UTD Overhead Protocols Class Report

[EMiles]

Blackwood - You did a nice job of explaining the logistics. It was challenging but it was also A LOT of fun.

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[Kevrumbo]

Other than the initial land drills --you don't need the artificial contsruct of using a "blacked-out" mask at the airplane fuselage wreck, in less than 6 meters of water, at the Subic Bay training site. Believe it or not, after laying line in the widebody airplane wreck, the point is that the Instructor has enough control that he can still deliberately silt-out the entire interior, so the student team can experience a real life zero viz contingency event on primary guideline in an overhead environment, while still keeping track of the students' whereabouts & location (i.e. the glow of their primary lights) inside the fuselage. . .

There is nothing here in Southern Calif, or no wreck whatsoever here on the West Coast that shallow enough to even safely attempt such a training scenario. To do so on the Yukon Destroyer wreck in San Diego at 24 - 27 meters deep is to tempt a real life silt-out tragedy.

 

[DevonDiver]

Kevrumbo;

The 'detached' funnel on the El Capitan is great training location/tool also. It lies a little deep at 16-19m, but I often use it for specific no-viz, stress induction and team-building training. It's about 10m long and half-full with very fine silt, allowing 3-4' of clearance above. No obstructions, entanglements or ways to get lost inside. Students are challenged to swim through the funnel without kicking-up silt. Anything other than perfect buoyancy and fin kicks will zero the viz instantly. "Proper" zero-viz LOL. A few repetition swim-throughs, air-sharing, team cohesion etc, pretty much ensure that most students are learning all about the realities of zero viz, stress control and tactile communications. In many cases, it's an assessment I use before taking students into the wrecks proper.

I do a lot of guideline training at the Barges - that's good for the 'overhead protocols' level, where immediate access to the surface needs to be retained. On the northern 10-12m barges, there's a lot of swim-though sections and 'realistic' tie-offs along the top and sides to replicate wreck penetration. I use this for all levels of wreck training, due to its benign nature and the scale of complexity that can be created with guideline laying.

 

[Blackwood]

There is nothing here in Southern Calif, or no wreck whatsoever here on the West Coast that shallow enough to even safely attempt such a training scenario. To do so on the Yukon Destroyer wreck in San Diego at 24 - 27 meters deep is to tempt a real life silt-out tragedy.

That may have been an impetus to split what was once a 5 day class into two 3 day classes (without an additional charge): get the blind stuff out of the way before going into an overhead. It also facilitates teaching the commonalities between Cave and Wreck at the 'Protocols' level and leaving the environment specific stuff for their respective follow up classes.