Brent,
I gave a presentation at last year’s Conference that
covered these issues. While what may seem reasonable under normal
circumstances does not always apply in an emergency. I made this point in
my opening comments by tossing an object at an unsuspecting individual in the audience…of
course he caught it. If it had been a broken piece of jagged glass,
catching it would have not been the correct response. Our learned
experiences have to be tempered in emergencies.
Analysis of previous submarine disasters and actual experimentation
points out that the vessel should be flooded down as quickly as possible
resulting in probable ruptured ear drums if at any significant depth. The
concern is to minimize exposure to the debilitating cold water and hyperbaric conditions
(thus minimizing arterial gas embolism [AGE] and decompression sickness).
The odds are not real good for getting an unconscious crew member out of a
stranded sub by escape means.
R/Jay
From:
owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org [mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org]
On Behalf Of Brent Hartwig
Sent: Sunday, July 06, 2008 4:26 PM
To: PSUBSorg
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Compression Time Tables for Wet Exit
Hello All,
I don't recall anyone
talking about how fast you should allow your sub to fill with water for a wet
exit. Of course the deeper you are the more dangerous every thing is. In the
Captians book he just has you open the valve and quickly flood the sub once you've
got your SCUBA equipment ready. My sub was an early model that
doesn't have a valve, but a cap with a handle, that has a retaining rod,
nut, and washer on the outside to keep the cap from hitting you and getting
lost. I will replace this assembly with a valve and elbow like on Dan H's
KH-350.
http://www.frappr.com/?a=viewphoto&id=2384531&pid=10133638
http://www.frappr.com/?a=viewphoto&id=2384531&pid=10133677
My experience with
hyperbaric chambers has taught me that you need to clear you ears constantly
when your compressing up and that not everyone can do this at the same rate if
at all. If your ears don't get cleared properly you need to reduce the
pressure until you can clear your ears and then continue to compress up or you
will do serious damage to your inner ear.
If someone is
unconcious in the sub with you I don't know how to clear there ears. We have
this same issue when using hyperbaric chambers for animals. So I'm interested
in your guys thoughts and personal experience in this matter.
Regards,
Brent
Hartwig