Kalahari

You have to keep pressing the “traction control” button for a few seconds - it will then completely disable all. 

2 hours ago, qaiser ijaz said:

I was late I arrived at 7:20 and it was not allowed to join.  I wasted two hour of driving for nothing. We are always told we are a team and we work as a team so if someone is late whole team should accommodate. It could have taken me the same time in which the briefing was done deflate  the tires and put the flag. Honestly that’s highly unfair. 

Just checking: The rest of the team was there on time and ready to go?

Hi @Francois Germishuys, I also did not catch the joke or the ranking part - thought if was just me 😁 Hope to see you soon back in the sandpit mate. 

57 minutes ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

Dear @Ranjan Das, dear @Kalahari, considering your rank and the strength of the convoy, I'd like to add you to the drive, if you agree. Please let me know.  Thanks 

I’m in @Ale Vallecchi

Yes @Ale Vallecchi

Good morning @Ale Vallecchi - any chance of joining this drive still?

17 minutes ago, Sherry Mathew Jacob said:

Not finding the join option for RSVP.....

Will only be available tonight

Thanks for organising this centenary drive @Ale Vallecchi, and invite us along! 

Everybody has their favourite type of drive, and this one had all the ingredients for me.  The first half was pure exploration, but at a very good pace, in an area with very deep and soft sand, with multiple treacherous pockets.  This was an ideal intermediary learning area and highlighted the capabilities of car and driver required for this level.  The second part was pure fun, with small to medium long-ish dunes, great sideys from left to right while zig-zagging dune straights one after the other.   The minimum refusals confirmed the skills of the convoy and it was great to join you in this celebratory drive. 

Maybe @Ale Vallecchi can take us all the way to KSA for his 200^th?

Congrats @Ale Vallecchi- hope you have a blessed new year and enjoy the break!

Hi @Ale VallecchiI think you added me to the wrong drive 😂 I think I signed up for Saturday's drive?

Hi @Wrangeld - I forgot about the 1 drive per week rule!! I have removed my name - please add me to waitlist for 2nd drive - many thanks!

Well done @Luc Khaldoun! Enjoy the new level and keep on growing in this sport.

Congratulations @Shaaz Sha!

Well done @M.Seidam - well-deserved. 

Congratulations @Foxtrot Oscar!  Well-deserved promotion - enjoy the new responsibilities!

@Thomas Varghese the first indication was steering wheel controls for radio stopped working, then the horn. I tried replacing with used one, but it was not 100% same spec (so ABS kicked in every time I made a turn :-)). So put old one back and ordered new part from Nissan. Need to replace new one now. 
TC (traction control) is issue related to kill switch only. Worked 100% (with far more manual power when tackling steep dunes), but suddenly stopped working recently (despite kill switch seemingly doing its job).

I have a connected (but slightly different!) issue with my X.  The kill switch worked like a charm, but over the last 2 or 3 drives, while the lights are on to say ABS and traction control has been disabled, it is clear that both are still very active - and resulted in my having zero power / no down-gearing in tricky situations (on an extreme drive!!).  Does anybody have any clue what can be wrong? I need to replace my clock spring as well - and was wondering whether this is confusing the TC?

@Emmanuel @Foxtrot Oscar @Chaitanya D @Mohamed Seidam @Frederic

52 minutes ago, Thomas Varghese said:

 I may have hooked them wrong as @Jeandre Bezuidenhout himself hooked them next time and the shackle didn't slip and the car came out from the stuck.

Hi @Thomas Varghese, the 2nd attempt we had to recover you at 45 degrees to the right, to prevent rope from slipping. This was only marginally possible due to pocket at 30 degrees. If it was the other way around, then we would have had no option but to let you dig out tons of sand. 

11 minutes ago, Srikumar said:

I somehow don't recollect the incident and if I was harsh I do apologize.

No need to apologize @Srikumar - I prefer that people tell me when I did something stupid, before I suffer the consequences of my stupidity. 

50 minutes ago, N@ved said:

@Kalahari thanks for your feedback and will keep that in mind any other suggestions are welcomed (since you were driving behind us you had a better view of where i can improve).

@Jeandre Bezuidenhout, thanks for keeping our surroundings clean, I don't think i have discarded anything in the desert and if it was me or from my car it would be purely unintentional or purely due to wind and i do apologies if it was from my car. 

Hi @N@ved, no, it was not you that threw things away.  I could not find too much fault with the back-end of the convoy that I could observe.  Some initial mistakes where drivers did not keep sufficient space in technical areas (and then knock-on impact from a stuck), but those were quickly rectified as you would expect from a F+ group.  Also some stucks / refusals where drivers tried to steer too sharply in soft sand or reversed into pockets without assessing the risk.  Don't feel too done-in from a crest or 2 - that is part of this sport, especially when you suddenly see the convoy looping back when you are about to cross.

The biggest risk was from the long side-slopes, where in the end the ridge was to be crossed:  The reality is that for a long side-slope, cars at the back of a convoy will be met with lots of churned-up sand and sliding down with gravity.  The temptation is always to give more gas and try and steer higher, while the tail is dragging down.  The risk is exacerbated when you then try and cross the ridge - something that I will never forget once @Srikumar "scolded" me way back when I was trying that stupid trick  It is unbelievable how vulnerable the physics are to create a flip of a car - at F+ drivers should have the confidence to go down, do a loop and generate momentum again to go up the ridge to cross - in a nice and controlled manner.

The key is to use every second in the sand as a learning experience - even doing recoveries (e.g. what would I have done differently to not get stuck; or what do I think is the best way to do that recovery).  Fewbie is about 50/50 between enjoyment and learning in my view.

Thanks for the drive @Wrangeld - you promised lots of ridge-riding and criss-crossing - and you delivered! We had a few early stucks and many refusals, and we had to do a LOT of digging!  But this is all part of the fun, as long as the F+ members use the opportunity to learn and enhance their driving skills. Once the convoy got their groove, it was really nice to cross this part of the desert. 

I did see a LOT of "fighting gravity", which the drivers should try and eliminate - rather steer down and try again. Thanks to @Jeandre Bezuidenhout for attending to the 2 pop-outs, as well as recovering of drivers not following the tracks - and especially for picking up the garbage that a fellow convoy member just discarded in the desert

@Thomas Varghese I hope you fix your front recovery hook before the drive?  You should not do any drive without proper front and back recovery hooks - a key requirement, not only for you but also to prevent damage to the person who is recovering you (like what nearly happened to Jeandre on Friday).

Well done Luca - enjoy the new freedom

27 minutes ago, Emmanuel said:

I agree, it was extreme, but I wouldn’t qualify it as “insane” as we never crossed the red line regarding safety... at least I hope so! 

Totally agree on the safety!