Andrea Doria Divers

[mempilot]

mempilot,
Regarding your quest for the Doria, she is not going anywhere skills and training are everything for this kind of diving, take it slow put the time in and slowly work your way up to it, the more comfortable you are with your skills and enviroment the better your dive will be, 250' is still a long way up.

Chris

I agree with you 100%. I've been doing progressively harder dives over the last year. I'm still two years out based on my schedule, but this schedule is not set in stone either. As a pilot, I train, train, train. As a diver, I do the same. I'm a checklist guy. We do memory item drills in the simulator for immediate emergency response in the aircraft. I'm working on the same set of standards with my diving. We're trained to stay calm in the aircraft. I've actually had to deal with some interesting situations over the years. I know I'll have to deal with situations underwater that can create panic. I go into this prepared, just like when I strap in the cockpit. I actually used to be an instructor, civilian and military(aviation). It was interesting to note who you thought would handle an emergency and who you thought would bag it. All you could do was train to best ability and let your instincts take you the rest of the way.

 

[TechBlue]

Right on on that one! Reflex and instinct is what does it and the only way to get that ingrained is training and drills. Are you drysuit diving? Come on over anytime you're in this neck of the woods and we'll get you out on some of our wrecks.

 

[NEWreckDiver]

I agree with you 100%. I've been doing progressively harder dives over the last year. I'm still two years out based on my schedule, but this schedule is not set in stone either. As a pilot, I train, train, train. As a diver, I do the same. I'm a checklist guy. We do memory item drills in the simulator for immediate emergency response in the aircraft. I'm working on the same set of standards with my diving. We're trained to stay calm in the aircraft. I've actually had to deal with some interesting situations over the years. I know I'll have to deal with situations underwater that can create panic. I go into this prepared, just like when I strap in the cockpit. I actually used to be an instructor, civilian and military(aviation). It was interesting to note who you thought would handle an emergency and who you thought would bag it. All you could do was train to best ability and let your instincts take you the rest of the way.

Good Man, Whenever you are in the area look me up and we will get you out on some great sites.

 

[mempilot]

Thanks for the invite guys! I am diving dry as of this fall. I'm diving the Zeagle Expedition GS for now. I'm still getting used to it.

I flew a trip in to Newark today. I landed as the sun was setting and the ocean was calling me! I wanted to stay and dive! Alas, I had to take the plane back to the Hub else I be convicted of grand larsony. I may get furloughed this spring while the airline does some reorganization. I may just have to come spend some time up there and do some of your wrecks. I'll keep in touch.

 

[TechBlue]

No problem, I'm 20min away from Newark, just let me know.

Chris

 

[puddlejumper1]

I didn't mean to strike a nerve with anyone. I understand ships are lost every year at sea. My condolences to all who have known those victims.

I'm speaking of the 'ladies' of the sea, large cruise liners with some historical significance. The likes of the Titanic, Britanic, Andrea Doria, Edmund Fitzgerald, etc...

Your a pilot right. Aircraft accidents have dropped off to next to nothing with the advent of all that wonderful technology? Redundant question that we know the answer to. Ship wrecks outside of the great lakes do not last long. But I would not be a fearin my hearty of a lost boon (sorry just got done watching Treasure Island with my son). The plight of the Prestige off of the Spanish coast recently gives testimony to that. Keep in mind that as far as diveable ships go there were few in the category of the Doria at all even in the early "unsafe" years. The ships commonly referenced did all not sink with in a few years of each other. We have been enjoying the benefits of diving over several hundred years of nautical history. Rome and the underwater graveyards were not built in a day! So relax, sadly the tragedy of the sea will keep us in wrecks well into the next hundred years.

BTW - Anyone remember the name of that car hauler that sank last year somewhere over in Europe. I think she was carrying BMW's and the like.

 

[nyresq]

yea, aircraft accidents have dropped off, but if you're in a boat and your motor stalls, you can take a few minutes to work on it, how ever aircraft don't do such a good job with that situation. On the other hand if you're in a plane and the weather gets crappy, you just fly above it... boats may or may not be able to manuever around a storm, I think mother nature from now on will be making any new shipwrecks as opposed to human mistakes. And with the new technologies available to salvage teams most wrecks will be pulled up from divable depths.

 

[mempilot]

On the other hand if you're in a plane and the weather gets crappy, you just fly above it...

We have to penetrate or circumnavigate crappy weather all the time. If we can't, the flight gets bagged. Most airliners fly between 31,000 and 39,000 feet over the contiguous US. Many thunderstorms easily top 40,000 feet in the summer and sometimes tower as high as 60,000. And that's after the climb out. Then there's the descent through the crap to shoot the approach. The closer we get to the airport, say within 100 miles, we fly STARs or Standard Terminal Arrival Routes. These highways in the sky make it tough to circumnavigate very far due to other airtraffic. It gets kind of crazy about 3-4 times a year for each pilot, since airborne wx radar attenuates - shadowing what's to come. Ground based dopplar radar isn't available to us in the cockpit(it's becoming avail. to general aviation). Once airborne, we're on our own for the most part. We do get major activity udates from ATC and Dispatch, but they can't provide exact info. Makes for a bad day of flying! That being said, give me thunderstorms anyday over windshear or clear air turbulance! That's the stuff you can't see or predict!

But like diving, a bad day of flying is still better than a good day in a cube!

PS. As a side note, I took 2 lightning strikes and 9 bird strikes in '03. That's probably on par with most airline pilots. In '03, I also had one engine failure after takeoff out of Knoxville, TN, and had to shut one engine down due to excesive vibration, probably due to an unseen/heard bird ingestion. I like redundancy, both in flying and diving! Happy New Year everyone!

 

[flw]

Hmm, I've just re read this, I wus definitely grumpy yesterday , didn't mean to sound like so off- had hardly any sleep cos we had a bit of weather over the New Year - 100mph winds and heavy rain - the power lines all came down, and somehow our drains have given way as well - yuk - been learning roofing this afternoon putting the slates back on

 

[mempilot]

No prob flw,

Sounds like you have your hands full. Hope your new year gets going with a little more luck!

Good luck,

Mem