Bailout?

[sal C]

in 5 yrs of rebreather diving i have tried most methods of carrying bailout.
i have gone back to side mounting according to the dive. down to 70m i'll just carry a 7lt of 50%. Below i'll carry a gas mix.

My inboard O2 has a reg fitted and i have isolated my solnoid by carryin a 1.5ltr of o2 plumbed straight into my manual button. THis has two functions, incase i loose o2 from the inboard and if the solnoid jams open. If i were to bailout i would only choose to go semi closed and use the adv to supply the gas. My gas is blended to give me around a ppo2 of 1.1 so that it wont comprimise my deco schedule too much. Ie. instead of using 10/50 i use 15/45, it has the same ead with less helium.
I have also covered my hoses to protect them from punctures. I learnt to cover them up when working on a project recovering sharp bits of metal of a lake bottom. So hopefully i shouldnt have to bail for a flood.

i have bailed to semi closed at 75m and made it out on the inboard gas and refired the unit in shallower water, no probs, and i have lost all o2 out of my pressure guage and because of the spare o2 i managed to carry on the dive for another hour.

If you have the right attitude and keep your skills up to date you can hopefully sort the probs out.

Either way, plan for the dive, do your tests, be safe and everything should be cool!!!!!!!

sal

[Pierre Farrugia]

Hello SAl C,

What you mean by "My gas is blended to give me around a ppo2 of 1.1 so that it wont comprimise my deco schedule too much. Ie. instead of using 10/50 i use 15/45, it has the same ead with less helium. "

[sal C]

hi!

most ccr divers use a 10/50 heliair for shallow gas diving because it's easy to blend and if you need to do a diluent flush then its easy to work the maths out underwater.

The problem is when you have to bailout onto 10/50, semi or open, say a dive to 75m your ppo2 is 0.85 with an ead of 31m. If you use 15/45 at 75m your ppo2 is 1.3 with an ead of 31m.

75m is the deepest i'll use this gas but if i do need to go semi closed then my deco schedule for the deep section will hardly change.

i dont have any problems with the mix spiking near the bottom before any one asks.

its just an extra small amount of oxygen in your mix than can save alot of grief.

any more questions feel free to ask

happy ccr diving, hope you enjoy it!!!!

sal