Andy Dinsdale – SETT – The best Fairground Ride I’ve ever been on

I did the Deep Tank a few times.

Simon: With an Escape Suit I guess rather than free?

So, what you tended to do when you did the pressurised training in the suit, you would tend to do it from three depths. I can’t remember the depths were now. So, you’d do a shallow initially …

Simon: 9, 18 and …

Yeah, so initially you go at the surface. Again, the Instructors (laughs) … you put your head underwater and you practice blowing out, so literally they will hold you on the ladder, holding your head underwater and practice blowing out and they’ll teach you to blow out properly, ant that takes a bit of training.

And then you’ll go out from mid-tank depth up to the surface without a suit, so you can do that with your head in water, and just blowing out and then ultimately you go down to the bottom chamber and you practice the sort of fleeting to the Escape Tower itself and then you go through the Escape Tower in the suit.

It’s interesting, my day job now we still do … the company I work for, we still do, test Submarine Escape Suits, so in fact today I’ve just been in our Trainer, not quite a Trainer, it’s a Test Facility, for submarine escapes, so we still sort of see and remember the Submarine Escape Suits. But yeah, the first time is unique (laughs).

Simon: Trepidation beforehand?

I don’t think so, not for me because I think because  to get … it goes back to preparation to be there and being through the training and had the medicals to make sure you can clear your ears and all that kind if stuff, and there had been people going through the training with me who couldn’t clear their ears. In fact, people I’d served with at the start who couldn’t carry on as Submariners because they were Medically Discharged ‘cos they had problems and things, so the fact that I got through all that and I could … yeah I guess you still think back to the first time is clearing your ears with a nose clip on, and just blowing out and keeping ahead of the pressure.

You do have to do that quickly, and people say, “Well if you don’t, your ears will sort themselves out” (laughs), so you make sure you do and again as you pop out when the hatch equalises, you pop out and I can’t remember exactly what you do now, it’s such a long time, but you’ve a Diver in the water, you’re 30 metres down and he’s there to check you’re alright. They check you’re alright and then off you go. But for me, I guess bits of trepidation because you always hear the stories of where it hasn’t gone as well as planned, so you know it’s hazardous, but you feel that the training and the Instructors around you are there for your best intent and they’re going to, even if you mess it up, they’re going to help you in whatever way that may be, but it’s for your best intent really.

So, I think even the first, I thoroughly enjoyed it actually and I thought, ‘I’m getting paid to do this’ (laughs). It’s the best Fairground Ride I’ve ever been on.