pony on holiday

[MrMojo]

I am about to go on holiday to dive for a week and at present dive with a single and pony.As when i am abroad i hope to dive some wrecks which are at a depth 25-45 metres and was wondering if i should bring a redundant air source with me or hope i can hire one or just take a spare pair of regs.iI don,t want a dissusion over the value of ponies(done before) but if it is worth the weight allowance to slip a 3 litre in thee old dive bag.I know some of these dive resort guides/instructers are pretty fearless and only have there gas on for half the dive but i feel safer with a pony on my back.Just fancied peoples opions and no i can,t fit doubles in my siut case

Regards,

MAL..

 

[dc4bs]

There are some minor annoyances with taking gas cylinders on airplanes.

It can be done but the rule is that the valve should be removed from the tank. This is to guarantee there is no pressure in it and I assume to allow for visual inspection in case they think you're trying to smuggle something in it.

It's usualy MUCH easier to just bring your pony reg and rent the bottle at your destination (call ahead for availability).

If you do decide to take your own bottle with you, remove the valve, put it in a clean plastic bag and protect it (buble wrap works OK).

Put a piece of duct-tape over the top of the tank to prevent dirt/debris from getting in the tank (it's easy to temporarily peel back for inspectors as well).

Many shops at destinations will want you to pay for a visual inspection before they will fill the tank or for an O2 cleaning if it's for nitrox if they know it's been disassembled for travel.

My budy and I brought the valves in cary-on and put a pair of AL40 cylinder in checked baggage (wrapped in the wetsuit for padding in the suitcase) between New Jersey and Florida with no problems back in January this year. We had to as we couldn't guarantee deco bottle availablity for the trip otherwise.

I don't know if there are any additional rules you might have to worry about for international travel.

 

[SSIdiver02]

I would have to agree with dc4bs on this one.

 

[Jonathan]

my club in Croydon always take pony's with them - just empty and crack it in case customs want to have a peek inside (never have as far as I can remember....)

Jonathan