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I do not understand the reasoning for the "manual approach" but hey you picked your instructor right? If it is being done to humor him or her, perhaps a good dose of your day job into their life. I find that that to be usefull as a playing field leveler.
Eric
I think the point here is more that I understand each step in the planning process, that I can do the calculations, and the manual process demonstrates I can do it. Anyone can plug some numbers into vplanner. That doesn't mean you know what it is doing for you.
Here, I have to demonstrate the thought process, do each step of the calculations, "draw" the plan and switches on the diagram, according to the dive tables.
I am more than a little surprised . . . didn't you guys have to do all this stuff manually when you first learned?
"Equality of opportunity or equality of outcome?
One is consistent with a free people and the other requires a police state. Pick one." ~Cool Hardware52
I, alone, am responsible for my health and safety, my actions and inactions.
"If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?" ~Sydney J. Harris
It was covered in the beginning of class. The formulas were rolled out and demonstrated add nauseam and then we went outside ran around the building twice and everyone pulled out their laptops. I think the point was that by the time you get to trimix you should be completely comfortable using software to compare multiple profiles with multiple gasses and applying the best one for the dive at hand.
As far as changing the dive plan mid stride, I do not trust my math skills on land, let alone uw. That is why we have wet notes plus and minus the given profile in time and depth. Oh yea there is also the computer. YMMV
Eric
Most of this came from our Local Dive Shop, ProTech Scuba; I dressed it up and put it in a document form.
I would like some thoughts on how to make it better. Thanks.
Looks like you've covered the waterfront
Only thing that jumped out at me was the AL 80, which (unless it's a "super 80") at STP, doesn't hold 80CF at 3000 psi, but 77.4 (or, 80CF @ 3100 psi if you prefer), which makes .0258 cf/psi rather than .027... and 38.75 psi/cf rather than 37.5...
a nit, but if ye're gonna include it...
Rick
"You can have peace, or you can have Freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once." (Heinlein)
"... they saw the deeds of the LORD, his wondrous works in the deep." (Ps107:24)
One thing that might be good Jax is reformatting it so that it fits into a standard size log book. I usually only bring my log book and a slate with my plan on it when i go to a site. The slate is my primary reference underwater, the navy or DCIEM tables are my backup with two uwatec bottom timers for gauges, or a computer if i happen to be borrowing one that day.
Don't get me wrong, i am also a technogeek. But I am also the kind of person that has to understand everything that I am doing. My instructor for my PADI Tec40 course wanted us to do everything in V-planner or GAP to plan our dives. I made him show me how to plan it with only a pencil and paper.
Looks like you've covered the waterfront
Only thing that jumped out at me was the AL 80, which (unless it's a "super 80") at STP, doesn't hold 80CF at 3000 psi, but 77.4 (or, 80CF @ 3100 psi if you prefer), which makes .0258 cf/psi rather than .027... and 38.75 psi/cf rather than 37.5...
a nit, but if ye're gonna include it...
Rick
"Equality of opportunity or equality of outcome?
One is consistent with a free people and the other requires a police state. Pick one." ~Cool Hardware52
I, alone, am responsible for my health and safety, my actions and inactions.
"If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?" ~Sydney J. Harris
I think the point here is more that I understand each step in the planning process, that I can do the calculations, and the manual process demonstrates I can do it. Anyone can plug some numbers into vplanner. That doesn't mean you know what it is doing for you.
Here, I have to demonstrate the thought process, do each step of the calculations, "draw" the plan and switches on the diagram, according to the dive tables.
I am more than a little surprised . . . didn't you guys have to do all this stuff manually when you first learned?
Yes, but after one plans the dive manually a few times it should be pretty well understood. Then......... use Vplanner.
"Equality of opportunity or equality of outcome?
One is consistent with a free people and the other requires a police state. Pick one." ~Cool Hardware52
I, alone, am responsible for my health and safety, my actions and inactions.
"If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?" ~Sydney J. Harris
Might I suggest finding an instructor who cares about your personal safety and won't let you dive antiquated tables?
Do you find it weird that you're doing it one way in class and then switching to a completely different one after class? Is your instructor explaining conservatism, Buhl vs VPM, how to choose gradient factors, etc? It sounds like you're getting a class that will teach you how to dive in a way which you know isn't a good idea. I would suggest getting training for the dives you're doing, not getting a card to justify it. Just my $0.02.
The form you have looks pretty good insofar as it covers a lot of different ideas that I think you should understand if you are going to do decompression.
The only thing I will add is this: if you are seriously interested in doing tech dives, knowing WHAT to calculate is just as important as HOW to calculate. If you need a cheat sheet to know that you need to figure out mod, min gas, turn pressures, etc then you should spend more time doing dive planning. The point of learning diving is knowing why you are doing just as much as you are learning how.
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Originally Posted by waterpirate
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Thanks - I'll pick that nit
Navy tables.
