[PSUBS-MAILIST] Trustworthy Dive Report

Mon May 5 10:28:12 EDT 2014

Hey, Scott,
Thanks for letting us share vicariously in your test  dives.  The details 
are helpful for all of us.  What was the air temp  when you launched, and how 
was the heat inside  Trustworthy?
Jim

In a message dated 5/5/2014 9:17:29 A.M. Central Daylight Time,  
personal_submersibles at psubs.org writes:

Yesterday my wife Katy and two other friends took Trustworthy out for a  
series of dive tests. Pictures to be posted soon. We went down 21feet at  
deepest point for about 30 minutes on the longest dive. We did a total of 5  
dives. The dives went into the night and I got a great chance to use my saddle  
lights, work lights, and head light. The light placement and power on  
Trustworthy were perfect for lighting up the under water veiws for passenger  
and myself. The 55watt halogen work lights and saddle lights and the 2,000,000 
 candle power head light were the perfect amount of light. Unlike 
Trustworthy's  first test this time I was properly weighted for freash water after 
adding  325lbs in landing skid weights and extra drop weights. I got to do 
alot of  motoring around and after some practice, started to get the hang of 
it. After  spending some time getting used to things, I gotta say I love the 
Kitteredge  motors. They have so much power which is nice when you get caught 
in current  or wind and they respond instantly even with the sub weighing 
4,500 lbs. I  used my bank selectors (hp air, O2 air, and battery) and I love 
them. The  benifit of draining one tank or battery bank at a time is so 
nice. The  underwater comms worked good with the acception of a loud ringing 
noise which  I believe a squelch adjustment would fix. We did have a few minor 
problems to  note. I had a leak from the autimatic cabin equilization 
valve. Later  remembering all "O" rings on the sub were the high quaility ones 
from McMaster  Carr and this one was a cheap one intended for home plumbing. 
It worked fine  on the first dive last fall, but sitting over winter it 
cracked a little.  Moral of the story, use good "O" rings. We also are having 
some weird problems  with the sonar. It was reading a depth from 8' to 320' 
wildly so something is  wrong. I am thinking it might be a connection between 
the transducer and  screen. Also experienced a space problem when jamming the 
50lb tub of sodasorb  in the storage compartment. I am going to repack the 
sodasorb in sealed  plastic bags prepacked size to fit in the scrubbers and 
then it will fit very  easily. One new mod I am going to do is put a cabin 
light in the conn. The two  red/white cabin lights in the main cabin work 
well, but while the pilot is in  the conn and it is dark, you can't read check 
lists well or read the digital  depth gauge in the conn. I found myself 
using a flash light alot.
The siteings on this trip were
*zebra muscles
*rocks
*mud
*a large cat fish
*little worm things swimming to our lights (I think baby fish)
*a little bass
*tons of confused Kansans almost crashing their boats while  stareing

Thanks for reading,
Scott Waters

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