Diving with nitrox then flying

[Esprise Me]

Four dives over two days to a max depth of 70 feet doesn't sound particularly aggressive, even on air; if diving that with Nitrox I personally wouldn't sweat having only the 18-hour minimum before flying. But I do agree that generally it makes sense to plan for a full day of no diving at the end of a trip, for extra conservatism as well as all the other reasons mentioned. My wetsuit usually isn't dry until after my no-fly time has elapsed, and it's hard enough for me to keep my luggage under the weight limit without bringing some of the ocean home.

 

[tursiops]

I don't understand what your point. All standards are by definition minimum.

Minimum....and only applicable in the best of cases. We have a friend who flies home to Denver.....not to sea level.

Also, the PADI/ DAN(U.S.) 18h standard is stated as for multi-day diving "or" multiple dives per day. It doesn't state "both."

And, DAN(Europe) is 24h.

I'd say 18h is a really minimum recommendation.

 

[boulderjohn]

We have a friend who flies home to Denver.....not to sea level.

Regardless of his destination, he flies in an aircraft pressured to roughly 7,000 feet altitude, which (as DAN explained to me) is the reason for the delay. What difference does it make if he later descends to 5,000 feet or sea level?

In response to a question about Homestead Crater in Utah (altitude 6,000 feet), DAN said that flying in a pressurized airplane cabin would be less than a 2,000 foot ascent, so there would not need to be any delay. However, driving from there to Denver would entail going over high mountain passes (depending upon the route), so a delay would be needed for driving.

 

[crofrog]

If you did 4 dives in a row with a 1hr service interval riding the very limit of the table on the navy tables you'd end up in group K, which requires a 12:33 hour surface interval before an ascent to 7000ft

 

[inquis]

Four dives over two days to a max depth of 70 feet doesn't sound particularly aggressive, even on air; if diving that with Nitrox I personally wouldn't sweat having only the 18-hour minimum before flying.

It appears you're suggesting nitrox is safer but it really depends. If one stays longer on nitrox, the risk may be comparable. It's not clear if gas or NDL times were the limiting factor.

(That said, vacation diving is typically limited by gas, especially when the policy is to surface as a group. In such cases, nitrox would indeed be lower risk.)

 

[Esprise Me]

I'm having a hard time imagining someone being limited by NDLs when doing two dives per day to 70 feet on 32%. Maybe if they were square profiles, and the diver had a good enough SAC rate (or big enough tanks) to last more than ~40 minutes at that depth (if I did the math right, you'd need an RMV of .5 or better to pull that off with an AL-80), and the surface interval was under an hour, the diver might possibly bump up against the NDL at the end of dive 2. But if any one of those things wasn't true, the diver would be limited by gas or some other factor.

 

[Centrals]

You can all agree/disagree until all the cows come home.
I make my own decision especially concerning my own well being so it is 24hrs. Period.

 

[rick00001967]

I don't understand what your point. All standards are by definition minimum.

hi john
my only point was to remind the readers (especially in a basic forum) that the time recommendations are the minimum amounts of time suggested to remain out of the water before flying.
it seems that often times today when people read minimum standards for anything they assume they can use that in any situation and everything will be just fine. this is simply not the case.
i may be different than some, but i try to avoid doing anything to a minimum standard and prefer to exceed it whenever possible.
to repeat.....i am sure that most people who are average vacation recreational divers can follow these minimum times and be just fine.
myself.....i have always taken at least 24 hrs for the reasons already mentioned.
interestingly enough i have also taught a few pilots and apparently they have a more strick policy to follow whether they were on a dive or even in the pool.

 

[boulderjohn]

Minimum....and only applicable in the best of cases. We have a friend who flies home to Denver.....not to sea level.

Also, the PADI/ DAN(U.S.) 18h standard is stated as for multi-day diving "or" multiple dives per day. It doesn't state "both."

And, DAN(Europe) is 24h.

I'd say 18h is a really minimum recommendation.

my only point was to remind the readers (especially in a basic forum) that the time recommendations are the minimum amounts of time suggested to remain out of the water before flying.

I just want to point out for those that say that DAN America's recommendation is the barest minimum that as crofrog points out, the US Navy recommendations are significantly less.

If you did 4 dives in a row with a 1hr service interval riding the very limit of the table on the navy tables you'd end up in group K, which requires a 12:33 hour surface interval before an ascent to 7000ft

 

[Jcp2]

A bent sailor can’t really sue the Navy for negligence. Also, they have good access to hyperbaric treatments.