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As everyone in the States knows, four members of the WKPP,
including the former Director, make their living working as engineeers
for the Navy for the MK 16 , its predecessors, and its successors,
prototypes, and other development, including thermal, vehicles, and
anything else to do with dive gear at Naval Systems. Others are involved
in other aspects of these projects at Navy and elsewhere, including the
fact that we are currently working with Naval Warfare on decompression
and IWR using our divers and their doctors.
The EX-19 , the model which most CCR/computer controlled wishful
thinkers try to copy, was developed by these same guys. This has been
going on for years before most of you ever heard of a CCR.
WE DO NOT CAVE DIVE WITH CCRS.
As everyone in the States knows we also work with Halcyon in its
rebreather development and have since its inception . In that process we
looked at and trained on all kinds of rebreathers, and were treated to
anyone and everyones rebreather input. We are NOT interested in manually
controlled electonic CCR's. This is the easiest to make for the shade
tree crowd, and there is one that I know of which is polished up and in
production, the "Desperation". Its record is self-explanatory.
Of the discrete circuit CCR's, the pre-16 stuff is the most common,
like the MK-15, MK 15.5, MK 10, and the Biomarine new versions of these
machines, but there is nothing new under that sun that we find here, and
the same old problems exist on these and their Big Brother, the MK-16. I
will not discuss those. Some computers are new, like Farb's ( as opposed
to one of the 19 copies which uses a seven year old Hamilton slo-mo
table ), but we do not use any computers in anything to do with
decompression or life support control. We do use them in the sonar, and
on the surface.
As everyone in the States knows, we know what we are doing, we have
the absolute best sources of information, and as everyone in the States
knows, John Rose is not only a diver who is capable of doing things most
divers will never understand, he has a PhD in applied mathmatics which
he currently uses ( and teaches), and Armentrout, who started diving
rebreathers before most other WKPP divers, is employed as an engineer,
as is Bill Mee and many other WKPP divers. Why do you think we can
develop and produce so much dive gear, like scooters, lights,
rebreathers, sonar mappers, and develop techniques for decompression and
major logistical dive planning feats without some serious expertise in
the woodpile? The fact is that nobody else can touch us in these
categories ( or in diving, scientific support, or equipment development
for that matter).
Since George taught our divers to use rebreathers , and continues to
provide an ongoing education with the help of Bill Mee ( a biomedical
engineer who has developed the modern equations for describing
rebreather behavior with respect to the human body in dynamic form),
Robert Carmichael and the rest of the crew ( who will remain anonomous),
I do not mind telling those who appear to have been born yesterday, like
the occasional misinformed detractor, and our serious enemies right here
at home, that we have "been there, done that", and don't need to visit
there repeatedly to understand why we do what we do, nor do we need to
discuss what we have long ago forgotton and discarded as nonsense ( like
CCRs in a cave and other "majic carpet" solutions). We have the
solutions to these challenges ( as in PAST TENSE ).
As John Rose has politely said, "show us your results, or shut up".
Ours are a matter of HISTORY, not supposition. There are two people
whose rebreather input shaped our final approach and caused us to jump
all over Jack Kellon's idea: Bill Gavin told us what not to do, and
Olivier Isler told us what he used to set his world records. We set most
of ours inadvertantly on open circuit, which tells us we can get out of
our rebreather record dives on open circuit, and the fact is we do not
need rebreathers, so that is why we use them. Figure that out, and you
will understand the WKPP.
What we are getting with our machines is a larger margin of safety ,
and more "dwell time" in remote areas where gas management on OC would
limit our investigative time. They also allow us to dive over the same
safeties repeatedly, and to build a dive without repeated setups, and to
jump from site to site as we need to conduct different objectives and
interlinking studies while leaving everything set up all of the time. We
can now do record dives in one day, anywhere in Leon Sinks. We have a
real use for this equipment, and we have a better understanding of it
than the crowd in the cheap seats who continues to throw peanuts at us.
Our divers were spending at much as one thousand dollars PER DIVER , PER
DIVE, until Robert Carmichael got the Halcyon in production. A typical
WKPP dive at Wakulla Springs represents about $37,500 of total expense (
ex shushi ), a number which we have reduced dramaticly in that last four
years.
We also have ALREADY DONE IT repeatedly for years, and we have
accumulated a wealth of knowledge on this and most other subjects, the
bulk of which is passed on in our training courses and within our
organization world-wide, our gear is sold world-wide, and is done so
willingly and with the intent of improving diving for everyone, and
thereby increasing its viability and longevity for the WKPP, and
guaranteeing the ability to SAFELY carry the scientific payload that is
our ticket to access.
The Woodville Karst Plain Project puts it ALL together with no
missing pieces or disjointed anomalies. We are tired of hearing from
those who see only one tiny piece of a giant puzzle. Take a look at the
whole picture.
--
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