Dan
Contributor
Then this recent DCI incident makes me concern about other issues besides just having enough surface interval: Heidi Uh Oh
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During the flight, in case of prolonged lost cabin pressure your 15ft foot dive because an extreme high altitude dive and may (hypothetically) get you bent. "
Going from a cabin pressure of 8,000ft to 32,000ft (or about that) will instantly bend everyone on the plane, divers or not.
The risk of flying after diving has nothing to do with loss of cabin pressure (which is exceptionally rare).
However the gas gradient on the surface breathing air is a VERY inefficient way of off-gassing. Thats why I treat all dives as deco dives and do a VERY slow ascent from 6m (20ft), I would rather off gas in the water than on the boat.
I have certainly done similar things many times, and for whatever it is worth, I'm still here.
Kind of depends on how long your flight is. On the hop from Little Cayman to Grand Cayman I wouldn't even think about it. If I was flying Sydney to London, that might make me a tad more cautious.
Off gassing is most efficient on the surface on a recreational dive.Agreed. It is to do with a fairly rapid ascent to 0.7 ATA (8000 ft cabin altitude). If there is a loss of pressure, the world of hurt grows exponentially.
What we often forget is that NDL doesn't REALLY mean "No" decompression. What it means is that we have a low-enough gas loading to finish deco on the surface (hence SIT and letter groups etc etc). However the gas gradient on the surface breathing air is a VERY inefficient way of off-gassing. Thats why I treat all dives as deco dives and do a VERY slow ascent from 6m (20ft), I would rather off gas in the water than on the boat.