There were some pilots who should never have been allowed near the sticks. I believe training has gotten better. I've seen some amazing umbilical knots in my time and you're correct that in the early days before garages were common that there were a lot of rescues needed.sundaymorningstaple wrote:Unfortunatelly, in those same early days, it was the divers who had to keep rescuing the early ROVs because the engineers, while intelligent, were abysmal drivers and succeeded on a regular basis in getting the ROV complete fouled and divers were needed to "rescue" the pilots so the pilots/techs could still claim the glory in completing the job (they just couldn't come home without help!
Fortunately, I didn't do to much deep work. Most of my stuff was surface gas or air (preferrably). Still got my wits about me and can honestly say in 17 years of diving commercially and 15 of those as a supervisor/superintendent I was never bent nor had a case of the bends on any of my jobs. I did have a couple of Barge Captians try to have me off the rig cause I shut down a job due to safety concerns, but OI always stood behind me. I was also the only licensed subsea blaster in SE Asia back in the '80's as well. Fun times, those.
Yeah, I've heard that expression too I've knowingly pushed it, only once. Don't really know why I did it, butsundaymorningstaple wrote:OSOD, there is a reason I'm in good shape. I was an old man when I started in the commercial diving industry (30 - when most are trying to get out after having been doing it since the age of 21 or 22 - albeit SCUBA since the age of 16 but only got certified in 1976). When I went to the commercial diving school, I was the oldest in the class and still came out #2, missing 1st by one half of a percent. The chief instructor of the school was an old GOM diver and he gave me some words of advice that carried me throughout my career as a commercial diver. "There are old divers and there are bold divers. But there are damn few old, bold divers". Safety has always been my motto and it's held me in good stead all those years and even till today, now with over 48 years of diving under my belt.
Yep. I dove recreationally but when a friend got into the rebreather deep water stuff (well 50m or so) I backed out. I almost died in 42m and I'm not stupid - sometimes you just need to know when to let a hobby go. The deepest ROV job I did was in 1800' off Bali - crystal clear water. I left the ROV industry before it really broke through the 3000' barrier.sundaymorningstaple wrote:OSOD, there is a reason I'm in good shape. I was an old man when I started in the commercial diving industry (30 - when most are trying to get out after having been doing it since the age of 21 or 22 - albeit SCUBA since the age of 16 but only got certified in 1976). When I went to the commercial diving school, I was the oldest in the class and still came out #2, missing 1st by one half of a percent. The chief instructor of the school was an old GOM diver and he gave me some words of advice that carried me throughout my career as a commercial diver. "There are old divers and there are bold divers. But there are damn few old, bold divers". Safety has always been my motto and it's held me in good stead all those years and even till today, now with over 48 years of diving under my belt.
offshoreoildude wrote: Yep. I dove recreationally but when a friend got into the rebreather deep water stuff (well 50m or so) I backed out. I almost died in 42m and I'm not stupid - sometimes you just need to know when to let a hobby go. The deepest ROV job I did was in 1800' off Bali - crystal clear water. I left the ROV industry before it really broke through the 3000' barrier.
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