Mod 1 preparation

[Johnonthesevern]

I have just bought a secondhand Inspiration Classic (2002). I have booked my Mod 1 with Phil Short for the 30th April at Stoney. I'm looking for advice and pearls of wisdom so on the 30th I am as prepared as I can be.

Are there any articles you think maybe worth reading, any bit of kit you found usefull (don't forget I'm now brasic).

Thanks in advance

John

[Janos]

Originally Posted by Johnonthesevern

I have just bought a secondhand Inspiration Classic (2002). I have booked my Mod 1 with Phil Short for the 30th April at Stoney. I'm looking for advice and pearls of wisdom so on the 30th I am as prepared as I can be.

Are there any articles you think maybe worth reading, any bit of kit you found usefull (don't forget I'm now brasic).

I think the biggest prep you can do it mental. Don't expect to be able to do anything. Expect it to be wierd. Expect it to be odd, and don't expect to master it straight away.

If you do master it straight away then treat it as a bonus.

I'm not an Inspo diver, but I'd have thought reading the manual several times (downloadable from teh AP website) would be useful.

Janos

[DannyB]

Originally Posted by Janos

I think the biggest prep you can do it mental. Don't expect to be able to do anything. Expect it to be wierd. Expect it to be odd, and don't expect to master it straight away.

If you do master it straight away then treat it as a bonus.

I'm not an Inspo diver, but I'd have thought reading the manual several times (downloadable from teh AP website) would be useful.

Janos

Agree, read the manual, review all your nitrox theory and make sure it's all pretty straight in your head.

Danny

[Skiverdiver]

John,

PM sent.

Roy

[nigelH]

Originally Posted by Johnonthesevern

Are there any articles you think maybe worth reading, any bit of kit you found usefull (don't forget I'm now brasic).

No kit. Not yet. Start diving it as standard as possible. Mine is crawling in mods but they are all there because I felt a need for them. I still dive it very much as 'out of the box'.

For the rest of your dives until then just watch your gauges and watch your computer. You want to build a check, check, check mentality because when OC goes wrong you know about it. When CCR goes wrong you might not. The course is mostly fault drills and you could do a life time's diving and never have a bad in water fault so it is easy to get complacent with the same old readings again but the day you look at the handset and it is wrong you just converted a disaster into a drill.

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by Johnonthesevern

I have just bought a secondhand Inspiration Classic (2002). I have booked my Mod 1 with Phil Short for the 30th April at Stoney. I'm looking for advice and pearls of wisdom so on the 30th I am as prepared as I can be.

Are there any articles you think maybe worth reading, any bit of kit you found usefull (don't forget I'm now brasic).

Thanks in advance

John

From a diving perspective its hard to prepare. The big thing will be buoyancy and trim and you need to insist on a full weight check and trim check on each day. If your over / under weight its not easy.

If you have the standard harness then see if you can rig the shoulder D rings to stay facing out. A bit of bungee can help. These get lost and make stage removal and refitting a PITA.

Read the AP manual several times so your confident with the buttons and do dry simulations with the unit switched on so you see how the menus work.

Read up on cell errors on RBW and current limited cells as well and make sure to ask Phill lots of questions on this.

Read up on the most common faults with the unit and again ask questions of Phill on how to recognize them and what if anything you can do about it.

Finally learn how to calculate the PP02 of air at any given depth from 6 to 40m in your head. That way you can do dill flushes at X depth and it will make sense.

Looking back on my Mod 1 there were three main issues. Buoyancy Buoyancy and Buoyancy.

Everything else was pretty easy

ATB

Mark Chase

[nigelH]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

Looking back on my Mod 1 there were three main issues. Buoyancy Buoyancy and Buoyancy.

Grief. After the first three days I could do all the fault drills but I hated the damn thing and it clearly hated me. Buoyancy would not, could not, did not work and wasn't going to.

At the end of the last dive on the fifth day he left me to hold a stop at 1m for about 10 minutes. Somehow it wasn't an issue any more.

It also served me right for whinging.

[frosty the snowman]

Agreed. Just go in prepared to feel like a complete novice. Your bouyance will go to rat shit and you'll have serious doubts about wanting to commit to your rebreather. Then one dive will be smooth, slick, relaxed and enjoyable and it will all be alright. At least that's my experience.

[MaryS]

Concur with all the above, bouyancy, particularly on the ascents was a nightmare. The set will seem to fight back. And you will headbut rocks, the bottom of the swimming pool etc.

Remember that you have a Buddy AutoAir and that the buttons are all in different places to your usual wing - I inflated my wing rather than my SMB and ended up upside down hanging onto the deck rail on the Scylla.

Expect things to go wrong - O2 cyl leaks, CO2 hits - I didnt need to invent drills on my course!

Read the manual - with all of the above to contend with any extra understanding has to be an advantage.

And last but certainly not least - always know your pp02. Its not called a YBOD / Kato for nothing.

Mary S

[Simon TW]

Resist throwing it in a skip afetr day 1 and 2 you should be more friendly with it after day 3.

Enjoy.