No Fly Times

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Like most things scuba, it differs person to person. The best advise is to stick to the recommended time.

Absolutely, but the question who's recommended time? NOAA, PADI, DAN, Pelagic? They don't agree with each other.

 

[racerx_]

I have heard it said that if you get bent on an airplane, you were bent before you got on, which makes a lot of sense to me.

I remember reading an account of some research on time to fly, which indicated that technical divers could use SHORTER times to fly than recreational divers -- which has always made me wonder if the problem with flying after diving for a lot of folks is a combination of diving the wrong gas and using poor ascent procedures.

Interesting thoughts.. Been curious about the theory behind no fly time as a lot of my diving will be based around flying.. Never heard this perspective before but makes some sense and might account for the strange lack of concrete details around no fly times

 

[KY_BOB]

There is no restriction if your gain in altitude is 2,000 feet or less. Since airplanes are pressurized to about 7-8,000 feet, you can fly out of a place like Denver with less of a concern. Similarly, if you take a low altitude flight (say from Saba to Ste. Maarten), you are OK.

Thank you for bringing that up. I did that 2 weeks ago today. 3 dives, 2 hour SI, and flew back to St Maarten with a cruising altitude of 1700', flight time 12minutes. Some of my local buddies think that it was foolish.

 

[boulderjohn]

There is no restriction if your gain in altitude is 2,000 feet or less. Since airplanes are pressurized to about 7-8,000 feet, you can fly out of a place like Denver with less of a concern. Similarly, if you take a low altitude flight (say from Saba to Ste. Maarten), you are OK.

Thank you for bringing that up. I did that 2 weeks ago today. 3 dives, 2 hour SI, and flew back to St Maarten with a cruising altitude of 1700', flight time 12minutes. Some of my local buddies think that it was foolish.

That's the flight plan I was given when I booked my 3 dives on Saba as well. I sat in the row right behind the pilots on the return flight and watched the altimeter stay at 2,500 for most of the flight.

Oh, well.

 

[Thalassamania]

If memory serves the "critical" altitude is now 2,700 feet, though rate of climb is likely important too.

 

[ianr33]

I remember flying from Saba to St.Martin. Guy in the row behind asked me to request the pilot to keep it low as he had been on a night dive the evening before. I relayed the request to the pilot, who was about 2 feet in front of me. His reply: "No problem mon"

Good times.

 

[boulderjohn]

I think that in departing from Saba on the world's shortest runway, there is a factor that is not included in any of the tables.

The plane taxis to one end of the runway, and if you have a window seat, you look down at the waves crashing at the bottom of the cliff below you as the plane turns around to begin its takeoff. Then the plane slowly builds speed for the entire 1/4 mile of that runway. If you are seated directly behind the pilot and can look out the front, you realize there is no runway left to see, and you realize the wheels are still on the ground. You don't see the waves crashing at the bottom of the cliff below you, but you know they are there.

The plane dips a little, catches some air, and then takes off.

By then any bubbles in your body have been squeezed into submission.

 

[Jax]

Like most things scuba, it differs person to person. The best advise is to stick to the recommended time.

But isn't the question -- what are the recommended times?

These slides and such are interesting.

 

[Jax]

Sas, I think this is the report of research you are looking for.

Does anyone else have a link to this document?

My load of it failed.

 

[KY_BOB]

That's the flight plan I was given when I booked my 3 dives on Saba as well. I sat in the row right behind the pilots on the return flight and watched the altimeter stay at 2,500 for most of the flight.

Oh, well.

Hmmm, I also sat right behind the pilot on the return trip. We climbed to almost 2000' right after take-off but then settled down to 1700' for the rest of the trip. It was pretty fascinating to get to watch all of the instrumentation and the pilots doing their job.