Flying after diving...

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RDRINK25

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Messages
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Location
Covington, Ga
# of dives
200 - 499
I have read many articles about flying after diving and everyone has mixed reviews. DAN recomomends 18hrs and the golden rule has been 24. I have a up coming trip this weekend and wanted to get in a few dives while there. My profile is going to be a 3 tank no deco dive using EAN with a max depth of 100'. Followed by another 2 tank day of diving using EAN with a detph of 75'. My flight is sceduled to leave with a SI of 19 hrs. Then I read this new article in DAN's Alert Diver that just came in the mail. Alert Diver | Flying After Diving what is everyones thoughts?
 
depends on your tissue loading from the last profile. If you're deco certified I'd hop on O2 for a while, if not I'd consider cutting the last dive short and depending on where you are, play around at somewhere above 30ft until you are as out of gas as possible to unload your tissues.

My Petrel is set to clear me at 70% loading, it also tracks where they are during the SIT so I can check right before I hop in a plane and since it has an altitude sensor I can also keep track of it there.

Now, this is strictly my opinion, it will come under fire from everyone on here and goes against quite a few things, but here it goes.
Make sure you are very hydrated before you get in the water, especially for the last dive, but all through the trip.
I'd get out of the water with as low of a tissue loading as possible, holding safety stop as long as you can. I'd then make sure that I keep moving around to keep the blood flowing and try to stay as warm as possible to help with offgassing, may even partake in a beer or two to help with that. Nice warm shower the morning of, avoid any caffeine if possible, and make sure you're fully hydrated, take a brisk constitutional and should be good to go.

Points of contention above, alcohol, I think a shot or two, or beer or two or three.... isn't a bad thing if done sufficiently long after the dive, many disagree, I also don't think that warm/hot showers/baths are all that bad either as long as you aren't very cold during the dive to prevent skin bends.
 
I wasn't expecting there to be bubbles after 24h, but I wonder if those divers always produce bubbles when there is a reduction of ambient pressure. It would be interesting to repeat the flight tests without them having dived before.

But the results are in line with DCIEM recommendations and also don't seem strong enough to change anything. Yes, some divers produced bubbles when flying, but they all produced after diving. Should they not dive at all? They never say that, so why say wait longer before flying. And what "longer" should be wasn't investigated...

In your case, I'd fly. Maybe use EAN, but follow air NDL.
 
My Petrel is set to clear me at 70% loading, it also tracks where they are during the SIT so I can check right before I hop in a plane and since it has an altitude sensor I can also keep track of it there.
.

I can imagine the funny looks one would get on an airplane when turning on a petrel. Or using one on an airplane for that matter. Could be easily confused with something it is not. :eek:
 
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I'd drop the third dive on day one.
 
Ray, how would that make a difference? Even the NAUI tables have you back as an A diver after 9 hours no matter how much tissue loading you have. I don't think the first day is relevant in this, only the tissue loading when he comes out after the last dive, and whether he does 2 or 5 dives the day before, the loading should be the same, especially on a computer...
 
The DAN article meshes quite well with what Dr. Michael Powell (Dr. Deco here on SB) told us when he gave a talk to our dive club. Their RDP research showed that some people just don't bubble, no matter what you do to them, and others bubble all the time. The problem was that they could find no discriminant that allowed them to predict which type of diver any given individual was, until they were studied. If you are a "non-bubbler", you can probably do what some of the WKPP divers have done, and get out of a long staged deco dive and right onto a plane. If you are a heavy bubbler, you may be running a significantly greater risk of developing symptomatic DCS if you do so.

My personal analysis of the situation given in the OP is that you have plenty of time to clear the fast compartments, which are thought to correlate with central nervous system symptoms, and with only two days of diving, you haven't loaded the slow compartments very much, so the 18 hour rule should work. But that's not medical advice, and there is no validated testing behind it. That's the way I look at the theory.
 
Ray, how would that make a difference?

Peace of mind.

Four dives in two days vs five dives in two days? Meh... I'd trade seeing a bunch of parrot fish and sergeant majors for peace of mind (and an extra beer or two) any day.

---------- Post added May 18th, 2015 at 08:00 PM ----------

Even the NAUI tables have you back as an A diver after 9 hours no matter how much tissue loading you have. I don't think the first day is relevant in this, only the tissue loading when he comes out after the last dive, and whether he does 2 or 5 dives the day before, the loading should be the same, especially on a computer...

So... the hit the OP may avert would be an "undeserved hit" according to tables and computers. :D
 
Thanks all for the replys. The last dive of the second day is the shallow reef dive and the dive I would want to skip if any. It would give me another 1-1.5 hrs. Does that even make a difference though?
 
None of us know if we are bubblers or not. I've done countless trips to Florida, doing 3-4 dives per day for several to many days. I've flown 18-24 hours later without untoward event. My n=1 experiment means nothing to the rest of you, but my practice is OK for me. My computer desat time is often more than the 24 h no fly time, I try to be clear but it has not always been possible.

I just did 28 dives over 10 days and flew today, I'm still OK to dive yet another day. I will not be changing my practices
 
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