why hate safety devices?

[BoltSnap]

Jim Malone,

You are a dive shop's dream!!!

Safe Diving.

 

[sandpointyuma]

Also, pilots of aircraft with retractable landing gear should know to extend said landing gear prior to landing. I am not a pilot, but I am sure that warning systems exist in aircraft to alert pilots to low altitude and retracted landing gear, irrespective of how good the pilot is.

Regarding landing without putting your gear down, there are 2 kinds of pilots: those who have done so and those who will.

 

[txapacheguy]

Regarding landing without putting your gear down, there are 2 kinds of pilots: those who have done so and those who will.

Or the third type... The person who sticks to either skids or fixed landing gear.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Regarding landing without putting your gear down, there are 2 kinds of pilots: those who have done so and those who will.

Want to bet?
The vast majority of pilots - especially professional ones - never make so much as a gear up pass, (that's an attempted landing with the wheels up, aborted when an outside observer like airport tower personnel or the crew of another airplane brings that fact to the pilot's attention), much less touch down on anything but rubber. Period.
That's a statistical fact.
It's why God gave us Checklists.
Just for the sake of complete transparency, I have made a pass at Okinawa with the nose gear up once ('79 or maybe '80) - on purpose - to have the tower verify the nose gear's position with a "two down" indication. That was in a C-1A Trader, luckily, which has an access panel under the radios that leads to the nose gear wheel well where we were able to beat it loose and get it down before we ran out of gas.

...I am sure that warning systems exist in aircraft to alert pilots to low altitude and retracted landing gear...

As for warning systems, most all commercial and general aviation planes with retractable gear have some sort of "gear not down" alert triggered by a combination of airspeed/angle-of-attack, flap position, power and/or radar altitude when the wheels aren't "three down & locked," but many - like the tactical jets I flew where such an alert would be more annoyance than legitimate warning - have none specifically for the landing gear.
And now... back to diving
Rick

 

[DevonDiver]

And now... back to diving

+1 Let's get back on topic folks

 

[vrakis]

Electronic failures are common, mechanical spg failures not that common. So with that its not a safer alternative. For OW recreation diving I have no issues with them tho. You want it, get it.

I, on the other hand, have had an mechanical SPG fail *, but none of my dive computers have ever fail - but on of a dive buddy did once, the air integrated dive computer reset to 0 m depth while at 10 m depth, so when we surfaced it showed -10 m depth (tank pressure was alright).
While distrust for the use of electronic devices in water is not underrated, the belief in mechanical devices is slightly overrated.

(* The needle in the SPG got stuck "on the way down" at 100 bar. I got confused but trusted the mechanical SPG totally, so I wondered why I hadn't used up more air in the end of the dive and didn't even consider the possibility of mechanical failure. Doing a second dive the SPG showed the full pressure of the new tank, but once again stopped on the way down at 100 bar. Being more prepared this time, I was not totally unprepared, but still surprized as I sucked the tank dry.)

I'm a cold water diver with a very thick hood.

I've NEVER heard a dive computer beep, chirp or otherwise make any noise.

I always use a hood diving in the cold Baltic Sea, and I have no problem hearing a Suunto computer or other sounds. Must ask, how thick is your hood to totally isolate sound?

Safe Diving!

 

[ChristinaUngerer]

Seems as if nearly everybody is right in a way - I would try out new devices and then decide whether they may increase MY safety or not. Technical failure is a reason, but aren't we relying on technical stuff all day without questioning it? Product safety should be guaranteed, and, the gear we are using all the time may also failure...

 

[peterbj7]

The issue is not just the fact of failure but its manner. Electronic devices commonly fail catastrophically, whereas there is usually some warning that a mechanical device is in process of failing. I have had as many mechanical gauges fail as electronic ones, but never have I been left "in the lurch" by such a mechanical failure.

 

[boulderjohn]

The issue is not just the fact of failure but its manner. Electronic devices commonly fail catastrophically, whereas there is usually some warning that a mechanical device is in process of failing. I have had as many mechanical gauges fail as electronic ones, but never have I been left "in the lurch" by such a mechanical failure.

I used to use a mechanical dive watch for pool instruction. On two different occasions I noticed that it was running and keeping accurate time, but somehow during the pool session it had lost time. One time it was about 10 minutes, and the other time it was close to 20. The obvious explanation was that it had stopped for that length of time and then started again.

That is a pretty serious error.

If a timing device fails during a dive and you see that it has failed and have no good backup, you abort the dive. If it fails and then starts again without your noticing it, you are potentially screwed. If it just starts slowing down, you are potentially screwed.

I guess I prefer a catastrophic failure to one I don't really notice.

 

[jeckyll]

I can't believe there are 13 pages on a thread about beeping computers being 'safety devices' in a forum called "Advanced Scuba Discussions".

No device will make up for experience. Nor will a device prevent becoming lax with procedures. And devices will often be used in the most non-thinking way possible. That doesn't make the device bad, but instead points out a fault in the users.

You just can't make something idiot proof, they'll just build a better idiot.

The big thing is to not turn off your brain.