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To all Carnity members. Please take note of these additional channels and program them into your radio ASAP. Thanks !

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, Yesterday's drive in Faqa was no doubt an extreme one, but for reasons that went well beyond the original objectives for the day. We started on time, as everyone made it to the meeting point early enough, except for @Shehab Alawadhi who unfortunately overslept and missed the drive entirely. We entered the desert quite on the north edge of Faqa area and very soon had to face a very unfortunate double pop-out at the bottom of a slip face by @Christian Andras, whose tires were very new and probably not yet fully molded to the rims and not yet tested for the ideal deflating pressure. I was sorry to see Christian bailing out after this unfortunate start, I think he might have given it one more try as @Ale Vallecchi was also suggesting. Having a pop-out is a bit of a shock especially if it happens for the 1st time when you are already an experienced driver, but it is always worth going through something like that, as it is part of the indispensabile wealth of expertise that can only be built by hard lived real situations. After sadly leading Christian back to the tarmac, the convoy made its way again in the desert but soon after I was betrayed by a nasty bush at the bottom of a slip face and had my first pop-out of the day. After quickly fixing it (thanks for the help to everyone) we kept going and splashed into a very long stint of acrobatic driving on the increasingly high dunes in Faqa, keeping a high pace and a high level of difficulty, further enhanced by the soft sand that would be greatly churned up by the first vehicles in the convoy. Climbing those very high dunes along the crest and then deep diving, nose down, on long and steep slip faces or criss-crossings at high speed coming from either the wind or slip face was no easy exercise and required, in some cases, quite a good degree of faith that everything would be fine on the other side which was beyond sight.. Everyone did incredibly well, given the challenges. A few physiological stucks and refusals only proved that the drive level wall was a real extreme one, where even the best Carnity Intermediate drivers could occasionally find difficulties up to their level. @Ahab Shamaawas a great 2nd lead, getting more and more comfortable in the complex maneuvers we would make and always promptly responsive to my instructions or holding when I had a refusal. I didn't get to see much of what happened behind, as I was mostly focused on the way ahead. I was occasionally able to loop back and have a look at the convoy riding along the crest and coming down a slip face, however: @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ in his yellow JL followed with great attention and precision. A couple of long climbs gave him a hard time, but he eventually made it to the top. @Shaaz Shasurely enjoyed the drive as everytime I got near to his car I could see him smiling from ear to hear. A very good performance with very few refusals. @Tero Vallaswas also very inspired yesterday and pushed his car to its full potential, finding its limit in a nasty bowl where he needed a small tug to get back on track. @Rizwanm2sweated his way through those big dunes as everyone else, certainly getting to know better his car's limits. @Francois Germishuys was a caterpillar as usual at the back, flattening every crest except the one where he had to be winched out from a delicate position. @Ale Vallecchiat the back was of great support in assisting during the stucks and refusals and, from what I could understand from the radio, had to drive in an incredibly churned up sand, which was at times very tricky even for such an experienced Marshal. Talking about caterpillars, it was really an annoying surprise to see how multiple bulldozers were creating multiple tracks across the sand spoiling one of the most intact and beautiful areas in Faqa. It was quite a disturbing feeling to drive around crossing those ugly (and bumpy) tracks and seeing those huge beasts roaming around. Due to the 3 pop-outs and the multiple stops for stucks and refusals, when we exited Faqa we were a bit behind schedule. It was therefore decided to extend the drive so we could make it to Solar Park. We quickly moved east but we were again delayed by my 2nd pop-out of the day, the stupidest possible one, occurred on a dirt track when I hit a bush while distracted looking at the navigator. After a quick fix, we then started to head north when we unfortunately found ourselves dealing with a very nasty fence, mostly hidden under the high dunes. Some of us managed to criss cross at a point where the fence was totally buried, but it became more and more difficult as the convoy got through, as the fence was getting exposed. It was then decided that @Ale Vallecchiwith the last few cars would explore the fence from the south side to seek for a safe passage, while the front of the convoy would run in parallel on the north side. It was at this point that the incredible happened, and Ale ended up literally on top of the fence while trying to criss cross in an apparently safe point (hopefully someone will post some photos!). The recovery was quite demanding as we had to secure the car from the side with one winch to prevent it sliding further down while with the other winch we pulled it from the front disentangling it from the fence. In the end it all went well, Ale was out with minimal damage and we could move again. After a minor roaming around Little Sweihan, where another winch recovery was needed to get @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQout of a crested situation, we decided it was getting too late and too hot, so we hit the sabkha and made our way to Solar Park via a fast dirt track north. Overall we drove 95.9km in 5h 23', with an average moving speed of 23.1km/h. We moved for 4h 09' and stopped for 1h 14'. Out ascent was +250/-305m. It wasn't the luckiest of all drives, but certainly an extreme one in many ways. Congratulations to everyone and great thanks to @Ahab Shamaaand @Ale Vallecchi for their support and to all those who helped fixing pop-outs and performing recoveries. Great team work. See you next time!!

Today's desert drive was one of the best so far, however my vehicle broke down towards the end. Recovering my vehicle would not have been possible without the excellent commitment and dedicated support of the Carnity team @Gaurav @Mukundan Nair @Gaurav Soni; who after leading the remaining convoy to the exit, spent three hours to make it possible to bring my vehicle to the area where recovery service was accessible .It is thanks to them that I was able to prevent abandoning my car in the desert. I have reached my home safely and my car is in the workshop and many thanks to the team for this.

The team spirit and community of carnity are like nothing else. I joined Carnity 4-5 years ago as a mechanic looking to share advice and tech tips with like minded people. I met people like @Gaurav @Rahimdad amongst others and made some really good friends. I am not as active on Carnity as I used to be. When it turned from a technical advice forum to an event organising forum, I took a step back, I like to talk about fixing cars and it just isn’t as common place here now. I have done more than a few off road drives with carnity but it just isn’t my scene. Off road drives can get expensive fast once you start breaking transmissions, breaking bumpers etc and it all adds up fast on a low Dubai mechanic salary. I am so happy to have met the people I have met through carnity and I look forward to meeting more of you in the future. It feels like a true brotherhood

Dear Marshal's, @Gaurav @Rahimdad @Chaitanya D @Frederic @Srikumar @Ale Vallecchi @Foxtrot Oscar @Jeepie @Wrangeld I would like to request you all to consider this as a request, it would be nice if we can have more options in night drives (08:00 PM to 12:00 AM, Thursday and Friday) during summer, as it's really hot now since approaching peak summer. noticed in the last morning drive that most of the vehicles started over heating once the temperature started to raise. Thank you. Br, Abdul Rahman

It's the leader not where he leads that makes the diff...🙂

Great drive @Lorenzo Candelpergher. It was my first Extreme club drive (had done other drives with high level of difficulty and speed with other Marshals, but mostly as our own recce or practice drives), and it was extremely enjoyable, thanks to the well chosen, challenging, route, as well as greatly useful to me, allowing my FJ to stretch to its limits after the engine rebuild. Plus, what a difference it makes moving from the front to the back of the convoy. Exchanging the luxury of choosing a fresh, unspoiled track, for the challenge of moving through churned up sand, trying to avoid the deeper ruts, and moving through dug up tracks, required attention and patience, providing a great training ground, both technically and mentally. From that point of view at the rear of the convoy I have gained renewed respect for all the drivers that end up being placed in that position: what a difficult task we give the big trucks, or heavier cars which normally drive in the rear-most positions, and how well they always carry it out. As far as my close encounter with the fence, I didn't plan it, but it certainly helped make the drive even more extreme. Looking at it with hindsight, it could have gone both ways: as I came off the crest, and committed to exit on the other side of the dune, I could have either flipped, as my car came to a halt, sideways, hitting the few centimeters of fence jutting out of the sand, or could have escaped unscathed, if I had seen the fence sooner, and had simply ridden the ridge for just a couple more meters (on the same path that the rescue cars took to come over the crest from the other side). Anyways, all is well what ends well. For this I have to thank the whole convoy - @Rizwanm2, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ, @Tero Vallas, @Francois Germishuys and @Shaaz Sha - as it came together to evaluate the situation, with each driver offering point of view and solutions which, summed together, provided the blueprint for the final rescue plan, perfectly executed by @Lorenzo Candelpergher and @Ahab Shamaa, the first winching the car from the front, and the latter anchoring its rear away from the fence. Thank you all for the fun drive. I look forward to see you all in the sand.

Dear Desert Wanderers, The RSVP was full in just 5 mins.. I must presume discovering a new area has its unique appeal! @Javier Lucero, @Gok Krish, @Shehab Alawadhi, @Abu Muhammad, @Arman, @Niki, @varunmehndiratta, @Rizwan Waheed, @Dodi Syahdar, @imranaasghar81, your are all pre-confirmed for Friday's drive. @Pacific is the 1st shortlisted. Have a nice week.

Thank you @Islam Soliman @Ranjan Das @Tamas Hoffmann @Abdul Rahman AK for this wonderful drive, it was a good learning in such a soft sand. As the weather temperature increases few refusals & stuck was there BUT you all did excellent team work to come up very quickly. Our Convoy performance was super and we love the way @Islam Soliman ask our interest for one hours extension (which everyone agreed) and then due to some cars having temperature issue it was advise to take exist. (Very well safe & perfect decision by our Marshal) Thanks to entire convoy for your help, support, patience during refusals & stucks. Hope to see you in next drive

Hi Mario, the new channels are on 6.25 as well, but let me reiterate a little bit on that, sorry if it becomes a bit technical here below: If you put your Radio in VFO mode (this the manual mode where you can type in any frequency), you can with turning your rotary dial on the top of the radio (for example Motorola MT777) go up or down in steps. This is the so called step frequency. Most of us are using the channel mode in which your rotary dial knob goes through the programmed channels, so that step frequency is not important. However in some model radios, if you want to program a certain frequency, it will not always accept a certain frequency that is located in-between two "steps", hence we used to provide the step frequency as well. The reason that frequencies have steps is because of how FM (Frequency Modulation) works: When you are broadcasting on a frequency for example 446.00625, you will be in fact broadcasting in-between 445.986 and 446.026. This is a 20Khz wideband bandwidth. And this is also the main reason why our carnity frequencies are not randomly chosen, they are selected to make sure there is enough room in between the channels so there is no interference. Compare it with Sheikh Zayed road which has 6 lanes. The white lines that represent each lane have a certain width, or bandwidth. As long as you remain in your lane you will not interfere with others. The width of the lanes are chosen to accommodate vehicles from different sizes like lorries, SUV's, or sedans. The 20Khz bandwidth is basically the width of each lane, as our radio transmit our voices over this width. I hope i did not give you a headache now

Sharing with you guys a very valuable DSLR Crash course, totally suited for beginners: The+DSLR+Crash+Course.pdf

The car is back in action and we both are ready for the next adventure.

Congrats @Wade Pat2!

Wonderful route + beautiful terrains + higher pace + excellent lead by @Luca Palanca Falsini + very good support @Dodi Syahdar + amazing drivers @Chinthaka Ruwan @Nathan Evans @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil @Russ @TT_Dubai @Bernd Stucke @Rob H = a perfect drive! Thank you everybody for good times and nice photos posted. @Luca Palanca Falsini i saved this track and definitely use it in my leads. Thank you! @Dodi Syahdar you didn't leave me any work to do. thank you for support buddy, Special highlights to @Nathan Evans again! Your jimny danced in the middle of the giants! Very well done! See you all on the next!

Hi @Russ, @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, @Nathan Evans, @TT_Dubai, @Chinthaka Ruwan, @Bernd Stucke, @Dodi Syahdar, @Rob H, @Luca Palanca Falsini, @Mehmet Volga, I just uploaded some great pictures in the gallery. I hope you enjoy it.

To be very honest, you were quite lucky today that the coolant hose ruptured was small and easily accessible to be patch with mseal, duct tape and cable ties. We always try to do whatever we can but we arent mechanic so our capabilities are very limited for such emergencies repair. This incident should remind everyone to be 200% sure on keeping regular maintenance and checks for their desert vehicles. Hope your explorer doesnt become exploder again. Thanks @Mukundan Nair and @Gaurav Soni for excellent teamwork and patience for such emergency repair job and rescue drive.

Congratulations @Pacific for reaching the Intermediate Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Please make sure your Carnity user profile is always updated with all the latest Emergency contact details. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. INTERMEDIATE Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 10 drives are required after fewbie promotion and within last 6 months. (Drives can be a mix of Newbie, Fewbie (50%) and 2 Fewbie plus, depending on your adaptability, learning progress and Marshal’s feedback) What you'll learn Basic GPS and navigational skills Basic tow rope and winch recoveries Extreme side sloping and long hill climb Tall dunes ridge riding and criss crossing Precise control over technical dunes Fast pace desert driving Clear radio communication skills Advance recovery skills Self recover from dune crest Soft sand recovery Pop-out fixing Skills required Adventurous and thrill seeker but in a safe manner Level headed under stressful situations Responsible, dependable and accountable Car Worthiness Capable 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle High profile tires Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor, tool kit, rated recovery rope and 2 rated shackles, GPS. Drive teamwork Manage center forward position with Trip Lead’s permission Learn/assist recoveries under Trip Lead’s supervision Re-route convoy and coordination, when needed Learn to lead small portion of Intermediate drive under Marshal supervision Drive Joining Join Newbie, Fewbie, Intermediate and Exploration drives only Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

Congratulations @Abdul Rahman AK for reaching the Intermediate Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Please make sure your Carnity user profile is always updated with all the latest Emergency contact details. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. INTERMEDIATE Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 10 drives are required after fewbie promotion and within last 6 months. (Drives can be a mix of Newbie, Fewbie (50%) and 2 Fewbie plus, depending on your adaptability, learning progress and Marshal’s feedback) What you'll learn Basic GPS and navigational skills Basic tow rope and winch recoveries Extreme side sloping and long hill climb Tall dunes ridge riding and criss crossing Precise control over technical dunes Fast pace desert driving Clear radio communication skills Advance recovery skills Self recover from dune crest Soft sand recovery Pop-out fixing Skills required Adventurous and thrill seeker but in a safe manner Level headed under stressful situations Responsible, dependable and accountable Car Worthiness Capable 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle High profile tires Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor, tool kit, rated recovery rope and 2 rated shackles, GPS. Drive teamwork Manage center forward position with Trip Lead’s permission Learn/assist recoveries under Trip Lead’s supervision Re-route convoy and coordination, when needed Learn to lead small portion of Intermediate drive under Marshal supervision Drive Joining Join Newbie, Fewbie, Intermediate and Exploration drives only Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

Congratulations @Wade Pat2 for reaching the Fewbie Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Please make sure your Carnity user profile is always updated with all the latest Emergency contact details. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. Fewbie: Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 5 Newbie drives are required within last 3 months for Fewbie promotion. What you'll learn Basic dune and sand reading Self-recovery techniques Shoveling at right place Crawling out of difficult situations Blip Blip - Coordinate steering and gas control Advance side sloping and hill climb Basic ridge riding and criss crossing Basic control over technical dunes Slightly faster pace desert driving Ability to manage stuck/refusals with radio Learn to control and avoid fishtailing Never fight or challenge gravity Skills required Enthusiastic and positive attitude Willingness to learn and help others Presence of mind and attention to detail Car Worthiness Any 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor. Drive teamwork Manage second lead and sweep positions upon request Intuitive and proactive to support Trip Lead Observe recoveries and offer help, when needed Drive Joining Join Newbie and Fewbie drives And Fewbie Plus, after 5 drives at Fewbie level only Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

Congratulations @Gok Krish for reaching the Intermediate Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Please make sure your Carnity user profile is always updated with all the latest Emergency contact details. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. INTERMEDIATE Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 10 drives are required after fewbie promotion and within last 6 months. (Drives can be a mix of Newbie, Fewbie (50%) and 2 Fewbie plus, depending on your adaptability, learning progress and Marshal’s feedback) What you'll learn Basic GPS and navigational skills Basic tow rope and winch recoveries Extreme side sloping and long hill climb Tall dunes ridge riding and criss crossing Precise control over technical dunes Fast pace desert driving Clear radio communication skills Advance recovery skills Self recover from dune crest Soft sand recovery Pop-out fixing Skills required Adventurous and thrill seeker but in a safe manner Level headed under stressful situations Responsible, dependable and accountable Car Worthiness Capable 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle High profile tires Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor, tool kit, rated recovery rope and 2 rated shackles, GPS. Drive teamwork Manage center forward position with Trip Lead’s permission Learn/assist recoveries under Trip Lead’s supervision Re-route convoy and coordination, when needed Learn to lead small portion of Intermediate drive under Marshal supervision Drive Joining Join Newbie, Fewbie, Intermediate and Exploration drives only Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

Thanks for the wishes @Brette , @Lakshmi Narasimhan, @M.Seidam, @Abdul Rahman AK, @Anish S ...as a coincidence, upon being promoted to fewbie today, i had my first stuck in my offroad life during the night newbie drive with @Chaitanya D .😀😀.took me 10 newbie rides and a fewbie promotion for a royal stuck , holding the convoy for a good 20 min or more

Hi @Shaaz Sha. I will. Thanks Hello @GauravSoni. The drive is wide open. I can put you in now, as I don't think it will get full. Hi @Thomas Varghese. I will put you in, as the drive is wide open, with still many spots that will remain available. Thanks. Hi @Zixuan Huang. I can add you to the drive now, as it's still wide open, and there will be sufficient spots left. Thanks

Hello @Lorenzo Candelpergher, please add me to the waitlist for a first drive.

Congratulations @Pacific

Congrats @Pacific. Well done!! BTW, how is your car doing?

Good job @Gok Krish!! I am happy to have seen you grow from your first Newbie drive.

Well done @Gok Krish !

Hi @Christian Andras. I was sad to see you withdraw. I guess you felt it wad the right thing to do, so in the end it was surely for the better. My own 2 cents on what happened, but most of all about your feelings 😊. You say: "The biggest damage is the psychological one, cause my faith in the FJ, which has been rock solid until now, is somewhat weakened 😩". I say, do NOT feel that way. I also felt disappointed when I had my first 2 pop outs, as until then my FJ had proved extremely reliable, and almost unstoppable. Yet, the car was not at fault, in both situation; rather, I was the one to blame, and reviewing what had caused the 2 pop outs restored the confidence in my FJ, and made me learn very useful lessons. The first pop out was due to my counter-steering up a slope, with too much deflation (on a hot summer afternoon). The second one was due to my coming down sideways on a slip-face, onto the hard flat terrain. In both cases, if I had made different choices, I would not have had any pop outs (but, with hind sight, thankfully, I had). Referring to what happened to you yesterday, I am not pointing my finger at you (yes, your tires were badly matched to the rims), but: 1) you may have deflated too much, adopting a deflation point based on your previous tire set-up, and 2) you may have missed the right line of exit from the dune you were criss-crossing. Again, probably your old tire set-up would not have penalized you, but take this opportunity to look back, correct whatever went wrong in terms of "human choices", and keep, or even strengthen your confidence in your FJ, an in your driving skills. Now that you have found the proper solution for your tires, do not forget what you may have learned in terms of choices you can make while driving, and surely you will come back on the sand as an unstoppable force. See you soon out there!!

Congrats @Pacific !

@Pacific great news for you. Am sure you'll enjoy the new rank with the same enthusiasm as every other challenge you faced in Carnity.

Congrats @Pacific!

Dear Abdul Rahman, Thanks for the suggestion. We are as a leader's group always looking at ways to offer the drives that members want and can attend. This is driven by the availability of leads for whom the timings do depend largely on what we need to do in our other (non desert) lives.

Congrats @Pacific

Congratulations! @Wade Pat2

Congrats @Sunil Mathew!

Congrats @Wade Pat2!

Congratulations @Sunil Mathew👍

Congratulations @Pacific👍

Congrats @Pacific!

PATIENCE. I saw the patience of my fellow drivers in those moments. The moment I called they came and helped.

@Lorenzo Candelpergher thanks it was an exciting drive, i started feeling a bit jealous towards the end as everyone was having so much fun with their refusals, stucks and popouts that i had to participate, that crest’ing took Zero effort 🤣✌🏼, thanks for coming to rescue me! But one a serious note, this was one of the drives with the most refusals and stucks that I’ve experience with carnity.... (except for Liwa ) See you all next time.

@Gok KrishCongratulations!

Congrats @Gok Krish!

Congrats @Abdul Rahman AK

Congrats @Sunil Mathew