mk-ultra
Registered
I'm a relatively inexperienced diver, with a little over 100 dives at this point.
That said, I'm a pretty experienced airline transport pilot, flight instructor, and FAA accident prevention counselor. I've seen a lot of things that do and don't work, both in training and during operations. While scuba and flying are very different disciplines, there is a heck of a lot of cross-over between the two. I think both communities can learn a lot from each other.
One of the first things that surprised me during my initial OW training was how there was little (actually, NO) mention of real-world accidents and incidents. There was some basic "if this happens, do this" training, but students weren't really made aware of how accident chains occur. There was a lot of rote training (which, admittedly is critical in diving), but almost no training in HOW divers get into trouble. Given that the consequences of poor decision making can result in death, even more quickly than in aviation, I found this puzzling.
In teaching my pilot candidates, I always try to use a real accident/incident to illustrate how things can go wrong, and then step them through all the factors that lead up to it. During the process, they get to examine the points in the accident chain where better decisions could have been made. After a few of these exercises, they quickly learn how "small" mistakes (like failure to complete a checklist item, misreading units, miscalculating something, poor planning, flying beyond their training) can quickly snowball into a genuine emergency. Most all of the accidents/incidents I've read about on here fall into similar categories.
I scratch my head trying to figure out why real-world accidents aren't held up as examples to help students learn better decision making. Is it because certification organizations feel it might scare off new divers? Is there just not enough time in the training curriculum to do this? I sure haven't seen it scare off new pilots. To the contrary, the students I've had seem to appreciate it.
The other thing I think would be VERY good for recreational diving is the use of a formalized checklist and briefing system. This could be as simple as a few laminated index sized cards you keep with your gear... concentrating on pre-dive planning and equipment checks.
Obviously, a checklist isn't something you're going to use underwater during an OOA emergency or anything else that requires immediate action from memory. Aviation checklists take this into account too -- you always have "memory items" for an emergency, and then once things are under control you refer back to a checklist to make sure you didn't miss anything. The "non-memory" items for a diving checklist could cover subjects like what to look for in a diver that's made an emergency ascent, yadda.
Checklists aren't a panacea, nor are they meant to replace good planning and critical thinking -- but they're damn useful and help prevent accidents. Beyond that, they're a good teaching tool. If, every time you dive, you formally run through all of the dive planning items and gear checks with you and your buddy, you'll very quickly have a grasp of things you should be thinking about prior to stepping off the boat EVERY time. Always using a checklist drills these critical items into your head and habituates you toward safety.
Rigorously demanding you use a checklist EVERY time also helps to prevent the sort of accidents that occur when you're feeling rushed or just simply not 100% on the ball at the moment. They force you to slow down and think about what you're doing, before you do it.
It just blows my mind when I read about experienced divers doing something like submerging without having looked at their SPG, or a boat captain motoring off without all the divers on board. Same goes for divers who hop off the boat without at least taking a stab at calculating at what pressure they're going to begin their ascent -- and factoring into the calculation that they may have to share air with their buddy if something goes south during the dive.
It's not like this sort of formality would be a huge burden. We're only talking about, maybe, five minutes work top-side to do this in an exacting way for recreational diving. From what I've seen, all certifying agencies teach that you should do checks, buddy checks, and "brief" the dive, but they don't really give students the tools to do it right, each and every time.
That said, I'm a pretty experienced airline transport pilot, flight instructor, and FAA accident prevention counselor. I've seen a lot of things that do and don't work, both in training and during operations. While scuba and flying are very different disciplines, there is a heck of a lot of cross-over between the two. I think both communities can learn a lot from each other.
One of the first things that surprised me during my initial OW training was how there was little (actually, NO) mention of real-world accidents and incidents. There was some basic "if this happens, do this" training, but students weren't really made aware of how accident chains occur. There was a lot of rote training (which, admittedly is critical in diving), but almost no training in HOW divers get into trouble. Given that the consequences of poor decision making can result in death, even more quickly than in aviation, I found this puzzling.
In teaching my pilot candidates, I always try to use a real accident/incident to illustrate how things can go wrong, and then step them through all the factors that lead up to it. During the process, they get to examine the points in the accident chain where better decisions could have been made. After a few of these exercises, they quickly learn how "small" mistakes (like failure to complete a checklist item, misreading units, miscalculating something, poor planning, flying beyond their training) can quickly snowball into a genuine emergency. Most all of the accidents/incidents I've read about on here fall into similar categories.
I scratch my head trying to figure out why real-world accidents aren't held up as examples to help students learn better decision making. Is it because certification organizations feel it might scare off new divers? Is there just not enough time in the training curriculum to do this? I sure haven't seen it scare off new pilots. To the contrary, the students I've had seem to appreciate it.
The other thing I think would be VERY good for recreational diving is the use of a formalized checklist and briefing system. This could be as simple as a few laminated index sized cards you keep with your gear... concentrating on pre-dive planning and equipment checks.
Obviously, a checklist isn't something you're going to use underwater during an OOA emergency or anything else that requires immediate action from memory. Aviation checklists take this into account too -- you always have "memory items" for an emergency, and then once things are under control you refer back to a checklist to make sure you didn't miss anything. The "non-memory" items for a diving checklist could cover subjects like what to look for in a diver that's made an emergency ascent, yadda.
Checklists aren't a panacea, nor are they meant to replace good planning and critical thinking -- but they're damn useful and help prevent accidents. Beyond that, they're a good teaching tool. If, every time you dive, you formally run through all of the dive planning items and gear checks with you and your buddy, you'll very quickly have a grasp of things you should be thinking about prior to stepping off the boat EVERY time. Always using a checklist drills these critical items into your head and habituates you toward safety.
Rigorously demanding you use a checklist EVERY time also helps to prevent the sort of accidents that occur when you're feeling rushed or just simply not 100% on the ball at the moment. They force you to slow down and think about what you're doing, before you do it.
It just blows my mind when I read about experienced divers doing something like submerging without having looked at their SPG, or a boat captain motoring off without all the divers on board. Same goes for divers who hop off the boat without at least taking a stab at calculating at what pressure they're going to begin their ascent -- and factoring into the calculation that they may have to share air with their buddy if something goes south during the dive.
It's not like this sort of formality would be a huge burden. We're only talking about, maybe, five minutes work top-side to do this in an exacting way for recreational diving. From what I've seen, all certifying agencies teach that you should do checks, buddy checks, and "brief" the dive, but they don't really give students the tools to do it right, each and every time.
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