What's the PADI wheel, do I need it?

[Torontonian]

Thanks for all the advise.

There is the NAUI table in the NAUI OW course. When reading about the PADI wheel in the PADI AOW book, at first I thought maybe that's something in the PADI OW course that I need to catch up on. But then found out the PADI OW crewpak doesn't include the wheel.

So if the PADI OW course doesn't require the wheel, and the wheel is not needed until the PADI divemaster course, then PADI shouldn't even refer to it in its AOW course. It just causes confusion, making some people (like me) thinking it is something a student should get and should know.

Thank you all.

 

[StSomewhere]

So if the PADI OW course doesn't require the wheel, and the wheel is not needed until the PADI divemaster course, then PADI shouldn't even refer to it in its AOW course. It just causes confusion, making some people (like me) thinking it is something a student should get and should know.

Its optional, you can do your OW dive planning with either the RDP table or the wheel, your choice. Its all about introducing the concept of multilevel diving. Take it or leave it.

 

[Kim]

I believe that there is also a PADI Multi Level Diver speciality that teaches the Wheel. As it's used in a speciality then it'll be in the AOW book.

 

[offroaddiver]

I learned to use the wheel during my OW because it was a class of people who were also taking AOW. I had no trouble learning the wheel. It helped illustrate to me that the dive tables only consider the deepest point and bottom time. The instructor gave the class a series of levels that were past the NDL for the deepest part of the dive but if you used the wheel you'd only have to do the recommended safety stop. I asked the instructor if i needed to purchase the wheel. His response was to the effect that if I was taking AOW soon he'd be showing me how it can help lengthen the bottom time and help plan the dive safer. He also said that he uses a computer but uses the wheel to help plan which size tank he has to carry around before getting into the water.

I plan on taking PADI AOW in a month. I will buy the wheel because it seems to have a useful purpuse in planning the dive, and it seems to be a good back up in case my computer fails. The dive shop sells them for less than 20$ if you buy it when signing up or are taking a class.

 

[J.R.]

You can get similar results I agree. However the rounding effect is much heavier on the tables at depths more than 22 meters (sorry - I don't use Imperial tables!) The tables have only 5 depths that you can work with deeper than 22 meters ( 25, 30, 35, 40, 42) - the Wheel uses 10 depths (24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42). Try working out a 26 meter dive for 18 minutes followed by 14 meters for 31 minutes. This yields a pressure group of T using the wheel, and V using the tables.

Ummm... Ok... so what it *SEEMS* you're saying is that the mantra of "more conservative is better" [PADI mantra 1-A] gets trumped by "I want every minute of bottom time I can get"???

Seems to me (... and I MAY be wrong... often am...) that for recreational purposes there seems to be a bit of a mixed message being sent by the whole 'multi-level dive' concept. YEA... it CAN be done... but... should it be??? ... or is PADI's view of it more from the perspective of... "The darn fools are gonna' do it anyway... so we might as well give em' a tool that will help them to do it a bit more safely than they might do it otherwise..." ???


J.R.
Even an *empty* glass is full.

 

[Maxwell's Hammer]

Its optional, you can do your OW dive planning with either the RDP table or the wheel, your choice. Its all about introducing the concept of multilevel diving. Take it or leave it.

Actually, "The Wheel" is the PADI "RDP."

"RDP" is PADI's "table." The various tables (be they NAUI, or Navy, or whose) are digital representations with intersections in 10-foot increments with 10-minute increments, but the functions they depict are continuous.

"The Wheel" is simply a circular slide rule representation of the gas loading functions. Most people on this board, I am sure, are too young to have ever learned to use a slide rule (pocket calculators have been around since the '70's, after all), much less a circular slide rule, but that doesn't mean they are bad technology. "The Wheel" allows for calculations between the 10-minute/10-foot limitations, but the model is still the PADI "RDP."

And, yes, I still use the Wheel as a backup to the computer, but then, I still use a fountain pen, too, because elegance is much preferable to blind reliance on technology sometimes.

 

[Kim]

Ummm... Ok... so what it *SEEMS* you're saying is that the mantra of "more conservative is better" [PADI mantra 1-A] gets trumped by "I want every minute of bottom time I can get"???

No. What I'm saying is the rounding effects on PADI tables is more pronounced than the wheel! There are more possible 'inbetween' answers available on the wheel.

If you want simple conservatism then you can just deduct 10 or 15 mins from any table or wheel number and you should be pretty safe!
That's not the point. The point of the wheel is to more accurately model real NDLs across multi-level profiles and yes.....have as much bottom time as you can safely have.
That's why people dive I thought......for bottom time!

 

[k4man]

And, yes, I still use the Wheel as a backup to the computer, but then, I still use a fountain pen, too, because elegance is much preferable to blind reliance on technology sometimes.[/QUOTE]


Well said, Maxwell. Image that. Some people knowing and understanding how to use things like tables and the PADI wheel rather than over reliance on technology with a BATTERY POWERED source

Boy, I feel the flames roasting my marshmallows, too.

But what do I know? I still think kids should learn their times tables before punching their graphic calculators in the FOURTH GRADE!!

Kevin
(who happens to be using a good bit of technology just to send this email message to the board!!)

 

[tracy_from_oz]

I own the wheel, tables and a computer.

When I plan my dive I use the tables and multi level diving I use my wheel. My computer is my back up, I don't use it to plan dives. Might be old fashioned or whatever i dont care, it works for me and my diving. My computer can always go kaput on me but as long as I dont lose my tables I should be right.

 

[gregorio]

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=156794