Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] little sub brother again

[VBra676539@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/16/2002 11:00:17 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
drmason2001@yahoo.com writes:

<<  A sub that you plan to bottom out will
 need design features built in to make sure you can go
 away again when you are done with your task. Things
 like water jets in the skids, extra upward thrusters,
 ballast drop that wont hold on after release,
 break-away skids as a last resort, and even maybe an
 escape pod of some kind. Build it to set down on good
 bottoms, but with the means to get loose from bad
 ones, or don't put it on the bottom at all.
    Just my thoughts here.
  >>
Sorry boys, but this is a waste of mental efforts. If the sub has a 
reasonable skid system, then you've got to have a SERIOUS screw up in 
progress to do more than pick up a few pounds of the gray stuff. Deepstar 
4000 scooped enough into her fairings to require dropping the big weight 
once, for instance--And there is the old, old story of the Trieste dragging 
its trim chain enough to bind it up. I don't suspect this will be a psub sort 
of problem (and most likely not at 20,000 feet, either). Just don't put any 
handy load areas on the bottom of the sub, and keep yourself trimmed 
reasonably light, and this will not be a problem.

Even trimmed heavy, a Pisces or Perry boat wouldn't weigh much over a hundred 
or two hundred pounds, distributed over 4 to 6 inch wide skids 10 feet long, 
they sat light as a feather, and left tracks in the ooze about two inches 
deep. You can sure pick a few dozen pounds of mud up if you fool around for a 
while on the bottom, but the ballast systems can lift it.

Vance