New DPV - Dive Xtras

[broncobowsher]

When you get your Blacktip and decide you really have to test it at home before you take it out. And you don't have access to a pool or even a hot tub what do you do? Start filling the bath tub. Quickly realizing there is no way the tub is deep enough for that prop and shroud, and if it was it would be the fastest way to flood the house. But you really want to see the prop turn with the load of water on it.

Stand it on its tail. Tub half full of water, little more than enough to cover the shroud. Click, click, boom.
With most of the Blacktip out of the water, just the prop wet. We have lift off. There is enough thrust to actually lift the scooter. Only got an inch or so and the shroud was blocking incoming water flow. Prop churning some air.

OK, this thing has some good power. Played with it a couple more times and backed it down to 1st gear and watched how much it churned the water. At this point if there is any scale to these gears, top gear is going to fly!

 

[NothingClever]

Played with it a couple more times and backed it down to 1st gear and watched how much it churned the water. At this point if there is any scale to these gears, top gear is going to fly!

I think you’ll be happy with the distinct scaling of the gears and it does fly even with twinset and leg pockets.

In Florida on the Atlantic side where you get some pretty good currents, I remember being above 4th gear more frequently, typically 5th and 6th. But here in my neck of the Red Sea, 3rd and 4th gear are the sweet spot for loooong scenic coral cruises. I don’t really use 7th or 8th gear.

 

[Whitrzac]

Played around with it for a couple hrs last night.
travel tube, 9ah packs, fresh water
Totally neutral with just the screws in the nosecone, no plates. Was a royal PIA to use, The moment I stopped, the nose shot up.
Put both plates back in and it behaves a lot better, but is negative by a decent amount.

 

[NothingClever]

Was a royal PIA to use, The moment I stopped, the nose shot up.
Put both plates back in and it behaves a lot better, but is negative by a decent amount.

Throw it behind you and between your legs.

Clear your workspace for the task at hand.

Take the fat plate out and use shot in the voids for custom weighting.

Kill the bad guys, get the girl, ride off into the sunset.

 

[laikabear]

I probably should have experimented with soapy water. But I did get this:

View attachment 610997

Is that 3M "Gloss Flip Psychedelic" color? Have you used it much yet? Does the wrap hold up well?

 

[pauldw]

Is that 3M "Gloss Flip Psychedelic" color? Have you used it much yet? Does the wrap hold up well?

It's actually satin. 3M 2080 Satin Flip Psychedelic, from Amazon (Rvinyl). And it isn't obvious, but the motor is wrapped in 3M 2080 Satin Flip Ghost Pearl. I don't have any experience in wrapping, and it took me two tries to get each wrap on. They weren't perfect wrap jobs, but I was satisfied. Just had to go a little at a time. Beware of using too much heat to soften a part of the wrap for conforming! Had mixed success with knifeless tape. I dove it for awhile and it appeared to stay on fine, although where I banged the scooter on a rock at entry, the wrap now has a wee ding. I've noticed that some people have wrap on their tubes that covers the main tube and one of the raised parts at the ends, but not at the other end. That's because the tube is a little under an inch too long for a 1' size wrap. You have to get a 2' if you want to hit every bit of it.

 

[NothingClever]

Or you can be a righteous nerd like me and put your BT’s key specifications on the fuselage
with a Sharpie.

 

[NothingClever]

Yesterday was an OC Trimix dive at Drop Off off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. After a pause at target depth to check current and take note of my reference point, I hooked a left and traversed a grand slope of coral scree at 55m for 24 minutes of BT with periodic massive coral pinnacles and ravines with a really huge drop off below me into the very inky blue at about 80m. Absolutely beautiful scenery with exceptionally good visibility.

While scootering along I wasn’t seeing much but the beautiful vista. I looked up to my left to see if I was missing anything and was rewarded with the largest school of trevallies (Jacks) I’ve ever seen. There was no way I could count them and I estimated there were probably 200 of them. I never knew they schooled in such large numbers since at recreational depths we only ever see them in packs of about 8-15. I continued scootering along and suddenly found myself flying through their school. I confirmed I was maintaining depth and wasn’t flying my scooter like a barnstormer (I wasn’t). It was surreal being surrounded by the trevallies and hard to tell if they came to eat me or adopt me.

I also saw an equally huge school of barracuda that we do see more often in the 30-40m range. Also saw a big potato cod about the size of a Florida grouper but he looked fit and healthy unlike the Florida groupers who are impressive in size but look like they are, well, full of worms. Two white tip sharks milling about in one of the ravines. TBH, they were sort of anti-climactic compared to the Jacks and barracudas.

AL40s are really hard to come by in Saudi Arabia. In spite of the noticeable drag of my AL80 deco tin, I covered a ton of ground with Dive Xtras’ little egg beater. The advantage in decreased consumption at 55m was so good I had to look twice at my SPG a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t misreading.

Trimix is CRAZY expensive here in Saudi Arabia so I was glad the dive went so well in terms of scenery and dive execution.

 

[NothingClever]

 

[NothingClever]

Pretty soon I’ll have a new Sadowski Special mounted on my BlackTip. I upgraded to the v2.0 mount that holds a compass and a GoPro.

I’m pretty tame when it comes to flair but I did order an Enzo red mount. I think it’s going to look pretty bad a$$.