Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] PSUB Fatalities...

["Sean T. Stevenson" <ststev@uniserve.com>]

I seem to recall reading an article about submarine escape devices, and
specifically the parachute/sling type unit that (Vance?) was talking
about.  The major problem was designing for maximum velocity.  Most of
these devices were too slow in the deep portion of the ascent to
prevent significant ongassing, and too fast during the shallow portion
to allow offgassing.  This was more of a concern for the deep (600 ft)
escape devices where the induced bend was likely to cause permanent
damage.  The inflation valve had to be extremely fast acting to fill
the bag/hood as quickly as possible to move to shallow water, where
some sort of vent or drag device would be actuated to slow a bit before
surfacing.  Not sure what the current state of the art is, but it
doesn't sound like too difficult a challenge to develop something
appropriate for psub escape.

-Sean


On Mon, 6 Mar 2000 07:55:44 -0000, Captain Nemo wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Sean T. Stevenson" <ststev@uniserve.com>
>To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
>Sent: Monday, March 06, 2000 2:56 PM
>Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] PSUB Fatalities...
>
>
>> Carrying a bottle of heliox 16 as escape SCUBA gas would permit an
>> escape from up to 90 meters.  Of course, you'd probably sustain a bend
>> escaping from that depth, but then bends you can cure... drowning you
>> do not.
>
>
>Another good point.
>
>To Sean, Gabriel, Vance, Carsten, (and anyone else I may have missed who has
>contributed to this thread) : I think we're all making valuable
>contributions here; each putting in part of a complex puzzle defining how we
>can operate more safely.  There is value and truth to what each man has
>said.  We should do ALL we can do to improve safety, and I think
>conversations like this one serve that goal.  Thank you all.
>
>"Two heads are better than one."  The more we exchange information on
>safety, the safer we all become.  Let's keep this thread going.  If another
>way of improving safety occurs to me later on, I'll add it to this thread.
>And I hope everyone will do the same.  We owe it to ourselves, and others
>too.
>
>VBR,
>
>Pat