Scubapro Pilot

[EdTeach]

The Pilot is a work of art. The internals are stainless steel. It's a bit touchy in shallow water, but breathes like a dream in deeper water. I'm diving mine in Grand Cayman this week. The only thing I've dove that's close is the Air 1.

 

[AfterDark]

The Pilot is a work of art. The internals are stainless steel. It's a bit touchy in shallow water, but breathes like a dream in deeper water. I'm diving mine in Grand Cayman this week. The only thing I've dove that's close is the Air 1.

I picked up an AIR I a few years ago. I don't use because it's a spoiler! It breathes too easy. I put it on my pony bottle figuring if I need the pony I my also need a really easy breathing reg at that time too. I use 2 SP R109s as my regular setup. Anything that can out perform a R109 is rare.

 

[Mike Lev]

I have been told they are very hard to get serviced being a pilot. I do know they are very collectible. They sell in the $100 to $200 range on ebay most of the time.

 

[SwimJim]

Biggest POS I've ever worked on. Breathes great until it inadvertently shuts off. The ones on ebay were probably taken off cadavers.

 

[AfterDark]

I have been told they are very hard to get serviced being a pilot. I do know they are very collectible. They sell in the $100 to $200 range on ebay most of the time.

Years ago the tech that services my regs had a campaign going to remove as many Piolts as he could from service. He didn't like working on them and didn't trust them. He said he never had so many regs brought back so often for free flowing problems. The AIR I was a more robust reg of similar design.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The Pilot is a work of art. The internals are stainless steel. It's a bit touchy in shallow water, but breathes like a dream in deeper water. I'm diving mine in Grand Cayman this week. The only thing I've dove that's close is the Air 1.

Quite often the "chatter" you get in shallow water is due to the interference from your mouth piece and your teeth if you happen to have large front teeth. I have found that if I use a mouthpiece with thicker bite tabs that allow a larger gap between my teeth, the chatter issues is resolved.

The pilot moves a lot of air and is very sensitive, so things like that actually make a difference.

 

[halocline]

I have two converted ones and have been using them in favor of my other 2nd stages for a while. I'd love to find an original, but they are pricey.

I don't think the air 1 is any more robust; in fact the converted pilot is basically an air 1 in a pilot case. How the converted pilot compares to the original, unfortunately I don't know......:depressed:

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The Air 1 is a lot easier to tune and maintain and for practical diving purposes, you get probably 95% of what the Pilot delivers in terms of inhalation effort, but with the benefit of greater stability, no chatter, etc. Given that I don't plan on diving at 1800' I don't miss what the Air 1 does not have.

The Pilot and Air 1 are the only high performance second stages they have ever sold with left and right inlets and with the growth in side mount diving, regs that can quickly and easily be switched from left to right inlets by the user, will be in great demand. The Air 1 and Pilot qualify in that regard, but as far as I know, Scubapro has no plans for a high performance second stage with the ability to switch the inlet side.

 

[regulator bj]

Just a few pics to fan the thread

 

[EdTeach]

I have a number of Air 1's as well as the Pilot. I agree with DA Aquamaster that the Air 1 is very close in terms of performance. It is also serviceable by Scubapro with D-Series annual service kits. Though the diaphragms aren't available, you'll probably never need one. The only real drawback to the Air 1 is that it is a bit of a wet breather when you're fully inverted, for example, looking into a hole, or if you have a very strong current running from either side.