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On Sun, 11 Feb 1996 tjm@ea*.ne* wrote: There is no connection between the between the skills needed to fly fighter aircraft and diving a rebreather. If you own a rebreather, then you must be able to dissassemble the unit, reassemble it, repair it, understand it and dive it. If your desire is to recreationally dive a unit and not own one then you need to rent a Fieno or the RBC Odessey which are devices that will extend your gas supply for longer dives (45 minutes for Fieno; whatever for the RBC) and not require the level of competency needed for more complex rebreathers such as closed circuit units. But to suggest that a unit need lock up if you haven't used it in a period of time or lock up until it is returned to the manufacturer for periodic refurbishing is totally ludicrous. It means that you really don't own the unit (I'm talking the CisLunar) for the $15K you've spent for it and the $3K for training. For me, that is totally unacceptable. Even life support equipment in hospitals is not done in this fashion. In North Carolina, if your car doesn't pass required annual inspection, it doesn't lock up on you. You just don't get the sticker for your windshield. You can still drive the car but risk a ticket or mechanical failure. If your scuba tank doesn't have a current hydro sticker it doesn't lock up and become unusable. Or your regulator, or your dive computer. Rebreathers are essentially no different. Perhaps requiring that a potential rebreather owner know the mechanical and electronic workings of the unit they intend to purchase and demonstrate that competency before they purchase ought to be a requirement. Perhaps if you can't take it apart and put it back together in working order, make a malfunction diagnosis and fix the problem with spare parts or whatever, you shouldn't be allowed to buy the rebreather. I'm not even sure that would work. You aren't required to have that kind of knowledge for driving a car, flying a plane or running a locomotive. About the best that you can do is to offer a good unit, offer competent training and if an individual passes the training, he gets the unit. The end. What happens after that is the owner's business. Let Darwinian evolution work. Because rebreathers are new technology in recreational diving does not mean that Draconian measures need be installed to protect people from themselves. Become educated about rebreathers and use one regularly and most of your fears will go away and those that remain can be easily dealt with. Rod > Rick, > > I'm not quite sure why I have been flamed. I simply noted that a > rebreather manufacturer has a program in place to provide refresher > training. I spent ten years flying fighters for the military and we > often spent time refreshing emergency proceedures in both simulators and > the aircraft. A rebreather, like a modern fighter, has many complex > systems, refresher training and proceedure updating should be a part of > any ownership program. > > As for Big Brother, well, anyone stupid enough to violate their rather > liberal dive interval standards deserves to have his/her computer shut > down. > > If I'm missing something, or posted a comment that is out of place, > please kindly respond in such a way that I might understand your > critisism. > > Thanks and Safe Diving [\], > > T.J. McCann > tjm@ea*.ne* >
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