Hi,
I was chatting with an ex user of SB last weekend and he told me that he always does his deco and safety stops horizontal. His reasoning was the pressure differential between feet and outstretched arm was too great and could contribute to greater deco risk.
So I did a quick calculation based ona uniform body 10 feet long. At 20 feet the absolute pressue is 1.61ata, at 15ft and 25 ft it is 1.46 and 1.76 ata respectively. This gives a pressure differential of 0.31 ata (approx). So the difference in volume between a gas bubble of unit size in the upper extremity and the lower extremity is 1.21x.
As a chemist this isn't a huge difference to me (and I wonder if he lays down when he flies just in case), but I am curious as to if this makes a difference once the body chemistry and physiology is taken into account. After all, the trunk area is where the gas exchange is happening.
Any thoughts or comments? I think his idea is fine in principle, I just wonder if it is going to an extreme.
I was chatting with an ex user of SB last weekend and he told me that he always does his deco and safety stops horizontal. His reasoning was the pressure differential between feet and outstretched arm was too great and could contribute to greater deco risk.
So I did a quick calculation based ona uniform body 10 feet long. At 20 feet the absolute pressue is 1.61ata, at 15ft and 25 ft it is 1.46 and 1.76 ata respectively. This gives a pressure differential of 0.31 ata (approx). So the difference in volume between a gas bubble of unit size in the upper extremity and the lower extremity is 1.21x.
As a chemist this isn't a huge difference to me (and I wonder if he lays down when he flies just in case), but I am curious as to if this makes a difference once the body chemistry and physiology is taken into account. After all, the trunk area is where the gas exchange is happening.
Any thoughts or comments? I think his idea is fine in principle, I just wonder if it is going to an extreme.