Low Altitude Flying after diving (same day)

[smith007]

Are there acceptable limits for diving same day and flying low altitudes (i.e. inter-island 1,5 hour charter flight in PNG)?

DAN advice is 12 hours for single no-stop and 24 hours for multi-level no-stop dives (altitude 2,400m).

 

[pasley]

Others will have more informed advise to give. I will only tell you that 1,400 feet is enough to put you into some good pain with DCI. Been there done that. Now I wias already bent I am certain when I drove to the mountains at 1,400 feet elevation, but it was enough to remove any doubt about it. When I got back to sea level, I felt much better, and took two rides in the chamber.

 

[fan(t)a(s)tic]

You might want to check out this thread on driving to altitude after diving .

 

[petersk]

You might want to check out this thread on driving to altitude after diving .

As a note ( I read through the other thread ) and here in New Mexico (when diving in Santa Rosa) some people use a different approach.
They plan their altitude dive at Santa Rose (5000 ft) for the altitude that they'll be driving over to get home (for instance to Albuquerque, there's a 7000 ft pass). For instance, instead of using the theoretical depth for a 40ft dive for an altitude of 5000 ft, they would use an altitude of 7000 ft. Then, the idea is to wait until you're in pressure group "A" after that set of dives before returning over the pass. I don't think it's scientifically based, but I think that enough people have done it to prove it's a safe method.
Kurt

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

12 hours is the minimum wait, 18-24 hours is wise. Why push it? You want to wait an extra few hours or spend a day in a chamber?

That cabin is probably kept at a pressure of 5-7 thousand feet. You'll be bent.

 

[Wildcard]

A hop is prolly running at 8000 feet. Most small prop planes stay low. I live at 2500 feet and have to cross a pass at 2800. I just use altitude charts and dive conservativly and have had no problems....If you must, just plan your dive at 8000 feet.

 

[DandyDon]

12 hours is the minimum wait, 18-24 hours is wise. Why push it? You want to wait an extra few hours or spend a day in a chamber?

That cabin is probably kept at a pressure of 5-7 thousand feet. You'll be bent.

Have you looked this up in the NOAA Dive Manual? If Group C is the highest hit in the last 24 hours, there's no wait. Table D requires 3-1/2, etc. Next weekend, I'll dive Sunday morning, but help control my my Dive Group by using Nitrox, with a more shallow Equivalent Air Depth.

I think he was asking about a non-pressurized cabin for a plane that goes to 1,000 to 2,000 feet, though. That's well covered in the NOAA manual...

 

[KLD]

Altitude Divers

Here at Los Alamos National Laboratory, we have developed
a set of altitude diving protocols that are now also sanctioned
and adopted by the USN. Excursions in which the change in
altitude (not altitude itself) are less than 2000 ft have little
risk for air no-deco diving with waits of an hour or two.
And going from 5000 ft to 7000 ft after a single dive plays
like going from sea level to 2000 ft and is safer. Deco and multiple dives are also covered. All very safe.

Procedures are published in book called High Altitude Diving
from Best Publishing Company (Flagstaff) if you are
interested and parallels NOAA, Cross, NAUI, etc.

Pretty straight forward stuff using standard groups and
not rocket science. Plus info on gauge corrections,
air consumption corrections, buoyancy corrections at altitude.

Bruce Wienke
C & C Dive Team Ldr

Have you looked this up in the NOAA Dive Manual? If Group C is the highest hit in the last 24 hours, there's no wait. Table D requires 3-1/2, etc. Next weekend, I'll dive Sunday morning, but help control my my Dive Group by using Nitrox, with a more shallow Equivalent Air Depth.

I think he was asking about a non-pressurized cabin for a plane that goes to 1,000 to 2,000 feet, though. That's well covered in the NOAA manual...

 

[miketsp]

I always understood that the no-fly time is calculated taking into account the fact that the cabin is pressurised but that in the event of a loss of cabin pressure at an altitude of say 10000m+ then you would get an instant hit if you were still within the no-fly time.
I don't know what the current statistic is for loss of cabin pressure in commercial flights. I've had to grab an oxygen mask only twice in 34 years of regular business flights.

 

[KLD]

No flying time in a pressurized airliner assumes an "altitude
excursion" of 8000+ ft in case of depressurization. A flight
in a small plane without pressurization, drive over a pass,
flight in a hot air balloon, etc is called an altitude excursion,
and the LANL/USN procedures I mentioned above apply in all
cases. Low altitude excursions (less than 2000 ft) after a
no deco dive are pretty benign and short waits are known
to be OK (LANL and USN testing).

BW

I always understood that the no-fly time is calculated taking into account the fact that the cabin is pressurised but that in the event of a loss of cabin pressure at an altitude of say 10000m+ then you would get an instant hit if you were still within the no-fly time.
I don't know what the current statistic is for loss of cabin pressure in commercial flights. I've had to grab an oxygen mask only twice in 34 years of regular business flights.