Re: A sub question

[Rick Lucertini <empiricus@sprint.ca>]

Jon Hylands wrote:

> Alan D. Secor wrote:
>
> > I hope everyone who is considering a positively buoyant design such as
> > "Deep Flight" keeps in mind that since forward motion is required to
> > stay submerged, then water visibility plays a MAJOR factor in this type
> > of design.

> I have thought about this a bit. I think a wise investment would be to
> have some type of sonar scanner pointed straight ahead, hooked up to an
> alarm system. Anything solid enough to do pressure-hull damage should
> show up with a sonar profile. I'd probably use a small single-board
> computer to do the sonar analysis, and use a fairly wide beam low
> frequency sonar to get decent coverage.

[snip]

> It also wouldn't hurt to have some powerful lights mounted, pointing
> forward.

OK, here we go.

Has anyone noticed that we are struggling to find a way to overcome a deliberately induced
disadvantage: losing buoyancy control? In other words, we are looking for a way to "damage control" a
forced surfacing.

I'm an advocate of the KISS principle: Keep It Safe and Simple.  (or: Keep It Simple, Stupid!)

Inherent in the U/W environment is the advantage of . . . buoyancy.  It permits us to add precision
adjustment in a third dimension: altitude control.

ANY forced event while U/W can lead to difficulties, perhaps even life threatening.  I'm sure some of
you have had the uncomfortable experience of surfacing at the end of a long (scuba) dive only to find
that the sea state has changed for the worse. More air would have allowed a leisurely underwater swim
back to shore or to the boat. Running out of air, loss of body heat, a headache, equipment malfunction
- all these create a forced surfacing.

Some real life examples: forced to surface into a low lying dock, a reef overhang, a moving boat, a
slab of ice, fishing nets, thick kelp beds, floating debris, a wreck overhang, swarms of jellyfish, a
feeding frenzy, swimmers  . . . ESPECIALLY in low vis.

It's my humble opinion that NO design decision should deliberately rob us of an option that may save
our lives.

The obvious solution is to provide a simple weight drop system.  Scuba divers have done it for
decades.  Like the issue of using commercially available solutions, if it's been done before, and it
works, why fu . . .um, reinvent the wheel?


--
Rick Lucertini
in Vancouver, Canada
empiricus@sprint.ca

"To a rational being it is the same thing to act according to nature and according to reason."

    Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 121 - 180 a.d.