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Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] dropping the weight

Drop weights have been dropped from the very start. If you allow that the Soucope was the first fully functional sub of the modern era, then it starts in 1960 with Cousteau. The vehicle was hastily assembled after they lost the first hull the year before, and they were still doing fab work as the ship got to Puerto Rico for initial trials and training. They were using NiCads at the time, and when the first set of batteries shorted and blew up on the second dive, they dropped the 450# drop weight and went home quick. Since then, weights have been dropped, but in the oil fields at least, usually it was an accident or equipment failure. One of the Pisces boats had a retaining bolt fail and dropped the 500# weight under the personnel sphere. None of the Perry boats dropped weights, at least not in my day. That was one of those things we were all in agreement about--nobody wanted to be the first one to do it. They were tested, of course, and I can tell you that the tray of lead weights, which was attached in more or less the same way as George's design (except hooked in back and released in front), work just fine. When one end falls away, that end of the sub rises as the weight comes off, and your drop weight slides off its hook(s), thuds to the ground in a cloud of silt, and you are gone gone gone. The weights were designed to compensate for a completely flooded battery pod, so were pretty heavy, but it was all figured so you could dump the weight and still do a controlled ascent. In later years, most Perrys had releasable battery pods, which I never liked much (it's bad enough to dump lead--but a whole POD??? Yikes!).
Vance


-----Original Message-----
From: David Bartsch <dbartsch2236@hotmail.com>
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:47 pm
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] dropping the weight

To all,
 
   Much has been discussed about the proper size and intended use of drop weights.
 
  Has there ever been an instance to anyones knowledge where drop weights were ever actually used? What was the outcome?
 
  And once the ordeal was over, how does one recover such a large and heavy object once it is on the bottom and hard to see?
 
                                                                              David Bartsch

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