Lake Washington -- the Harpoon 9/12/10

[TSandM]

Yes, Richard, I am out there diving and using my training, and not in Cove 2 So far, I'm not doing what AG told me to do, though, because I'm working hard to keep the water from handing my butt to me!

 

[rjack321]

there is thought that it might have been 'caught' by a downrigger or net or something and 'helped' in that sense, and just separated at a weak seam.

I hear that in the Great Lakes they alternatively use a length of chain as in theory it's even less harmful than a solid shot weight, but i have not tried it.

I have not tried a length of chain either. Seems like it would scratch paint to me and there is recognizable paint on most of the planes. So I'm not rushing out to change my current setup which is about 8 or 10lbs of soft lead in a cluster on the end of 300ft of 3/16" nylon line. I have to use our old ankle weights for something.

 

[Rainer]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like fun.

What was the average depth? Total deco (70'-surface)? Temp? And most importantly, any pictures?

 

[TSandM]

Average depth was 130. The profile was kind of strange, because we went up to look in the fuselage, and then back down to where I had tied off the spool, but I called it 130 in the water, and the profile looks that way when I review it off my Liquivision. (I tried to copy the graphic to insert here, but I'm too computer stupid to do it.)

The original plan was for 15 minutes of deco, but because of the sawtooth profile, and because we were a little slow getting off the bottom, I decided on 20 instead. So we did 2's up from 70 to 30, 6 at 20 and a slow ascent. And, rather unusually, that deco profile didn't make the VPM software happy (it usually tracks very nicely with RD). But we all felt fine.

 

[Rainer]

Sounds just fine. Where did VPM get mad? Leaving 20'?

How's the deco done in LW? Drifting?

The plane wrecks I've done (P-38, F4) have all been a lot smaller than this. Would love to do some a bit larger.

Edit: Actually, sounds like it's similar size to those.

 

[rjack321]

Sounds just fine. Where did VPM get mad? Leaving 20'?

How's the deco done in LW? Drifting?

The plane wrecks I've done (P-38, F4) have all been a lot smaller than this. Would love to do some a bit larger.

Edit: Actually, sounds like it's similar size to those.

Just come up the shot line at most there's a very very mild wind driven surface current in the shallows.

I'm guessing 6mins at 20 was "not enough" for VPM+2 on this profile.

Its bigger than an F4 or P38 but not by a whole lot. Its a side-by-side 2 seater bomber plane. I don't think it carried a huge bombload though, about 2x 500lb or something like that. The bomb bay doors are open and you can go inside that space but its about the size of a small walk-in closet. There's a pile of plane guts on the forward bulkhead IIRC (since its stuck in the mud on its nose).

 

[TSandM]

I run the VPM at +3, and it wanted one more minute at 10 feet.

The great thing about LW diving is no tides or significant currents to cope with. If the viz were better, I'd be in the lake all the time!

The big airplane is the bomber, the PB4-Y. I did that one about a month and a half ago. It's an easier wreck for me to dive, because it's on its wheels, so the structure makes sense.

 

[rjack321]

The great thing about LW diving is no tides or significant currents to cope with. If the viz were better, I'd be in the lake all the time!

Look at you go girl lol. No more tiny critter 2 hours at Alki Pipeline (28fsw) for you!

 

[BDub]

Look at you go girl lol. No more tiny critter 2 hours at Alki Pipeline (28fsw) for you!

Agreed. It's great to see you getting out and doing these dives Lynne!

 

[TSandM]

Oh, I still like the 2 hour tiny critter dives, and I'm sure I'll be back in 10 feet of water at Redondo this winter, hunting lumpsuckers. But I have to admit that planning Sunday's dive (scootering the Valiant) and agreeing that nobody wanted to get up real early to do it, was awfully nice

For those of you who don't know, BDub was the guy who taught the class I took to get trained to do these dives -- thank you, Brian!