the answer is, it depends. to the top of the structure
at 70 feet? sure. to the flight deck at 140 feet? it'd be a
waste of time.
let's do some air planning:
using my SAC (surface air consumption) rate of .8 cf per minute
at 1 ATA, this is what comes out:
descent gas: getting down to 140 feet (at 50 fpm): 9 cf.
rock bottom gas (enough air to get me and my buddy
to the surface should he have a total air failure):
2 minutes at 140 fsw to sort the problem: 16cf 1 minute to ascend to 110 fsw: 9 cf 1 minute to ascend to 80 fsw: 7 cf 1 minute to ascend to 50 fsw: 6 cf 1 minute to ascend to 30 feet: 4 cf 1 minute stop at 30 feet: 3 cf 1 minute ascent to 20 feet: 3 cf 1 minute stop at 20 feet: 3 cf 1 minute ascent to 10 feet: 3 cf 3 minute stop at 10 feet: 6 cf
total rock bottom gas: 60 cf.
total descent and reserve gas: 69 cf.
that leaves me 11 cf to actually use at 140 feet on an AL 80,
which for me is shy of a 3 minute dive (i.e. not gonna happen).
to dive to the max of my NDL with 26% O2 at 140 feet (10 minutes),
I'd need an additional 31 cf (for a total of 42 cf bottom gas).
so, to make a dive to 140 feet for 10 minutes, i'd need a minimum
of 111 cf. that suggests a steel 120 tank.
of course, that doesn't even address whether i'd want to go down
to 140 feet on nitrox to begin with (being a narcosis wus).
let's be safe out there!
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5/20/2006 - Agree