Ahmad Quadri

Yeah I am confused between the night one on Friday and the morning in ghantoot 

Congratulations buddy 

Just now, Gaurav said:

Thanks for the details, look fwd to driving with you tomo. 

Im sure you will love your Bronco even more after the newbie drive.

Please watch the absolute newbie briefing without any distractions.

Every message from you on this post makes me go back and ckeck the waitlist - now i am 3rd on waitlist --- There is still scope. 

Just 5 more people in waitlist - and I am just waiting - hoping it goes through 

This one got filled up really quick - I was hoping to get into fewbie but then realized I have to apply for it - but by the time I could react - the game is done  

This was such a great experience - @Islam Soliman you are awesome and loved the drive that you took us on and @Davie Chase you are genuinely an inspiration. 

Today was my first stuck and then second and third and then 4th - and @Islam Soliman and @Davie Chase you both kept me calm and kept yourself calm which gave me more strength and courage - It was an absolute pleasure to be on the drive with you guys. 

Everyone on the drive was brilliant - the stucks gave us time to meet the people behind the wheels and everyone is absolutely super. See you guys again soon on the sand

@nick

6 hours ago, Vaibhav said:

Thank you @Brettefor an amazing drive. We had a surprise addition @Rizwanm2who was a great help taking care of the sweep. With few of them missing from the drive last moment convoy adjustment by @Bretteensured we had a smooth drive. @Stan Hassettexcellent job as second lead. Almost half of the drive completion as we heading towards Big red @Ahmad Quadri had a engine heat indication. Looking from a distance thought it was a radiator issue but noticed there was Coolant leak. As soon we exited the @Ahmad Quadrito the nearest exit we headed to Big Red. On the way to destination we had stuck situation with @essam ibrahim which was challenging as the sand was extremely soft and moving the car was making it tilt further it could result in a pop out. @Brette and @Rizwanm2 along with myself anchored the car and removed it safely. Great driving by @Stan Hassett @Ahmad Quadri @DEEPAK ESWAR @essam ibrahim@Rk ram @Sammy Six @Juzer Gandhi @Jeetu Sharma @Nicholas Cox1.   Few pics I have uploaded in the gallery.

I am still upset on my car - it was such a fun drive and was amazing until my car decided to go red. Drove back to Abu Dhabi absolutely fine. Probably get it checked in the garage in the coming week and hopefully be ready for the next one. Awesome stuff @Brette @Vaibhav @Rizwanm2. 
 

6 hours ago, Vaibhav said:

Thank you @Brettefor an amazing drive. We had a surprise addition @Rizwanm2who was a great help taking care of the sweep. With few of them missing from the drive last moment convoy adjustment by @Bretteensured we had a smooth drive. @Stan Hassettexcellent job as second lead. Almost half of the drive completion as we heading towards Big red @Ahmad Quadri had a engine heat indication. Looking from a distance thought it was a radiator issue but noticed there was Coolant leak. As soon we exited the @Ahmad Quadrito the nearest exit we headed to Big Red. On the way to destination we had stuck situation with @essam ibrahim which was challenging as the sand was extremely soft and moving the car was making it tilt further it could result in a pop out. @Brette and @Rizwanm2 along with myself anchored the car and removed it safely. Great driving by @Stan Hassett @Ahmad Quadri @DEEPAK ESWAR @essam ibrahim@Rk ram @Sammy Six @Juzer Gandhi @Jeetu Sharma @Nicholas Cox1.   Few pics I have uploaded in the gallery.

How do we see the gallery ? 

Thankyou @Chaitanya D  @Davie Chase @Senthil Kumar  for the amazing guidance - was an awesome drive with lots of fun and some neeve chillin drops - absolute pleasure to be there today. 

20 hours ago, Frederic said:

DRIVE REPORT

The area around Faqa is well known, but even though i have been there many times, i still discover new places and areas, and for this reason it's one of my favorite places to go offroading.

We met up around 7.30 with most people arriving earlier so they had ample time to deflate, set up the flags, and enjoy the sunrise . Some new faces like @Dorian Zissi @sohinik @Natalia Koryakovtseva and @Ahmad Quadri who joined us for the first time and drove superb for their first drive !! 

The weather was pleasant and the company / convoy even more so. We had our bit of shoveling, and even tested christened Davie his winch for the perfect occasion. 

I kept the terrain difficulty rather easy as our convoy was very long, but never felt that someone is holding us back. All of you did amazing this morning. The brilliant support from @Rizwanm2 and @Davie Chase made sure that whenever we hit an issue, it was swiftly and professionally dealt with. 

@Joseph Sebastian we drove many times together, and i really like your calm and mature approach to offroading and your kills., and i could not have asked for a better second lead. Thank you for that !

At the end of the drive, i had to quickly rush to go and pickup my daughter. Sorry if i failed to greet you all before heading back onto the tarmac. I hope to see you all soon in the sand again !

It was an absolute pleasure to be on this drive - and I totally loved it. 
 

I have gained a lot of confidence in my car after this drive 😛 .

hopefully will see you guys regularly now  

Thankyou @Frederic @Davie Chase@Rizwanm2for the clear guidance and instructions and keeping everyone on track. 
 

20 hours ago, Davie Chase said:

@Frederic thank you for the fantastic Newbie drive this morning, it is always a pleasure to support you and learn from you on each and every drive.

@Joseph Sebastian Great second lead you kept us all moving fluently behind Freddie well-done.

@Natalia Koryakovtseva@sohinik@Ahmad Quadri@Dorian Zissi@L. Petelczyc@Sammy Six @babaski@Arsalan Ehsan@Juan R@essam ibrahim@Ahmad Mehwi@FARAZ MOHAMMED@Tom V@Naim Aoun you guys drove amazingly well with very few stucks and refusals. This was a fantastic achievement especially given the fact that we had 4 Absolute newbies @Dorian Zissi @sohinik @Natalia Koryakovtseva @Ahmad Quadri i hope you all enjoyed the drive as much as we did and learnt oodles from the experience. I hope to see you all in the sand again very soon as we move along the Offroad enthusiast journey gaining Knowledge, Skills and Experience along the way.

Thank you @sohinik for allowing me to christen my new winch, that made me very happy to finally find out that it worked and to justify the spend 

@Rizwanm2 brilliant support from you and fantastic to get to finally meet you.

Some drive stats from todays GAIA GPS 

 

Have a great rest of your weekend :):)

Thanks @Davie Chase - adding the app should be in the newbie briefing - the first trip becomes more memorable and the track becomes a part of memorabilia  - is there a way to share this drive so I can dwell more into the stats. 
 

I got to know about this in the break we took and I switched it on from there but would have been great if I knew it at the start. 
 

But awesome stuff  

1 minute ago, AlexM said:

Great to see you taking the bait finally)) Welcome to the club, looking forward for drives together!

Yeah would be fun to be on drives together - todays drive was amazing - so I am definitely here  

4 hours ago, Frederic said:

Thanks to the good support, i will be extending our convoy and make a nice big train for Saturday morning !

Attendees

• Arsalan Ehsan @Arsalan Ehsan
• Juan R @Juan R
• Tom V @Tom V
• Naim Aoun @Naim Aoun
• FARAZ MOHAMMED @FARAZ MOHAMMED
• fayez @fayez
• Natalia Koryakovtseva @Natalia Koryakovtseva
• babaski @babaski
• Ahmad Mehwi @Ahmad Mehwi
• L. Petelczyc @L. Petelczyc
• essam ibrahim @essam ibrahim
• Sammy Six @Sammy Six
• Joseph Sebastian @Joseph Sebastian
• sohinik @sohinik
• Nicholas Cox1 @Nicholas Cox1
• Dorian Zissi @Dorian Zissi
• Ahmad Quadri @Ahmad Quadri

You are all confirmed for a drive Saturday morning. 

I will be posting the convoy list tomorrow by noon and hope to meet you all in the sands of Faqa soon  

As usual, this is a Newbie level drive with a few Absolute Newbies in there, so we will be taking it easy, enjoying the scenery, and get to know each other better. The weather will be pleasant and it will be a great morning out !

Thanyou Very much for this Exciting news. 

Let me introduce myself - My name is Naveed (Ahmad is my middle name) - Driving has always been a passion since early ages , have driven mostly on tarmac and snow but never really in sand so this is really exciting for me. 

My car is a Land Rover LR2 2012 model. 

6 hours ago, DP1011 , Deepak wrangler said:

@Ahmad Quadri Welcome to the Family community:) Great decision to ask here as I ended up buying stuff which I never used/needed/required.

And recently I installed an onboard conpressor, so I have my old compressor, please take mine, use it few times, and if you decide to continue ( which am pretty sure you will, then invest in a compressor) . I stay in JLT and ping me if you wannt to pick this from me, dint wanted to sell it, and instead pass it to fellow member. 0566838510

Awesome - Totally appreciate this. I will ping you on whatsapp on your number and try and pick this up today evening itself ( Since i just got confirmed for the first drive on Saturday - yuhoo). Thankyou again. 

Hi guys - this or the next one is (when I make it out of the waitlist) will be my first drive - 

I was wondering if on my first drive I don’t get the gear - and if possible share if that’s possible - and get insight on what stuff to buy from you guys and in the second drive probably have the stuff required - is that possible ? 
 

On 1/17/2023 at 2:03 PM, Frederic said:

traction control will be disabled anyways in the desert. I remember @Gaurav telling me we used to have an LR2 driving in the club that was a very capable and powerful 4x4.

Do we need to disable airbags and abs when in a desert drive ? If yes how do we do it ? 

Cool  - Thanks 

29 minutes ago, munkybizness said:

The LR2 is a capable offroader and while it wasn't your model year, but I saw @frederic demolder drove a Freelander/Discovery Sport/LR2 in Area 53 with me in late 2021. It was a very capable and powerful car throughout that run.

The trim on the majority of these cars have become more aggressive for on-road driving so there was some bumper adjustments needed but it never struggled in the churned-up tracks of Area 53 on a busy Saturday morning.

Was speaking to someone in office who does offroading sometimes - he drives a Land cruiser and said he had to cut the corners out on the front bumper to ensure he doesnt break it. is that a point of concern ?

12 minutes ago, Frederic said:

Land Rover LR2 is not bad at all in the desert. It's quite powerful and at least you will be unique ! 

It has some controls - to move from road to desert drive to snow drive - i am not really sure what it does - but i guess it would have to do something with traction control.

4 hours ago, Brett Eicher said:

Hi @Ahmad Quadri Welcome to the club!

To be honest, as your very first Newbie drive, people in the club will be very accomodating. That air compressor you posted won't really be up to the task of inflating all your tires from sand pressures. Just check with someone is okay sharing their air compressor, and if you have a lot of fun and want to do it again, look to get a 'real' compressor. The problem with the one you linked is, unfortunately, it will overheat quickly, and cut out, and the inflating will be slow. Painfully slow. Great for emergency tire changing, not so great for offroad useage. But you also don't want to spend several hundred AED on a decent one until you've even given the hobby a real try 😃

The flags... many of us have mounting brackets we can buy for our specific vehicle make and models, you can probably just google for your own vehicle. Or get a custum bracket made to fit from a local fabricator. Both are very popular. Another option is suction cups that will suction to your rear windows... this is quite non-intrusive, and maybe a direction you take for your first run. (amazon search: 'desert flag' for a flag and mount).

For an absolute first time experience... I would say the non-negotiable items would be a radio, recovery points, and flag. The club can help support in other gear, just check first with the marshall and club members on the drive you sign up for. After that first dip in the pool, if you're excited and keen for more, build up the recommended club gear, but with gear that will do the job (ie, a decent air compressor).

Hope this helps!

 

I hear you completely and it absolutely makes sense - Since i am just starting out , i dont want to do what i did with my gym ( Paid for full year, got gym clothes , etc etc - went only for two days) - But i think once i get it in my system and think this is something i will do long term then it makes sense to invest. 

Also i am not sure how my car will behave in the sand - i have LandRover LR2 2012 model - this is another reason for me now take the plunge - till now this was my only car - in a week it will be my second car. The car is in good condition and works like a charm on road. but from what i have read here , it different in the desert. 

Hi Everyone 

Just registered myself here - been a part since 2020 and really never was able to decide to actually test the waters. Finally Happy to take the plunge. 

I have put myself on the waitlist for "Morning Newbie Desert Drive - Flavours of Faqa - Dubai - 21 Jan 2023" . Don't think I will get the opportunity though. Already 9 more people on the waitlist. Maybe next time. 

I was going through the a lot of reading material on the site and its absolutely amazing ( thank you for that). 

I understand that on the first drive an absolute must is to have your own tyre deflater and inflater. Any recommendations? I can see a lot of options on Amazon but not sure which one to pick. Any suggestions would definitely help. 

The one I saw and liked was https://www.amazon.ae/gp/product/B09W8SMB6R/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=A1RQBI3BED2YVU&psc=1 - any comments on this one if anyone has used this one?

Also for the flag pole - Where can I get one and how does that fix into the car ?

Appreciate any guidance here. 

I am absolutely new to driving off road - been thinking for last two years - and now finally decided to jump in. Tried to book for the 21st - but looks like there are no slots yet for me. But I am absolutely certain to do this