Do you/would you fly with an 19hr surface interval?

[GrimSleeper]

The way flights used to be scheduled from here, we'd often end up with customers choosing to do five or six days of two 100-ft-plus dives a day, then fly (in a Twin Otter, unpressurised, at 10,000 feet) after an 18-hour interval. Nobody ever had a problem. On the other hand, we're not complaining now that the schedules have changed and the morning flight out is four hours later...

I'd tend to agree with wedivebc. If you get symptoms on the plane, you were probably very, very close to bent before you took off. I'd be more concerned about the six hours a day in the water for three days than I would be about the flight, even if it's only at 30 feet.

 

[diverrex]

I know anything is possible with DCS and 6 hours a day is a lot of bottom time but seriously can you even absorb enough nitrogen at 30 feet to get bent? The tables don't even start until 35 feet.

 

[John_B]

Do I? Or will I? Or have I?

 

[Danseur]

20.5' to even begin on-gassing beyond immediate assent...

A buddy of mine used to dive a cave with average depth of about +270 and run time of +18 hours. He'd fly, almost every week, 4 hours after surfacing and was never bent, year after year. The real issue is after a dive like that is if the plane looses hull integrity/pressure.

"If you leave the water clean, flying isn't an issue..." he liked to say. It's all about ascent rate and good stops and a good plan. Although that's more ambitious than I'd personally like, the idea applied to recreational depths gives you a hell of a buffer if you want piece of mind.

 

[GrimSleeper]

I know anything is possible with DCS and 6 hours a day is a lot of bottom time but seriously can you even absorb enough nitrogen at 30 feet to get bent? The tables don't even start until 35 feet.

I know two people who got serious neurological bends doing scientific survey dives at 30-35 feet. One was ascribed to a PFO, the other, who knows? With inert gas and human tissue, pretty much anything is possible....

 

[Searcaigh]

+ 1 on using Nitrox, skip the last dive and sit on the beach and have a beer

 

[wedivebc]

A 40% nitrox dive to 33ft equals a 17ft air dive. What is the NDL at 17ft?

 

[acsomos]

Based purely on the info given, if I had spent 6 hours a day underwater for 3 days in a row, I'd stay as conservative as possible, even if it's just 30 feet.
But, if all my dives had been easy ones, with no crazy ups and downs, and I could use nitrox like has been suggested, then I'd probably feel safe finishing all the dives.
In other words, I'd focus on keeping all the dives safe, with slow ascents etc. : 18 hours after safe dives sounds better than 24 hours after crazy ones.

 

[Searcaigh]

Checking my log book from 1999 when I was in the Maldives I spent over 6 days a total of 22hrs 27 mins under water with an average depth of 20M and after my last dive had 18 hrs 27 mins No Fly Time on my computer - was using a Suunto Solution at that time and all dives were on air.

 

[cascas]

Flying only becomes a problem when the cabin suddenly decompresses.. Personally I think your biggest problem is quality of the pilot and his ability to land the plane safely.

I wouldn't worry...