Thomas Varghese

Thank you Richard @Wrangeld for your kind appreciation. Todays drive was real adventurous. Yes your drives were exciting too. 15 minutes into the drive I was wondering what have I got myself into. I was contemplating whether to gracefully exit by giving some lame excuse as @Lorenzo Candelpergher was like riding an Unicorn instead of driving a Rubicon. I was going easy on the suspensions of my Xterra and was lagging a little behind @Shehab Alawadhi. As it is his F150 is like a tank destroying everything in its path. Most of the time I had to slightly deviate from his tracks when climbing uphill and had to change the angle of approach. The advantage is, that beast flattens any ridge it treads on. Still I managed to get stuck twice. The support from @Lorenzo Candelpergher, @Ale Vallecchi & @GauravSoni made these stucks looking like nothing serious. Once the feel of the fast paced desert driving started to slowly creep into my brain then it was easy and fun. By the time I warmed up completely the drive was over 😢. It was a surprise to me that @Ali Abas was also a debutante as I could see he was matching every move I make with the same steps and closely following behind me. I actually thought he had much experience in Intermediate drives. The rest of the team were all experienced Intermediate drivers and performed what was expected of them. Thank you all the lead marshals who I have driven with and have trained me into these desert driving skills. I had to use all that knowledge gained while driving with them to keep pace with @Lorenzo Candelpergher. My only suggestion is that the drive could have extended little more into the evening which would have made us drive under our lights. After the last few night drives I really enjoy them. One thing I kept hearing over the radio today was gain more height from Prof @Ale Vallecchi. I still remember @Frederic instructing us to the extent of even screaming the same during our Absolute Newbie drive. I always remember that advice and follow them like its the essence of all slide sloping. Of course don't fight gravity and lose fatally is another important lesson. Whenever driving a ridge try to keep the wheels on both sides. I don't remember exactly who told this first but its etched in my brain. Every time I think of @Rahimdad his stern class on throttle control crosses my mind and puts a smile. I was wondering what is he trying to teach me in throttle control when I have over 40 years experience driving on tarmac. @Rahimdad I think now I have made you proud by practicing it. (Secret- it was the best lesson and advice I got). In fact the whole essence of sand driving is merely throttle control. Thank you all again for your professional classes to turn a novice like me into an Intermediate driver over sands.

i was just getting up from my chair to leave and this intimation arrived. It will be fun with such a short convoy.

@Lorenzo Candelpergher this drive will be my debut as an Intermediate.

My tires are not old. Replaced them in 2021 Jan and has only run 25000 kms.

Looks like we will witness the rising of the crescent moon announcing Ramadan commencement during our drive. I request any experienced members to point out the rise of of the crescent moon and stop the convoy to pay our respects to the age old fool proof method of sighting the moon for Ramadan.

I have a note to add to this thread. Even if there is no pop out its always good to check your tires for any sand intrusion inside the tires when you are driving on sand at lower pressures as sand gets inside the tires occasionally. I have a recent experience of this phenomenon. One of my tires was losing air from 35 psi to 12 psi and lower in a time frame of 2 days. I was bewildered and thought probably I managed to induce a hairline crack somewhere in the tire as 2 tire shops checked the tire for any leak after inflating to 60 psi and nothing was found. In the 3rd tire shop when I explained to the technician he immediately said there is a sand intrusion inside the tire and between the beads. He proceeded to remove the tire from the rim and surprisingly there was lot of sand between the tire bead and the tire. Probably it entered the tire when the tire was getting flexed by the constant sharp steering movements or hits on small bushes or by the jumps. This happened to the back tire and not the front. I was under the impression that sand intrusion inside the rim will happen only during pop outs and this incident changed that perception completely. When we are driving on sand its always good to check for everything in the car preferably after at least 2 to 3 drives and make sure everything is in order so that we can avoid unfortunate incidents during the drive and bog down other drivers who have come there for fun and waste their time because we were lazy to take care of our own car.

@Kailas please exclude me from the waitlist.

Preaching to @Lakshmi Narasimhan about human fatigue I realized I'm waitlisted as #1 in @Ale Vallecchi's Friday morning drive and waitlisted here too. As its humanely not possible and insane to attempt both drives I request @Rahimdad to kindly exclude me from the waitlist.

congrats @imranaasghar81. Last time I drove with you I was thinking it was time for your promotion to intermediate and now its a reality.

congrats @Lakshmi Narasimhan well done.

Be careful @Lakshmi Narasimhan. Friday morning drive is at 6 and this night drive finishes by 2 or 3am early Friday. I doubt its humanely possible to drive almost whole night and the drive morning also with the same concentration. Its your call so choose wisely. Remember we cannot overcome our human fatigue limitations.