind in UAE is blowing from a North-Western direction to South-East direction from 10AM onwards. At night and in early morning it will be reversed and blow from the South-East to North-West. This is something you should remember and you will notice when you zoom into certain areas with your navigation app (Google Maps, Gaia, MotionX, Mytrails,...) you will notice that the wind from that side has caused the dunes to take on their shape. This is a general rule and will not always apply, as you will see that in certain areas where wind is coming from different directions, you will see for example "star" dunes appearing. There are different types of dunes which are separately described below. As you can see in below picture, a dune is formed when the prevailing wind blows on a mound of sand, where the grain will move into the wind direction and create a ridge. The sand which falls on the other side of the ridge, creates a slipface, and this sand is not compacted by the wind. This is the main reason why we generally drive on the prevailing wind side or the convex side of the dunes on the Newbie level. "A dune is a curiously dynamic creature," wrote Farouk El-Baz in National Geographic. “Once formed, a dune can grow. It can change shape and move with the wind. It can even breed new dunes. Some of these offspring may be carried on the back of the mother dune. Others are born and race downwind, outpacing their parents. [Source: Farouk El-Baz, National Geographic, February 1982] The shape of dunes is affected by things like the strength, direction and consistency of the winds; the consistency and amount of sand; the hardness of the terrain and the amount of vegetation. Below we will describe the most common dunes found in the UAE. Different Dunes Crescent or Barchan Dune This is the most common dune. It forms the shape of a crescent moon when the wind blows from one direction. We generally use the words concave and convex to describe both sides of the dune: * Concave is a shape that curves inwards. * Convex is a shape that curves outwards. Crescent-shaped mounds generally are wider than long. On the concave side you will have the slipface. These dunes form under winds that blow from one direction, and they also are known as barchans. Parabolic Dune A parabolic dune is similar in shape to a barchan, but it is just the opposite. The tips of this dune point into the wind, and its main body migrates with the wind, forming a depression between the tips. Because of this formation, parabolic dunes are also known as blowout dunes. These dunes often occur when vegetation stabilizes sediments and a U-shaped blowout forms between clumps of plants. Example of Parabolic dunes near Faya: https://goo.gl/maps/ob8xu3y8VJJvF6hk8 Longitudinal or "Seif" Dunes They are also often referred to to as "sand ridges" or "seifs". Their length can range from a few meters to many kilometers and their height from a couple meters high to a couple hundred meters high. Wind pushes the sand and forms ridges parallel to the prevailing wind direction with slip faces either side of the crest. Linear dunes are straight or slightly sinuous sand ridges typically much longer than they are wide. They may be more than 160 kilometers long. Linear dunes may occur as isolated ridges, but they generally form sets of parallel ridges separated by miles of sand, gravel, or rocky interdune corridors. Some linear dunes merge to form Y-shaped compound dunes. Many form in bidirectional wind regimes. The long axes of these dunes extend in the resultant direction of sand movement. Barchanoid Dunes These ridges are similar to Barchan dunes. They are connected in long crescentic waves as the sand supply is much greater than that which forms a Barchan Dune. Star Dunes These dunes are formed when there are several prevailing wind directions - there is a complex wind regime. Typically there are three or more slip faces, whilst the dunes do not migrate they grow in height. Star dunes are radially-symmetrical, spyramidal sand mounds with slipfaces on three or more arms that radiate from the high center of the mound. They are created when the winds blow equally from every direction, causing the sand dune to grow many extensions and resemble a star. They are rare and are fairly stable and remain in the same place. Some are landmarks with names. Example of a Star dune: https://goo.gl/maps/jRnYghQc8ACzVz6T7 With this knowledge, the next time you step into the desert, you can start looking at the different dune formations, and this will give you lots of knowledge that you'll be able to apply in the future when leading and navigating off-road drives.

Truly when ever I read this article i realize something new .. one of the check list to do before almost any drive I do .

alright sweet, thx I was wondering where the airbag fuse is. Yea for sure, I wasn't planning on doing anything as of yet, the car runs beautifully with traction control off and ESC off, I was just wondering if a kill switch would be worth it. On my second AD drive after I learned about the magic of holding the traction control button I was drifting beautifully between dunes, you know the types of drifting where sand is flying in your car and above your head.