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>Hi there...after re-reading the <incident report> concerning Sheck
>Exley's accident in Zacaton I have a question...especially directly to
>anyone who is associated with Jim Bowden's "Deep dive project" which may
>be breaking records as we speak from what I understand...One of the
>major "mechanical" problems seemed to center on buoyancy...arresting
>descent by inflating the BC with bottom mix many have compromised gas
>management guidelines. And Sheck seems to have had a catastrophic
>problem attaining positive buoyancy at all... Now, I am writing this
>on-line so forgive me over simplifying, but the tanks holding the
>bottom mix become useless once maximum depth is attained. Why not side
>mount the bottom mix and dump the tanks for ascent...or one of them at
>least.
>
>There are many other questions, like what are the tanks made from,
>steel, composite, and how negative, positive are they filled and
>exhaused...but the question is, why not dump the extra weight?
>
>There may be a simple answer but the only arguements against
>jetisoning at least part of that extra load that I can work out, do not
>seem to be strong enough...Task loading is the unknown for most of us I
>guess since few know what it's like to be at 888 plus feet! Anyhow, if
>anyone has a thought, please let me know.
>
I spoke with Jim this week about your posting. It's the first time I've seen
him since his last trip to Mexico in March. He said he considered dumping
weights, dumping tanks, and several other possible options, but was
ultimately influenced by Sheck. Apparently Sheck had very good results using
the methods they used. Unfortunately, it appears that both had some
unforseen problems, which tainted their processes.
Jim didn't give me a written explaination like I had asked, but he said he
would be glad to take a letter from you (and others) as long as they're
"serious." He will answer the questions to his best abilities, and hopefully
answer some more of your questions. Just let him know that you are the
person whose email I asked him to comment on, and include a general
description of the original posting to help him remember. You can contact
him at:
Jim Bowden
PO Box 49461
Austin, TX 78765
Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carl W. Meilahn Snail Mail:
NAUI Instr. # 14470 1510 W. Northloop Blvd. #914
NSS/CDS Full Cave Diver Austin, TX 75786-2030
IANTD EANx, EANx Cave Diver USA
cmeilahn@cc*.cc*.ut*.ed* Phone:
cmeilahn@cs*.ut*.ed* H: 512.467.1861
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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