No Fly Time - Different for Buddy Holly plane versus Higher Altitude Comercial

[scuba-flea]

I'm planning a trip to Okinawa in either 2014 or 2015 with some friends to go diving. While there, we would like to take a small plane over to another island, Kita Daito. So this won't get very high in altitude. I know there are various no-fly recommendations from PADI, DAN, and various conservative Dive computers but I have not seen anything saying if these smaller, low altitude planes would still fit the same no-fly recommendation. If we dive for a few days, we would need to take some time prior to flying the big jet back home, but if we also have to take a day before the flight to Kita Daito and back that will knock three days out of our diving excursion.

Thoughts from the pros?

Thanks

 

[knotical]

Assuming the plane is unpressurized, find its likely maximum elevation and use the NOAA tables. See for example this thread:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...w-high-elevation-safe-drive-after-diving.html

 

[Crowley]

the flying after diving recommendation is based on an "immediate ascent to 600 metres / 2000 ft" and based on cabin pressures between 600-2400metres or 2000 - 8000 feet of altitude.

If you are taking a short, unpressurised, low altitude "island hopper" type flight, which flies lower than 600m/2000ft, there is no extra risk of DCS. After a liveaboard to the Northern Great Barrier reef in 2008, part of the program included a low-level reef flight from Lizard Island back to Cairns in a Cessna Caravan and it was great! If this is the type of plane you will be flying in then no worries. If it's a jet or pressurised turbo-prop plane, then you will need to make some very careful enquiries - in this case, it is the altitude to which the cabin is pressurised that is of concern, not the altitude at which the aircraft flies.

Hope that helps,

Crowley

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Airliners usually pressurize to about 5000 feet altitude equivalent, so there is not much difference between the pressure on on airliner and on a small plane that does not exceed that altitude of 5000 feet. Lower altitude flights result in lower risk of DCS, as Crowley has noted. Altitude above sea level is the measuring stick, not hieght above ground (hag), something not critical in the Caribbean, but very important here in Colorado where ground level is 5000 feet.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Wingy]

Air Tahiti - not Air Tahiti Nui - inter island flights are kept low (I often heard FP looks after Divers and most of the pilots are divers) to the point where you see the coral all the way from island to island. No fly time of a general 12 hours seems to be the rule of thumb there.

 

[beanojones]

the flying after diving recommendation is based on an "immediate ascent to 600 metres / 2000 ft" and based on cabin pressures between 600-2400metres or 2000 - 8000 feet of altitude.

If you are taking a short, unpressurised, low altitude "island hopper" type flight, which flies lower than 600m/2000ft, there is no risk of DCS. After a liveaboard to the Northern Great Barrier reef in 2008, part of the program included a low-level reef flight from Lizard Island back to Cairns in a Cessna Caravan and it was great! If this is the type of plane you will be flying in then no worries. If it's a jet or pressurised turbo-prop plane, then you will need to make some very careful enquiries - in this case, it is the altitude to which the cabin is pressurised that is of concern, not the altitude at which the aircraft flies.
y

There is never no risk of DCS when it comes to diving. Ever.

People get bent often* driving over the mountain in Hawaii after a single dive.

Also it is hardly the pressure to which the cabin that matters, as any sort of sudden depressurization incident could be deadly.

That being said, the interisland flights in Hawaii are pressurized to sea level, so people will use them to fly between island for chamber treatments.

*Often being a relative term. DCS is so rare that we are comparing almost never to very rare, but still.

 

[knotical]

... the interisland flights in Hawaii are pressurized to sea level, ...

I did not know that, and I live in Hawaii. Could you point me to a reference that has that info?

thanks,

k

 

[scuba-flea]

Great responses. Once again, get greatly educated quickly via a great forum.

 

[japan-diver]

The flights between islands on Okinawa not in Cessna's and fly a bit higher than 2000 ft. Not sure on the Kita Daito flight- we used a ferry to dive it- had to bring our own tanks to as the locals did not have enough for 6 people to do 3 dives per day.

 

[beanojones]

I did not know that, and I live in Hawaii. Could you point me to a reference that has that info?

Interislands flights was how porr people used to get to the chamber from neighbor islands. I would call the chamber to make sure this is current:

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