Pony Bottle

[DeepBound]

Consider whether in an OOA situation at 100ft, you plan to immediately begin a direct free ascent to the surface.

Assuming SAC of 1cf/min, and a safety stop, ascending at 30ft/min, you should only use about 13cf of air.

Currents or boat traffic might make a direct ascent dangerous, and depending on the viz and your comfort, it might be hard to make a graceful ascent and hold a safety stop without a line.

More likely you would prefer, if possible, to swim back to the line and make your ascent there. So, what's the longest that would reasonably take you? You have 6cf or less extra in the 19cf pony to use to get to that upline, which translates to only about 90 seconds.

 

[95yj]

I agree that you should really think about how much emergency air you have when planning your dive or choosing which bottle to take on the dive. But if I'm OOA, I'm going to head up first and look for the line around my safety stop. That means according to your calculations the 6cu of air I have will last four minutes and not 90 seconds. Conditions might make it difficult to do this, but if conditions don't permit, I'm not diving to 100' with a 19' bottle. All in all, it comes down to running the numbers and figuring what dive you can do with what bottle. For most of my solos, I'm hardly ever deeper than 60'.

 

[UP4AIR]

UP4AIR does that arm belong to you under the Tatoo in your Avitar ??

Scuba~ Snake ~ Dive Flag Hey I like it ...Not Bad !

LOL!! Yea it's my arm. But //Scuba~EEEEEL~Dive Flag

Thanks for the compliment

 

[Vassilis Vlachopoulos]

Hello solodivers, greetings from Greece

Re pony bottles, here is something I tried, with little, however, success.
1. Poor balance, it was constantly "hanging" to the left and I had to "support" it.
2. Wrong clips. Very difficult to clip and -especially- to unclip, if there was an emergency.
In addition I had to swim some 100 meters before starting the dive (which was a 90 min dive !)

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/data/533/medium/StageBottle.JPG

 

[grazie42]

Vassilis, welcome to scubaboard!

Most people prefer to use an aluminium bottle as a stage instead of the steel one it looks like you are using in the pic, to avoid your problem (1)...

 

[Timeliner]

Hello solodivers, greetings from Greece

Re pony bottles, here is something I tried, with little, however, success.
1. Poor balance, it was constantly "hanging" to the left and I had to "support" it.
2. Wrong clips. Very difficult to clip and -especially- to unclip, if there was an emergency.
In addition I had to swim some 100 meters before starting the dive (which was a 90 min dive !)

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/data/533/medium/StageBottle.JPG

Hey like grazie42 said, "welcome to Solo Forum @SB !"
I've seen some people mount bottles like that except they were much smaller.. like a AL19. Man ...I bet the one you had mounted like that was a workout
They are not very streamlined that way but I guess you know that by now.
Thanks for sharing your story ! Some folks only tell us things when they work perfectly. We sure like to hear what works and more important...
"What does not Work".

 

[TomP]

Hello solodivers, greetings from Greece

Re pony bottles, here is something I tried, with little, however, success.
1. Poor balance, it was constantly "hanging" to the left and I had to "support" it.
2. Wrong clips. Very difficult to clip and -especially- to unclip, if there was an emergency.
In addition I had to swim some 100 meters before starting the dive (which was a 90 min dive !)

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/data/533/medium/StageBottle.JPG

I'll add my voice to the welcoming committee. That's a big bottle you've got there. If you're dive plan includes using that as part of your primary supply you may want to consider doubles with an isolator manifold. If not you may want to trade that tank for something smaller.

 

[grazie42]

I think its an 8l, 300Bar, steel bottle (propably the same as the primary tank)...
I have one of those, it weighs something like 36lbs...I don´t consider it an "ideal" stage bottle...

 

[Vassilis Vlachopoulos]

I think its an 8l, 300Bar, steel bottle (propably the same as the primary tank)...
I have one of those, it weighs something like 36lbs...I don´t consider it an "ideal" stage bottle...

Thank you all for the welcome

Actually, it's not that "big". It is a 5 litre (I think it is called a "30" in other posts). 232 bar, steel indeed.
In average, it provides around 20 min breathing time in 10m - 33ft, which is rather good for recreational dives.

Since I now have this bottle, I am willing to try some more combinations regarding the pony setup (diagonal in front of the chest, under left arm etc.) and I will share my experience.

V

 

[Mike Edmonston]

Hello solodivers, greetings from Greece

Re pony bottles, here is something I tried, with little, however, success.
1. Poor balance, it was constantly "hanging" to the left and I had to "support" it.
2. Wrong clips. Very difficult to clip and -especially- to unclip, if there was an emergency.
In addition I had to swim some 100 meters before starting the dive (which was a 90 min dive !)

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/data/533/medium/StageBottle.JPG

I have used a bottle hung like that in the past as travel gas on deeper dives. Once at depth, I switch to my slung stage and clip this bottle off to the anchor line or the wreck. When I reach thirds on my stage, I switch to backgas. Once I turn the dive, I clip that bottle back on and use it until I hit DECO. Good for travel gas, not optimal as a pony.

Cheers.

Mike