[Drmike]

As I hopefully never have to use my bail-out gas (touch wood) I just keep two tanks filled with gas all year around (or at least until I do a practice drill). Typically an 11L filled with 18/20 and a 7L filled with 50-70%.

I do the dive with the 11L plugged into my FFM OC mouthpiece and being 18% its breathable at any depth. When (bailing) I get to the gas switch I just unplug and plug in the 70%

95% of my dives are sub 50m so I'm on trimix. It makes sense to bail to a weak trimix as I want to be sharp if some problem has led me to have to bail deep inside a wreck. I don't mind if I bail to a high PO2 momentarily as I will most likely be ascending quite soon after bailing so the PO2 will be dropping.


I dont consider the on board 3L when planning Bailout due to the fact they are so small and usually only contain 100bar at the dive start.

I can plug both bailout tanks into my RB if needed.

Usually with the dives I'm doing an 11L and 7L is not enough to finish all deco on but the idea is to have enough OC gas to get back to the line and up to the deco platform where theres surface supplied O2, OR if I missed the line and doing a free floating deco I have enough gas to get up to 6m and start my long hang whilst I wait out the surface crew to bring me a drop tank with more O2 (yellow SMB deployed to indicate gas needed)


If the dive requires more bail out gas (longer, deeper or usually due to a longer penetration) then I will stage an 11L on the wreck near the line containing a higher FO2 to speed up deco. The 11L I carry is normally enough to get me to that point.

I carry both bail tanks with me during the whole dive in case I need to bail and for some reason cant get back to the line.

On a big wreck or in bad viz I drop the 7L if doing a penetration only when its 100% guaranteed I will be exiting where I entered (it hardly ever is so I usually carry) plus on one dive deep inside a wreck I lost my whole on-board O2 in about 10 secs, so its good to have some high FO2 to run the RB manually with.

All bail tanks have a whip that can be plugged into my FFM.


This has worked well for me (so far) but I'm always looking for better ways of doing things.

I dont like to dive unless I know I am fully self sufficient and carrying all my life support supplies. Even when diving in a buddy pair or team I still carrying all my bailout myself.