IRAP Administrator
08-04-2007, 12:56 PM
On the way out of the system for the last dive of a series, after picking up saftey bottles placed at p2400' and entering a low windy area my sccoter trigger stuck on. After trying to hammer on the handle and body a few seconds with no success I was able to manually force the secondary control slide on the body of the scooter to get the motor to turn off. Once off it remained off until the trigger was depressed again and then it was back off to the races. I force it off again and greatly lowered the speed of the scooter to ensure I would be able to control it should I need to maneuver in tight places with it stuck on.
Meanwhile by dive buddy had called the dive long ago due to cold and was clearly interested in the quickest exit possiable. Out of range of communications quickly (either ahead because my scoote was stuck on or behind because it was off) and no signal to directly indicate the specific problem - it was not for nearly 1000' of travel (about 10 minutes) that I got synced back up with my buddy and took the opportunity to signal that there was a problem (though there was obviously something as I was traveling so slowly).
Something was sticking in the trigger mechanism and jamming the spring. It turned out to be easier to pull out the trigger then force the lever on the scooter body and I was soon able to return to near full speed.
After getting back together with my buddy and back to full speed we had a pretty strait shot to the exit and had no problems getting up to deco.
Taking the scooter apart later I found tiny rocks in the handle mechanism that had probably appeared from the previous dive where our bubbles had disloged clay and debris from a crack in the ceiling and crumbly rock all around had zeroed the passage and forced us to carry our scooters swimming out of that section - or possiably just a general buildup.
Meanwhile by dive buddy had called the dive long ago due to cold and was clearly interested in the quickest exit possiable. Out of range of communications quickly (either ahead because my scoote was stuck on or behind because it was off) and no signal to directly indicate the specific problem - it was not for nearly 1000' of travel (about 10 minutes) that I got synced back up with my buddy and took the opportunity to signal that there was a problem (though there was obviously something as I was traveling so slowly).
Something was sticking in the trigger mechanism and jamming the spring. It turned out to be easier to pull out the trigger then force the lever on the scooter body and I was soon able to return to near full speed.
After getting back together with my buddy and back to full speed we had a pretty strait shot to the exit and had no problems getting up to deco.
Taking the scooter apart later I found tiny rocks in the handle mechanism that had probably appeared from the previous dive where our bubbles had disloged clay and debris from a crack in the ceiling and crumbly rock all around had zeroed the passage and forced us to carry our scooters swimming out of that section - or possiably just a general buildup.