billindenver
Contributor
- Messages
- 447
- Reaction score
- 16
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
Hello ScubaFanatics,
I am not comfortable leaving my life in the hands of others very often. I am very much the do it myself sort and would like to maintain our Oceanic CDX5/GT-3's myself if at all possible. My problem is I am not certain where I would acquire the necessary knowledge to do so safely.
A little info on me would probably be helpful here. I am an engineer by education, general contractor (commercial builder) by trade. The marines taught me how to maintain and fix air defense missile systems (radars and launchers) at 18. After that I spent a couple years doing research and development for chrysler corporation on new car lines. Then college. Currently I built, race and maintain my GT-3 racecar, and both track and street motorcycles. I am almost finished building my second RV-4 (aerobatic airplane) which I built the entire airframe as well as the engine. No mechanic has seen anything I own for something like 20 years unless it was a warranty issue I didn't want to deal with. My point being, I have a mechanical background and education enough to put my safety into my own hands without fear. In skydiving I couldn't stand paying someone else to pack my reserve chute every 90 days so I went and got my FAA rigging license so I could do it myself. I guess I just can't let someone else look down their nose at me, tell me it will be two weeks before they can get to my 30 minute job and expect me to thank them for it.
So, surely there are tech manuals available for these things that allow us to maintain our own regs....where does one find such knowledge and please feel free to tell me if there is something about these that really makes it unadvisable to work on them ourselves. You won't hurt my feelings...though you may not convince me either.
I am not comfortable leaving my life in the hands of others very often. I am very much the do it myself sort and would like to maintain our Oceanic CDX5/GT-3's myself if at all possible. My problem is I am not certain where I would acquire the necessary knowledge to do so safely.
A little info on me would probably be helpful here. I am an engineer by education, general contractor (commercial builder) by trade. The marines taught me how to maintain and fix air defense missile systems (radars and launchers) at 18. After that I spent a couple years doing research and development for chrysler corporation on new car lines. Then college. Currently I built, race and maintain my GT-3 racecar, and both track and street motorcycles. I am almost finished building my second RV-4 (aerobatic airplane) which I built the entire airframe as well as the engine. No mechanic has seen anything I own for something like 20 years unless it was a warranty issue I didn't want to deal with. My point being, I have a mechanical background and education enough to put my safety into my own hands without fear. In skydiving I couldn't stand paying someone else to pack my reserve chute every 90 days so I went and got my FAA rigging license so I could do it myself. I guess I just can't let someone else look down their nose at me, tell me it will be two weeks before they can get to my 30 minute job and expect me to thank them for it.
So, surely there are tech manuals available for these things that allow us to maintain our own regs....where does one find such knowledge and please feel free to tell me if there is something about these that really makes it unadvisable to work on them ourselves. You won't hurt my feelings...though you may not convince me either.
