Aviation and Diving

[notabob]

Okay, per flyingsherpa's suggestion in a recent thread, I'm starting a new one that deals with these two fascinating activities. After all, both involve propelling yourself through liquid, technically speaking. One just happens to be a little more dense . So how many of you out there are pilots? Did your pilot training help make you a better diver? There are many parallels that can be drawn between these two - similar philosophies on training, dealing with potential emergencies, risk asessment, preparation, your views on safety... I'm sure there are many others, feel free to bring anything else up that you feel is appropriate. So, to move things out of the other thread, I'll start.

Did being a pilot in any way affect your preparedness for a dive? Did your philosophies change? Are you now more aware of the potential problems that can occur in diving and did you learn to accept the possibility of that happening to you? Are you always on the lookout for new information about experiences that others have dealt with which can allow you learn from their mistakes and be better prepared if something similar ever happens to you?

I'm not exactly sure where I want to take this thread; if we want to concentrate on just that one aspect that is common to both activities or the multitude of parallels between the two. Let's just see where this goes for now.

-Roman.

 

[dc4bs]

I'm not a pilot but I have been through ground school and have flown with instructors a few times (never soloed).

Yes, I see many similarities between flying and diving.

Constant awareness of altitude/depth, fuel/breathing gas, pre-flight/pre-dive safety checks, ensuring proper weight and balance of equipment/gear/cargo/etc. before beginning the flight/dive.

There's even a case to be made for VFR versus IFR while underwater... Diving in the Caymans for example, would generaly be classed as VFR(VDR?) while the New Jersy Shore is more often IFR(IDR?). They require diferent sets of skills and different levels of training to handle safely/properly.

As newer model dive computers emerge, they are taking on more and more similarities to 'black boxes' on aircraft as well.

I could fill several pages with this stuff but I'll leave it to the experianced pilots and more experianced divers to come up with.

 

[notabob]

VDR/IDR... I like that! Hmm... before you know it, PADI will probably have an IDR course... Just imagine, install a few beacons in the water, jump in, swim out direct to the 1st one, and navigate the... diveways(?) around a wreck, all while wearing a fogged up mask with little openings that only allow you to see your gauges

-Roman.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Flying and diving have been a part of my life since the sixties... got my CFI in '67 & spent a career in the Navy as a Carrier aviator. Certainly flying has had a significant impact on my diving, from training techniques to what's important and what's frivolous in standardization to emergency procedures to safety attitudes to planning to teamwork within a dive team - even to the enjoyment of every minute cruising underwater.
I'd be hard pressed to express the parallels and the transfer of information and attitudes between the two in less than several pages... so I'll just say that the influence is profound.
Rick

 

[dakotadog42]

I have to agree with Rick I have been a pilot and flight instructor for many years. FWIW I have always found that people with boating/diving experience tend to be bettert students as they understand the effects of wind/current on an object

Diving and flying are both inherently dangerous, but the diver or pilot can often set the level of risk invoilved based on preparedness, training and good decision making.

-You are in a medium where you have no business being
-You are dependent on equipment
-If you get in trouble you are often completely self-reliant to resolve the issue
- Visibilty can go bad in seconds
- Nothing in either situation will kill you IMMEDIATELY, bit both offer situations where you must act quickly in a deliberate manner to prevent death or further complications
- There are often smarta$$ holier than thou's in both professions that attempt to tell you that you are wrong and only their way is right
- There are often unprepared risk takers in both that the thought of diving or flying with will make you scared to your toes

Just a few that come to mind - be glad as divers we don't have an equivilent to the FAA

Some other similarities:

Blue water Navy truism; There are more planes in the ocean than there are submarines in the sky.

Never trade luck for skill.

The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation
are:
"Why is it doing that?", "Where are we?" and "Oh S#!+!"

Weather forecasts are horoscopes with numbers.

Flashlights are tubular metal containers kept in a flight bag for the
purpose of storing dead batteries.

When a flight is proceeding incredibly well, something was forgotten.

You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3. (Paul F.
Crickmore - (test pilot)

Never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver than you.

Basic Flying Rules
1. Try to stay in the middle of the air.
2. Do not go near the edges of it.
3. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there.

 

[Soggy]

notabob once bubbled...
After all, both involve propelling yourself through liquid, technically speaking. One just happens to be a little more dense .

Perhaps I'm a bit thick today, but how is air a liquid? Yeah, it's governed by the rules of fluid dynamics, but it seems that calling air a liquid is like calling concrete a liquid.

 

[Rick Murchison]

AaronBBrown once bubbled...


Perhaps I'm a bit thick today, but how is air a liquid? Yeah, it's governed by the rules of fluid dynamics, but it seems that calling air a liquid is like calling concrete a liquid.

No, no.... glass is a liquid... concrete is ... well, if it's uncured it's liquid, but once cured it's solid.... I think...
----------------
I think he meant "fluid" rather than liquid, don't you?
Rick

 

[Soggy]

Rick Murchison once bubbled...

No, no.... glass is a liquid... concrete is ... well, if it's uncured it's liquid, but once cured it's solid.... I think...
----------------
I think he meant "fluid" rather than liquid, don't you?
Rick

Yes, glass is a liquid...Air is a gas

Now I'm all confused

 

[Starfish]

I have been trained as an "Observer" meaning that I can do everything but actually fly the plane. My husband is a pilot.

He trained as a diver before he became a pilot, but did so in Florida waters in which VFR only applied. I trained in a murky lake, the equivalent of IFR, way before I ever became VFR. Guess who is the better underwater navigator? Our Instructor assumed it would be the pilot, and he guessed wrong.

My husband has been a pilot for almost 20 years (VFR, IFR and also and A&P) and seems to apply his pilot skills to anything having to do with navigation (driving, direction giving, etc.).

He and I both use "situational awareness" to make our live safer while driving, flying, etc. and have avoided being in more accidents in the cities because of this.

Both of use have Medic First Aid training and have been involved in saving lives because of it.

Is he a better diver because he is a pilot? Am I a better diver because I'm an Observer? Maybe to both questions.

I think it has more to do with the "mentality" of a diver. Most "civilians" will hop into a plane and want to fly it with little or no training. No one I have encountered wants to hop into the water and assume they know how to dive.

 

[notabob]

Rick Murchison once bubbled...

No, no.... glass is a liquid... concrete is ... well, if it's uncured it's liquid, but once cured it's solid.... I think...
----------------
I think he meant "fluid" rather than liquid, don't you?
Rick

Fluid, yes. Thanks for the correction, Rick. Air and water are fluid in nature. Air is a gas, water is a liquid. You all knew what I meant... Roman had a brain fart. He is all better now. (Or so he thinks ).

-Roman.