The final part of my marathon training block was the 2-day Oxygen Technician and Gas Blenders course. This started in the classroom, discussing Oxygen handling techniques and enriched breathing mixture (i.e. Nitrox or EANx)
There was no rest as I was straight into the Cylinder Testing Part 2 course, the first part of this having been covered in the DITC. The learning moved, as you might expect, to another level.
It was time to start putting everything we learnt during the course together. We each worked through a scenario where we were performing a Periodic Inspection and Test (PIAT) on an old aluminium cylinder. First was the recording of information from the cylinder:
Day 4 of the course and we were in the workshop tackling 1st stage disassembly and reassembly. First up were a Northern Diver and an Apeks DST, both diaphragm designs. The instructor took us through each step and then got us to do the same. The first one was a challenge but it worked well; no components were left over, it locked up correctly and there was no creep. The second one was easier, even with the differences between the two, but it too performed as expected.
I started my Dive Industry Technicians Course (DITC) with STATS 2000 in Morecambe today. There are 3 of us on the course; two of us are divers and the third works in a commercial diving environment.
