[PSUBS-MAILIST] Trustworthy Dive Report

[Steve McQueen via Personal_Submersibles]

Scott, thanks for the report and good job!

In regards to your *"The benefit of draining one tank or battery bank at a
time is so nice"* comment.  When I was flying balloons we had a similar
practice for changing between propane tanks.  We considered a tank empty
(switched tanks) when a tank got to around 15% vs. a complete usage. This
would allow us to always have a reserve to go back to just in case.  I plan
on using a similar strategy with my psub (if I ever get it finished).

I don't mean to refer that you completely drained your banks before
switching but this seemed like a good place to discuss this "strategy".

Steve


On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 10:16 AM, swaters via Personal_Submersibles <
personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

> Yesterday my wife Katy and two other friends took Trustworthy out for a
> series of dive tests. Pictures to be posted soon. We went down 21feet at
> deepest point for about 30 minutes on the longest dive. We did a total of 5
> dives. The dives went into the night and I got a great chance to use my
> saddle lights, work lights, and head light. The light placement and power
> on Trustworthy were perfect for lighting up the under water veiws for
> passenger and myself. The 55watt halogen work lights and saddle lights and
> the 2,000,000 candle power head light were the perfect amount of light.
> Unlike Trustworthy's first test this time I was properly weighted for
> freash water after adding 325lbs in landing skid weights and extra drop
> weights. I got to do alot of motoring around and after some practice,
> started to get the hang of it. After spending some time getting used to
> things, I gotta say I love the Kitteredge motors. They have so much power
> which is nice when you get caught in current or wind and they respond
> instantly even with the sub weighing 4,500 lbs. I used my bank selectors
> (hp air, O2 air, and battery) and I love them. The benifit of draining one
> tank or battery bank at a time is so nice. The underwater comms worked good
> with the acception of a loud ringing noise which I believe a squelch
> adjustment would fix. We did have a few minor problems to note. I had a
> leak from the autimatic cabin equilization valve. Later remembering all "O"
> rings on the sub were the high quaility ones from McMaster Carr and this
> one was a cheap one intended for home plumbing. It worked fine on the first
> dive last fall, but sitting over winter it cracked a little. Moral of the
> story, use good "O" rings. We also are having some weird problems with the
> sonar. It was reading a depth from 8' to 320' wildly so something is wrong.
> I am thinking it might be a connection between the transducer and screen.
> Also experienced a space problem when jamming the 50lb tub of sodasorb in
> the storage compartment. I am going to repack the sodasorb in sealed
> plastic bags prepacked size to fit in the scrubbers and then it will fit
> very easily. One new mod I am going to do is put a cabin light in the conn.
> The two red/white cabin lights in the main cabin work well, but while the
> pilot is in the conn and it is dark, you can't read check lists well or
> read the digital depth gauge in the conn. I found myself using a flash
> light alot.
> The siteings on this trip were
> *zebra muscles
> *rocks
> *mud
> *a large cat fish
> *little worm things swimming to our lights (I think baby fish)
> *a little bass
> *tons of confused Kansans almost crashing their boats while stareing
>
> Thanks for reading,
> Scott Waters
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my U.S. Cellular© Smartphone
>
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