Ecxellent! I really enjoyed reading about this Pierre. Alec -----Original Message----- From: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org on behalf of Marie-Andrée et Pierre Sent: Sat 6/4/2005 11:10 PM To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org Cc: Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] BIG is now a p-sub... Hi guys, Today we launched BIG. After 2.5 years of design and building, moving to 4 different workshops, investing 2500 $ (canadian, but still...) I finaly put BIG in the water! What a trill!!!! When it went down the boat ramp, on it's own tiny wheels, I could not refrain myself to think that it would leak so bad, crash, explode or else. But nothing happened. I had 2 very small leaks. Nothing a good scott-towell could not handle. I had 2 friends in divers outfits ready to dive so I said BIg was ready for next step; Getting me inside it. At first, the water-line was way lower then I though. We had to use 80 pounds of additional weight to make it as low as it was supposed to be. So I jumped inside it, secured the hatch. Everything was still ok. I engaged the auto ambient pressure system and... nada... The electronic circuit didn't worked (too much humidity i think). So I had to rely on my manual back-up to equalize pressure. The depth where i was was 10 feet. Relaxing my breath and my hearthbeat, I made a sign to my divers and opened the ballast vent valve. Nothing happened. I waited for about 30 secondes and could not tell if I was going down. I asked a diver to look if air was going out of the vent and he said yes so i waited still longer. It tooked about 2 minutes to get the sub to go below the water-line. What a trill!!!! oh my god! I was soooo nervous! Looking in the top windows and seeing like 2 inches of water over the hatch! I was finaly under-water! I made it! And was still alive! Some seconds later I hit the bottom and rested there for a couple of minutes ajusting the pressure, tripple checking everything. All was good. So I decided to make BIG slightly positive. I opened up just a bit the air valve for the ballast and I went rocket to the surface! had to wait 2 minutes to vent the tanks, and back to the bottom I was... That time I was very gentle with the valve and managed to get it under control. I was ready to try those 2 engines. I was very suprised how fast it was! I can easyly go faster then a diver. What a great day! What was great: BIG is operationnal, it goes very fast! once you get used to it, you can adjust bouyancy easyly. Also, very manuverable with the 2 engines set-up. more then i though it was going to be. i can almost turn on the spot. Going up or down with motors is also very good. What must be better: Main thing to check, It is very slow to blow the 2 back ballast tank. I think that the holes i made are too small. Also, trim is not good. always nose up. I also need to install propeler protection. One of my friend fin cough in it with some minor damage to it but it is not very safe since I plan to always use BIG with at least 1 diver. So in all. a very good experience. What a trill! My 2 friends hang on BIG and it was going fast. We had a wonderfull time! Even if we only been to 10 feet deep. I can't wait to put it back in the water again! I would like to thank you all for your help in helping me realise a dream! Special thank to Jon and Ray for making the site in the first place. With-out you guys, BIG would still be a dream... Thank you! Pierre "official owner of a working p-sub" Poulin P.S. I have a zillion pictures + video. i will post some tomorrow. Need bed now :) ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ The personal submersibles mailing list complies with the US Federal CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. Your email address appears in our database because either you, or someone you know, requested you receive messages from our organization. If you want to be removed from this mailing list simply click on the link below or send a blank email message to: removeme-personal_submersibles@psubs.org Removal of your email address from this mailing list occurs by an automated process and should be complete within five minutes of our server receiving your request. PSUBS.ORG PO Box 311 Weare, NH 03281 603-529-1100 ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ ************************************************************************ The contents of this e-mail are intended for the named addressee only. It contains information that may be confidential. Unless you are the named addressee or an authorized designee, you may not copy or use it, or disclose it to anyone else. If you received it in error please notify us immediately and then destroy it.
<<winmail.dat>>