Report: The GPS Hunt.. 23/11/2012

[desert_hawk]

HUGE SUCCESS

It all started with an idea, the support was there, the plan was set, the interest shown, the teams were created, points were planned and flags were set, then the day arrived were all of this come to reality.

It was a big fun to organise the teams with the amount of cancelations and apologies we received, and team members played a good role in communicating between each other and updating me in case of problems in their team formation.

All teams showed up before the departure time and we were ready to move, we started our convoy to the base point, all the teams were briefed then given the maps and points and started preparing themselves, then we had our short marshals meeting were marshals were assigned with the teams and we agreed on the roles we will play during the event.

The teams started to move off the base with a planned route in their minds, every team had their challenges during the day and all have been dealt with very professionally by the team members and under the supervision of the guys in orange.

As the time was close to the end of the event, the teams started to move towards the base, arriving there with a smile on the faces.

The we sat together for sometime, got visitors, chatted, relaxed, at the end few went out directly, few took it the long way

The aim of the GPS Hunt was
- team work
- communication
- time management
- sharing of skills
- experience at leading different levels
- improving navigation skills

I guess all teams excelled in that and achieved more.

Thanks to everyone supported the idea from the beginning and encouraged me to do it.

Thanks to Scorpio, Tillybean and Xof for your support in setting the flags.

Thanks to Tillybean for all the efforts in administrating this event.

Thanks to Caesar, Frank, Qaruoty, Scorpio, Tillybean, Waleed, Waqmaster (arranged in alphabetic order) for your supervision and guidance to the teams and communication support.

Special thanks to Sagger who volunteered his spare tyre when we had the only real obstacle in the day, REAL team spirit.

Thanks to all the members who participated for the level of discipline, the excellent team work and skills you showed at all levels, you were the secret for the success of this adventure, all the marshals were impressed by your achievements, the scores were higher than expected for all the teams.

As this was not a competition, and all the teams achieved the the aim of it, the actual scores won't be published as all the teams were winners, and all of us went out safe with nice moments to remember for some time to come.

I'm sure you will do great in the DesNav

Its time now for every team leader and member to write his briefing about his team and what happened in their own trip.

Many people took many pictures, we appreciate if you can share them in the album created or on Facebook for all the participants to see them.

Thank you all for a great day.

[desert_hawk]

The team I was set with was formed from IDO, Scotchyl and Momi, they started with a good set plan, the track was chosen to suit all team members and proper communication was available at all times between the leader and the sweeper
As the confidence and familiarity of the team members improved, the team started to increase the speed and tackle the challenges smoother gradually
You did great guys, and I wouldn't change anything in your performance except that I guess you needed a bit longer break in the middle to refresh and gather your energy
WELL DONE

[tillybean]

What a great day.

It was a great sight to see so many cars at Sweihan ADNOC and head out in the convoy to the deflation point. After deflating, putting up flags, strapping down equipment etc, we headed to "'Base Camp" for the debrief. This was the first time that I got to see the teams in action and watching them working together, planning their routes, inputting GPS coordinates, helping each other - I knew we were in for a great day.

After waving everyone off, I settled in at base camp and waited. It was a nice day for me. I had shisha, ate food, made coffee, had a snooze....... Inbetween my very busy schedule, I had regular updates from all the Marshals on how their teams were doing, and it was lovely to hear "my team is doing so well", "they are having lots of fun", "they couldn't find the point and then realised they were actually standing on the flag!!", "they are loving it". Perfect.

The day went without any major incidents, and apart from the tyre issue, the base camp was not busy, which was good.

For me, the highlight was when everyone returned. The chat in the camp about tracks, flags, styles of driving etc was lovely and the story swapping of difficult flags, sitting camels and just how the day had gone were wonderful to hear. I cannot wait to see photographs.

As D_H has already listed out above, the aims for the GPS Hunt were simple - and they were certainly achieved. More than achieved.

I hope that everyone had fun, enjoyed the day, and now feels ready for the DesNav in 2013.

I am so proud of all of you for taking part, and especially those that lead out their teams. For some of you, it was your first taste as leaders, and you all did so well. The team support was amazing, and this is how AD4x4 should always be.

To finish - this was a wonderful day. A huge thank you has to go to Desert Hawk who had the initial thoughts for this event, and took them all the way through to create such a great and amazing day that people will talk about for a long time. Thanks to all the other Marshals who supported both before and during the day and finally, thank you, our amazing teams.

Well done everyone.

[QARUOTY]

First off all it was a wonderful day and very nice to see allot off marshals and members .
Thank you brothers and sisters for a great event you did, and thanks for every one who join it.


Teem 6 :

They are Vader.............lead
batfink......... 2nd lead
Khoofo...........sweeper

They did very good job when they start with making a plan how to collect the point , and during the event they was communicate very will between each other .

My suggestion to take a truck like a snake between the dunes it will be faster and easier .

[nautibean]

DH, thanks again for a really great day out and letting passenger when jeep got too bumpy

Really well organised, and most importantly SAFE fun day out.

Really hope that there will be more of these events soon

[Frank]

Team 3:

Wolle..................... Leader
Baha...................... 2nd Lead
Bado...................... Sweeper

Team 3 was a real team. They talked a lot to each other. Bado had a flat tyre and they decide to change it. I walked back to my car (4 m away) took out a water and a cake,went back to Bados car and the tyre was already changed. Wow this was really fast. At the end a second tyre was also damage. We recognized that the damage of the tyres came from mounting the tyres on the rims.

Wolle lead the group in a fun and safe way. Well done.

Baha did very well with his LC follow the small TJ.
As Baha had a typically lwb stuck, Bado imidiatelly recovered him. My full respect.


Frank

[Vader]

Team 6 Report:
Right from the get go I had a good feeling about this team, there was great communication prior to the event and we were all very excited.

Once at Base Camp, we sat together, planned our route and headed out. The strategy was simple, go towards the highest concentration of points, and work our way down so that by the end we'd be close to base camp in case we needed to make a quick return so as not to get penalized. We tried to take advantage of the sabkhas as often as possible. At the end, our team was able to hit 20 of the 22 targets (2nd place yes, i know, it wasn't a competition ) and I really think that we could have gotten all of them with very little extra effort. We decided that the easiest route might take a little longer, but that we could almost guarantee no stucks and as a result, we had no major stucks, only some routine chassis-dune-hugging that required a quick tug and no pop-outs

Team Members:

1) Batfink (Saleem): Thank you for the great sandwich I think you did a great job as second lead listening to my recommendations to shift either left or right depending on the situation and adjusting accordingly. You have a nice setup on your car and she'll take almost everywhere, the most important thing I think you need to work on (which comes naturally for all of us the more drives we go on) is that brute force is secondary to proper technique. For example, try 'catching' the sand as you climb by shifting slightly left and right. There are so many more important things that only come with experience (reading the sand etc...) and i'm very happy to say that I learn something new everytime I go out so I wish you the same joy.

2) KhoofO (Khaled): It was such a pleasure having you as my sweeper. It's the first time we drive together but I knew from the beginning that I could count on you completely. You recovered us perfectly when we needed it and ensured that our convoy operated smoothly even taking lead when I got myself into trouble and requested that the convoy re-route. Looking forward to seeing you on more drives man

3) Me: I had a good day. My car was making some funny noises (suspected drive shaft) so I tried to take it easy. Had to gauge the level of the team and I was happy to see that everyone was comfortable. The fun was to 'tame the beast' wanting to tackle bigger dunes. In the end though, I was very happy to have such a great team and such a nice day.

4) Marshal Qaruoty: Thank you for roaming around us and making sure everything was done safely. It was comforting to know that you were always there if we needed anything.

To the marshals, a very special thank you. It was very obvious to me that you put a lot of time and effort to make this happen. Lead & sweeps really make you realize how much dedication & patience you guys have.

Big thank you to Desert Hawk and all the other marshals involved for orchestrating this event

[Dune_Phantom]

Wow reading all this is giving me goosebumps. I do want to post comments but will check with Tillybean and Desert Hawk and of course THE WAQMASTER!!!!! All praises are for the almighty but, Waqar you showed me what is real "Desert Offroading" thanks for having me on board. I did speak a lot for which i hope you didnt mind! I learned a lot. Sam / DH am I allowed to post comments? I came to observe and learn. At the moment I only want to thank you both for having me.


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[Batfink]

What an amazing day, Desert Hawk, Sam and all the wonderful Marshal's - thank you so much for all your efforts in organising this successful event. I was so nervous after i received that first PM telling me I'm in Team 6. But, there was no need to be nervous as i was with wonderful team mates. Leading by Vader was excellent to say the least, he is for sure future Marshall material. Great support also from Khofoo with the odd recovery and not to forget our lovely Marshal Mohammed who gave us much valued guidance.

I hope we can run similar events more often PLEASE!!!
AD4x4 and its team rock.

[desert_hawk]

Wow reading all this is giving me goosebumps. I do want to post comments but will check with Tillybean and Desert Hawk and of course THE WAQMASTER!!!!! All praises are for the almighty but, Waqar you showed me what is real "Desert Offroading" thanks for having me on board. I did speak a lot for which i hope you didnt mind! I learned a lot. Sam / DH am I allowed to post comments? I came to observe and learn. At the moment I only want to thank you both for having me.


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You and all club members, not only participants, are allowed to post anything they want

[IDO]

Team 4 Report:
The Petrol Station:
two members of the team met each other for the first time, and one member was waiting patiently at the Base Camp from the last night for the event to start.

Base Camp:
we started with a brief speech from D_H about the event, points, rules and most importantly safety instructions to all the participants.
After the short speech by DH we (Team 4) gathered up and started discussing our strategy and marking the first group of points we are going to start with, after discussing the convoy positions and finalized all the bits and pieces we called upon our hawk (he was a little distracted by the smell of the morning coffee) and started moving to our first point.

During the Hunt:
with a good pace at first we started to collect the flags one by one and after a while we started moving a little bit faster covering more ground with some stuck here and there we managed to collect most of our targeted points, unfortunately at the end we ran out of time and had to adjust our plan so we could arrive at the base camp without losing any points as a penalty for missing the deadline.

Team Members:
1) Momi (Second lead): Thanks for being my second lead you driving and the way you tackled the dunes was very impressive for a newbie, it was a pleasure meeting you and hopefully we will see you in the coming weeks.

2) Scotchyl (sweeper): Thanks for being my sweeper and keeping the communications line open, your driving is getting better and soon you should start leading from time to time to get the hang of it. it is good to see that your car is good after the little scare of the clutch smell in the past weeks, and last but least it was a great driving with you hopefully we will meet again in the sand.

3) Me (lead): I for myself had a lot of fun during this event, meeting new and old friends. It was a great experience to lead a small group through the sand dunes managing the ability of all team members as well as time to reach within the gives time, so bottom line will I participate in a similar event--- for sure yes.

4) DH (marshal): Thanks for taking the time and arranging such an event, it was an interesting experience to be part of this event. Thanks and also for keeping an eye on us from the top of the dunes like a hawk should be doing. And most importantly to show us that a Hawk and camel can stand and stare at each other all day long .

[Waleed]

Team 2 Report:

Members:
Sagger Leader
SR42 2nd lead
Abdulqader Sweeper
Waleed Marshal

Planning and time management : excellent
Communication: excellent
Team work: excellent
Leading: excellent
Sweeping: excellent
Second leading: excellent
Safety: excellent
Risk assessment: excellent

The team really did very well and leader was carefully choosing the track between the tricky dunes. They barely needed assistance or my involvement. Well done and good job guys

I think we have another winner team for DesNav

[Zayed Ali Capitano]

Dear D-H

great and excellent job man (Allah ya36eek el 3afiah)

regards,

[Dune_Phantom]

Wow reading all this is giving me goosebumps. I do want to post comments but will check with Tillybean and Desert Hawk and of course THE WAQMASTER!!!!! All praises are for the almighty but, Waqar you showed me what is real "Desert Offroading" thanks for having me on board. I did speak a lot for which i hope you didnt mind! I learned a lot. Sam / DH am I allowed to post comments? I came to observe and learn. At the moment I only want to thank you both for having me.


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You and all club members, not only participants, are allowed to post anything they want

First of all, a big thank you to Desert Hawk personally for allowing me to participate and I guess on behalf of all the participants as well.
I reached the meeting point at 8.05 in anticipation of getting a chance to participate (I was second placed on the Newbie wait list so was hoping that there could be a last minute drop out from one of the newbs.
All the marshals were present (one purpose was served, I got to meet so many Marshals which could only be possible in an event like this.)
Then a cigar doting (new avatar bro? ) Desert Hawk and TIllybean marshaled all the hunters together to ensure everyone was present. As Tillybean started calling out names, my heart skipped a beat when she realized one of the newbs was not present and called him to ascertain whether he would actually join the hunt.
Alas, it was not be so. Momi (great meeting you pal) was already present. I was about to go back disheartened when DH and TIllybean told me I can stay and a moment of joy , I can actually drive my car with the convoy.

Oh boy, that was one long convoy - at least 23 cars with Marshals in their Orange T shirts.

We reached deflation point and past a huge Sabhka (we averaged at 60kmph) were quickly at the camp. Here we learnt that the Marshals had camped overnight and had painstakingly installed flags all over the place at the coordinates already decided . I believe they must have put in 23 flags (one team finished 22 and they missed only one). The camp scene was panoramic to say the least, nicely chosen with Dunes in the backdrop.

There were a lot of jokes someone even quipped that one of the marshals (who possibly joined in late for the fun at the camp) actually asking the others on radio that while reaching camp he saw quite a few flags around and asked them if they wanted him to collect them and bring them to camp.

Tillybean and Desert Hawk, Waleed, Qaruoty, Frank and a host of other marshals got together to assign the teams to the marshals and the teams were handed the list of points (GPS coordinates) and Map of the area (possibly covering 25sq Kms)

Each team had a Marshal assigned to them to be around in case of emergency but to avoid leading and participating in the hunt itself. The advanced driver would be the lead and the newb would be second lead with the intermediate as sweeper for recoveries (in case)

Each team was strategizing on how to tackle the areas where the points (flags were hidden). I joined Waqmaster (sorry Qaruoty, I wanted to go for prayers so opted to join him instead) and he had team no 5 under his wing.

Team five got together to strategize on their approach and the first thing they unanimously agreed on was, they are all for one and one for all. This motto helped them stick together throughout the hunt. Abu Marwan (Hamour) had the best idea - they were there to learn and participate . Winning was secondary. The team stood behind him. I guess I will leave team members to print their own story to you but for me, sitting with the Waqmaster was a God sent . I learnt a lot, how to read the dunes, how to enjoy your driving. It was a most pleasurable experience and I can only thank Waqar at every opportunity.

To summarize, I can only say the following.

The hunt must have been a great experience to all my fellow club members who participated for the following reasons.

1] Respect - The members learned about each other and learnt to respect each others skills and learned how to work like a team - importance of team spirit.

2] Character - The test is not only a test of our skills but also of our character which team 5 had plenty and I realized this is what AD4x4 epitomizes the most. To build character amongst its members. Salutations to all the founders, Marshals and of course my fellow members.

3] Skills - Each member must be now super confident about his abilities and fully aware of his debilities and how his car behaves in different situations.

4] Endurance - The hunt was for five long hours - the hunters had to endure recoveries in the hot desert.

I could go on and on .

Once again, Kudos to all the organizers - I wish there is another GPS hunt or similar exercise before the grand daddy event "Desnav 2013". I would certainly like to participate and God willing try and gain as much experience as the participants must have gained.

Lastly, I met a whole lot of people within the group, people who were only names to me before. See you on the sand again soon gang.

[BERHO]

amazing day as usual Desert Hawk and new Experience.

Thanks Waqar Sam and all marshals