I spent nearly 11 years in the military, 10 on active duty and 2 in the NG. The 10 years of active duty were as an Army aviator. One reason that the US Army has the best safety record in the world for their military flight activities (eliminating aircraft that are shot down)... is that SAFETY is trained from the day you enter your Officer Basic Course or the Warrant Officer Course at Ft Rucker. There is nearly three months before you even begin flight school, where safety is pounded into your head with all the other basic military training.
After that, you start flight school, and as you progress thru flight school (in my day) you started with the TH-55 training helicopter, then moved to UH-1H (Huey's), then to the Kiowa (OH-58 A/C), and finally for me, I flew the OH-58D (before they loaded it with guns). In each of those aircraft transitions, you memorize and learn the emergency procedures. Flight instructors grill you daily on these procedures, you are always subject to a modified 'engine out' emergency in flight, and on approach, autorotations to the ground happen frequently. The point of this training is to prepare the aviators mind to always look for the factors that lead to emergencies in their environment, to know their guages and be able to react to incorrect or faults. And most of all, always know where you are going to land. Helicopters in the military rarely operate in their true flight mode more than 100 feet above the ground, and generally, are 5-10 feet above trees and obstacles. In this environment, there is ZERO tolerance in an emergency, you need to recognize and react. That's my training background.
And with that background, I've read Jim's book, and I think it's good stuff. And, to be honest, I didn't get the 'full monty' in my training that someone like Jim might offer, and I've been making up for it since. That said, with a total of 29 dives, 24 of them since February, I'm not completely helpless. But, it does bother me that I'm not what I would call a totally self-reliant diver (well, maybe I am, but let me continue)...
In flight school, I planned my flights, I knew my flight path, I selected my nav points, and I flew my flight plan with pretty much ZERO deviation (unless taking simulated fire)... in scuba 'school', I did all my required tasks, and I believe I do have those key four that Jim L hits on nailed down. I have excellent buoyancy and trim (I have to believe that four instructors on four continents over 6 months can't all be lying to me). I know how to plan a dive and my gas consumption. But I still have a little apprehension on one point.
If I'm diving from a boat, I get the dive briefing, I hear all they say, I process it, and plan from it, but standing at the gate, I'm still a little apprehensive about just jumping into someone else's pond (so to speak) that I've never been in before. Telling me there is a horseshoe shaped reef and I can follow it out to the point and back, okay, I get that.. but I'm used to knowing the hazards I'm supposed to watch for, I'm used to some kind of visual reference (called a MAP)... and in scuba, you get hardly any of that, at least in most locations.
In Thailand, one plus for my training, and maybe it was a crutch was that they had underwater topology maps, carefully detailing the terrain around each little island. You could see where the depressions and main rocks were, you could see where the lagoon on the backside of the island was (where the boat would pick you up), you could see that by swimming with the reef and island off your shoulder that you'd go against the current for about 1/3 of the way, and then pick up a small drift back to the pick up point... great stuff.
Compare that to the Philippines where I am going in two weeks. I just dived on 9 sites back at the end of June. My aviator memory is going to make them more familiar, and I won't have nearly the apprehension I did 8 weeks ago. But other than naming the site as "Cathedral" and telling me there are several large rock formations along the reef that they put crosses on, and a mini castle, whoopee, I get that, and I can wander around it poking the rocks for nudies and blue ringed octopus, and maybe I could do it without the DM on our boat... but the it's his pond, and he's been down there 100 if not 200 times a year... why wouldn't I want to follow this guy if he's guiding the dive to my plan?
And that's my point. Am I not a qualified diver because I don't know the local area well enough? How can anyone know 45-50 dive sites at a location they might visit once in a lifetime? Am I really supposed to trust a 5 minute briefing describing what is beneath me and then jump in with my buddy (wife) without any thought for what else I might find? I mean, if someone told me to go 100 m out at 80degrees from the house reef to find a sunken helicopter, I'd have no problem with the general direction of the dive, and I know I can get back to shore easily, the only factor in that dive is that the helicopter is at 30m, so I need a new buddy, because my wife isn't deep qualified, and doesn't want to go deep.
So this story today is a lot of questions and thinking that Jim started with his book (which I recommend to EVERY diver - and some instructors).. From my perspective, I'm learning to be a better diver by returning to locations I've been and seeing how the underwater world expands as I view the same dive a little differently. And then finding something a little different and a little more challenging like learning to dive a drysuit at Catalina. And call it what you want... I even think my dives at the aquarium are beneficial. It's not big, I'm not going to get lost, but I can go down to almost 16 meters, I can swim thru an old galleon mock up practicing my buoyancy, I can hover and wave at people in the walk thru, I can practice buddy habits with my wife, and I can get to know my gear, and keep my new drysuit skills sharp and hone them...
Long story short, being a good diver, like being a good pilot is going to take some time and lots of practice.
After that, you start flight school, and as you progress thru flight school (in my day) you started with the TH-55 training helicopter, then moved to UH-1H (Huey's), then to the Kiowa (OH-58 A/C), and finally for me, I flew the OH-58D (before they loaded it with guns). In each of those aircraft transitions, you memorize and learn the emergency procedures. Flight instructors grill you daily on these procedures, you are always subject to a modified 'engine out' emergency in flight, and on approach, autorotations to the ground happen frequently. The point of this training is to prepare the aviators mind to always look for the factors that lead to emergencies in their environment, to know their guages and be able to react to incorrect or faults. And most of all, always know where you are going to land. Helicopters in the military rarely operate in their true flight mode more than 100 feet above the ground, and generally, are 5-10 feet above trees and obstacles. In this environment, there is ZERO tolerance in an emergency, you need to recognize and react. That's my training background.
And with that background, I've read Jim's book, and I think it's good stuff. And, to be honest, I didn't get the 'full monty' in my training that someone like Jim might offer, and I've been making up for it since. That said, with a total of 29 dives, 24 of them since February, I'm not completely helpless. But, it does bother me that I'm not what I would call a totally self-reliant diver (well, maybe I am, but let me continue)...
In flight school, I planned my flights, I knew my flight path, I selected my nav points, and I flew my flight plan with pretty much ZERO deviation (unless taking simulated fire)... in scuba 'school', I did all my required tasks, and I believe I do have those key four that Jim L hits on nailed down. I have excellent buoyancy and trim (I have to believe that four instructors on four continents over 6 months can't all be lying to me). I know how to plan a dive and my gas consumption. But I still have a little apprehension on one point.
If I'm diving from a boat, I get the dive briefing, I hear all they say, I process it, and plan from it, but standing at the gate, I'm still a little apprehensive about just jumping into someone else's pond (so to speak) that I've never been in before. Telling me there is a horseshoe shaped reef and I can follow it out to the point and back, okay, I get that.. but I'm used to knowing the hazards I'm supposed to watch for, I'm used to some kind of visual reference (called a MAP)... and in scuba, you get hardly any of that, at least in most locations.
In Thailand, one plus for my training, and maybe it was a crutch was that they had underwater topology maps, carefully detailing the terrain around each little island. You could see where the depressions and main rocks were, you could see where the lagoon on the backside of the island was (where the boat would pick you up), you could see that by swimming with the reef and island off your shoulder that you'd go against the current for about 1/3 of the way, and then pick up a small drift back to the pick up point... great stuff.
Compare that to the Philippines where I am going in two weeks. I just dived on 9 sites back at the end of June. My aviator memory is going to make them more familiar, and I won't have nearly the apprehension I did 8 weeks ago. But other than naming the site as "Cathedral" and telling me there are several large rock formations along the reef that they put crosses on, and a mini castle, whoopee, I get that, and I can wander around it poking the rocks for nudies and blue ringed octopus, and maybe I could do it without the DM on our boat... but the it's his pond, and he's been down there 100 if not 200 times a year... why wouldn't I want to follow this guy if he's guiding the dive to my plan?
And that's my point. Am I not a qualified diver because I don't know the local area well enough? How can anyone know 45-50 dive sites at a location they might visit once in a lifetime? Am I really supposed to trust a 5 minute briefing describing what is beneath me and then jump in with my buddy (wife) without any thought for what else I might find? I mean, if someone told me to go 100 m out at 80degrees from the house reef to find a sunken helicopter, I'd have no problem with the general direction of the dive, and I know I can get back to shore easily, the only factor in that dive is that the helicopter is at 30m, so I need a new buddy, because my wife isn't deep qualified, and doesn't want to go deep.
So this story today is a lot of questions and thinking that Jim started with his book (which I recommend to EVERY diver - and some instructors).. From my perspective, I'm learning to be a better diver by returning to locations I've been and seeing how the underwater world expands as I view the same dive a little differently. And then finding something a little different and a little more challenging like learning to dive a drysuit at Catalina. And call it what you want... I even think my dives at the aquarium are beneficial. It's not big, I'm not going to get lost, but I can go down to almost 16 meters, I can swim thru an old galleon mock up practicing my buoyancy, I can hover and wave at people in the walk thru, I can practice buddy habits with my wife, and I can get to know my gear, and keep my new drysuit skills sharp and hone them...
Long story short, being a good diver, like being a good pilot is going to take some time and lots of practice.