Plan Dive -- thoughts

[Steve Butler]

Until yesterday I had no need to utilize the Dive Planner.  My dives are 
usually 60-80 feet with an occasional drop to mid-90s.  Just drop in and 
watch the computer.

However, last night was the class for the deep specialty.  Sunday we'll 
do a dive to 130 then a 2nd dive to 120 and a 3rd to 110.

I started playing with a dive to 130 and noticed that by the time I'm 
back up to 70 feet there is several minutes of NDL available again.  So 
I tried
130 for 10
70 for 10
15 for 10  (excessive I know)

Hmm.  Nice gentle slope down to 130.  Found the check box to drop to 
first depth.  Graph changed to more like I expected.  But the ascent 
didn't take into account the ascent rates.  Maybe this box need to be at 
each depth and affect either descent or ascent.

Clicked the drop to first depth off.  Oh oh.  What happened to the first 
depth?  I now had
70 for 20
15 for 10

Clicked drop to depth back on hoping to get the 130 depth back. Nope.  
Now had
70 for 1
70 for 18
15 for 10.

I think that is a bug.

Now, as an OC rec diver (soon to have access to the 100-130 depths) I 
would not want to enter the ascent segments separate from spending time 
at a level on the way up in order to indicate to ascend at best rate.  
Take this scenario:

Drop to 130 and hang there for 6 minutes (28% O2).
Rise at 30'/m to 70 and hang there for 8 minutes on the ledge.
Ascend at 30'/m to 40 (no wait as it is a transition to an upslope.
Spend 5 minutes swimming the upslope to 15.
Spend the standard 3 minute stop at 15.

If we move the "drop to first drop" box to each line and turn it into a 
descend/ascend at designated rate box:
130', @rate, 8 minutes (accounting for the 2 minutes on the way down).   
Decent setup at 60'/m
70', @rate, 10 minutes (to account for the 2 minutes to ascend at 
rate).  Ascent setup at 30'/m
40', @rate,1 minute
15',not @rate, 5 minutes
check the "standard 15' 3 minute stop.

Oh, and option to pick between 15 or 20'.  I noticed only 20' was set as 
the last stop.

How does that play out with the tech crowd?

-- 
Stephen M Butler, PMP, PSM
kg7je at comcast.net
kg7je at arrl.net