DXB Sun Afternoon Intermediate at Nahil

[Kayra]

We gathered at our usual Nahil Deflation Point at 15:00 and after the drive briefing, we started driving at 15:20 as two convoys, one under my lead and the other one under Marshal KomSer's lead. I will leave KomSer to write the trip report for his convoy. My convoy lined up in the below order at the starting point:

Engin (Lead)
Rizkallah (2nd Lead) - int
Adil - int
Martial - int
Dave - int
Ignas (sweeper) - int

Andrea was a bit late due to a confusion on the deflation location and joined us around 1 hour after we started.

We drove from the gatch road to first hit the low dunes of Nahil to warm up. We did mostly side slopes and roller coasters in between dunes to excel our skills to control our vehicles in side slopes without drifting. We took one short break to discuss the level of our driving and started increasing our pace as we gain more confidence. After this nice warm up session in the low dunes of Nahil for about an hour, we headed North to reach the high dunes of Nahil. Before we hit the high dunes, Andrea reached up and joined the convoy between Martial and Dave. We then started climbing the high dunes of Nahil while practicing steep climb, steep descent, bowl entry/exit, side slope and slip face plunges. At some point, I have decided to head East and move to the other side of the gatch road as there were too many bushes in the area that we were driving. We drove for almost another hour on the other side of the gatch road until my car suddenly gave an engine failure warning. We stopped and checked the car. All was looking alright. We had only 20 minutes left to finish the drive so we decided to take the easy way out. By 18:20 we were back in the deflation point. We had two self recoveries and one snatch recovery performed by Andrea over Martial's vehicle.

I think all drivers did very well. I increased the level a little bit with the confidence in seeing everyone tackling the obstacles easily. Rizkallah and Ignas did very well in 2nd Lead and Sweeper positions. We had good, clear and ongoing radio communications all through the drive. I drove with Adil for the first time and was impressed with his control over the vehicle. Martial being a new intermediate did remarkably well in coping with the obstacles we threw at him. Andrea and Dave are very comfortable in all intermediate level driving skills and I think after few more drives, it will be totally up to them to decide whether they want to go to the other level or not.

I very much enjoyed this Sun afternoon drive and the company of a skillful group of fellow drivers. I hope they also enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you all for joining. Special thanks to Mrs Ignas for the lovely cake. I couldnt stop eating.

By the way, after I inflated the tires and switched off my kill switch, the engine and service alarms disappeared from the dash. I drove nicely back home.

Best

[ignas]

Mrs Ignas is very happy that the cake was liked, she promised to make more for the other drives .

The track was amazing and todays convoy was so nice to be in, thank you Engin and everyone!

[KomSer]

Due to the demand for Marshal Engin's drive, I provided support by leading a convoy of the following drivers: Ahmed, Darulaman, Renjith, Cristiano, Firoz, Fernando, and Raza. Please accept my apologies if I have misspelled any names or made any errors.

Engin conducted a briefing for all participants, and I subsequently led the convoy toward the high dunes of Nakhel. Some of our drivers had recently upgraded to the intermediate level, so I ensured that the drive's difficulty remained manageable while still providing an exhilarating experience.

We had one pop-out, and several several stucks. All challenges were effectively managed, and we utilized the opportunity to engage in various practice exercises, thereby gaining valuable experience.

We took two breaks during the drive, allowing for informal conversations and networking among the participants. Upon exiting the desert, it was 18:30. We proceeded to inflate our tires, concluding the day's activities.

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who participated in the drive.

Best regards,
Komser

[Whatever]

I second the wonderful cake, thank you!
A great drive, lots of opportunities to try new skills and practice again the basics.
The track was a lot of fun and the group also.
Thanks again Marshall for the support and glad to great the car is healthy

[adilabid]

What can I say. I am in love with the dunes of Nahil after Engin’s intermediate drive. It was a wonderful experience driving with Marshal Engin. His ability to survey the convoy and provide running commentary whilst performing intermediate level manoeuvres was admirable. He would constantly be telling us during the drive about what to do when we were about to get to a plunge, on in case there was a ditch or a bump on a decline or incline, or speed levels to be maintained when entering tricky bowels which is always appreciated.
During the breaks Engin shared tips and tricks of what to do in tricky situations or difficult recoveries - as well as sharing his own experience when facing such scenarios. Words of wisdom which I will keep.
The skill levels displayed by all the drivers in this convoy was excellent which made the drive fast, efficient and enjoyable. Well done to all drivers .
Special mention also to Rizkallah for constantly managing the track to ensure we also have a smooth ride behind the Marshal as well as Ignas for great job in sweeping and keeping Engin informed (special thanks to Mrs Ignas for the delightful cake ).
I loved how the pace was fluid and fast and the constant fun of having to judge slopes and bowels whilst manoeuvring the vehicle was very enjoyable. Engin made sure that all drivers were comfortable with the levels being offered and if he felt something was too technical or challenging he would offer a different path.
Where he felt we needed more practise on certain skills I appreciated the fact that Engin would repeat those skills for all of us to then follow his lead until all drivers were comfortable with those manoeuvres.
All in all a wonderful drive and definitely look forward to driving with you Engin in future drives as well as all the great drivers in our convoy. Thank you and stay safe everyone 🫶
Ps : glad your engine issue was resolved quickly!