Bailout Planning

[drmike]

I normally carry a small tank of 100% O2  (say a 3L or more usually a 5L)  That's enough to cover  6m stop requirements on most dives.   If  no booster is available and the available pressure of O2 didn't give me enough volume I would top off with air usually 70% min.   I would check with Vplanner to ensure I have enough volume for my 6m deco given the resultant FO2. 

I carry a bottom bail tank and if a deep dive other intermediate bail tank(s).   The tank size and mixes depend on the deco obligation and I select to maximise PO2 at each gas switch.  My aim is to minimize the number of tanks and still have enough gas to do full bail.


As you describe you may find on some dives that you can get away with less or no high FO2 bail gas if you maximiuse FO2 in your bottom bail gasses.

If just doing a shallow bimble dive I might just carry one tank of nitrox or even air - but Id check with V planner first to ensure I had enough volume for worst case bail given the FO2 and tank size.



I found Vplanner to be very useful to optimise bail gases and match to available tank sizes. It gives you the volumes needed and you can play around with changing the bail gas mix to suit your tank sizes and the number of tanks you want to carry.