Meg Factory Visit & Training

Meg Factory Visit & Training
By Stuart Ford



Wow - the day was finally here I was going to Washington to pick up the Meg!

Fast forward through the taxi to the airport, the flight, the search by customs in Washington, the hire car, rush hour and sleep.

It's now 4.30am I can't sleep any more and I am in the Holiday Inn Express in Centralia. I want to go to the Factory but Leon is not meeting us till 9.00am - slowest 4 hours or so of my life!

Finally it's 9.00am - Leon drives past the hotel to pick us up (He has the BIGGEST pick up truck I have ever seen) and we arrive at ISC.

We walk in the door and there they are!


Next on the agenda was a tour of the Factory.


There are more pictures of the factory in the Gallery

Then it was down to setting the units up - Sarah had toyed with the idea of using the Dive Rite Transpac harness but there was far too much tank swing, so it was choose a backplate and harness and lets get them setup.


I sneaked off at this point to take a few photos of the Cans


After kit set up was done then it was theory time, this lasted until about 8pm then we crawled back to the hotel with match sticks keeping our eye open so we could be up at 7am the next day to meet Leon back at the factory.

More theory came and went and then it was finally time to dive the unit - so off we went to the pool for a marathon 4 hour session.


Leon hovers above the pool and uses comms gear to communicate with you underwater(see the yellow box on my ear), first hour or so was just spent getting used to the unit and it was then time for some serious drills.


We learnt how to cope with BOOM scenarios, where something goes BOOM - gas off, check gauges to see where problem is, check PPO2 then decide appropriate course of action. We then covered using the unit in SCR and open loop mode, switching to OC (remembering to change computer over).

It was then onto diluent flushes and learning how to clear a flooded loop which you can see below(isn't that can colour sexy).


We then moved over to the deep diving pool and swam circuits practising different skills at each corner as well as alternating between using the HUD and wrist mounted computer to fly the unit manually.

After 4 hours it was getting pretty chilly so we headed on back to the hotel.

The next day was our first open water dive, and we headed to Sund Rock for some shore diving - this was really hard work, I am so not used to shore diving and lost count of how long it took me to get fins on!

From now on Leon told us - you fly your units manually - get used to the HUD and make sure you cross check the HUD and your wrist mount constantly.

We did three dives here again practising all the skills, SCR, Open Loop, bail out to open circuit, mouthpiece recovery, loop flooding and emptying and of course the old favourite the BOOM scenario.

By the end of it, I was in love with the unit and could just about keep my eyes open to get back to the hotel.

Night was over in a flash and we were at Tuesday morning, Leon was picking us up at 6.45am to head on up to Canada, to meet Ron, Bruce and Dave for some wreck diving.

We pretty much spend all day Tuesday travelling and got to Vancouver Island late in the afternoon, we were wiped out, but Bruce, Ron and Dave headed out for a dive, while we retired to the hotel for a hot tub and some more theory.

Wednesday morning came around and we headed to the boat Divers Choice.



She might look a bit old but this is the best day boat I have ever been on and considering she did not have a hydraulic lift and I like creature comforts it really is saying something. The best thing about her is you kit up inside in the warm and dry and they do the best lunch between dives I have had. Oh and there is a huge sun deck upstairs, 2 heads a shower oh and a bed to crash out on oh and the 2 skippers Ken and Caroline were just awesome - that about covers it I think.

Well back to the diving.

• Day 1 - We dived Snake Island Wall followed by the Saskatchewan (gorgeous prop and source of serious conversation on how we could salvage it).
  
• Day 2 - We dived the Riv Tow followed by the Gabrillo wall.
  
• Day 3 - We did the Cape Breton which was fantastic and swam along the Bhurma road - this was just such an AWESOME dive that we loved - thank you Leon!

It was then time to drive back to Centralia and bed.

The next morning we got up early and headed to the factory for some last minute tweaking and picking up of spares before catching the plane back home.

If you are buying a Meg then give serious thought to picking it up from the factory and getting your training with Leon, you will see the amount of loving care that the team puts into it - they all know its a life support device and treat it as such.

I also think that you should do this when you can (eg NOW) as production is really starting to ramp up with a move to a larger factory planned this summer - when Leon is making over 500 a year which is what it in their business plan after CE certification is gained then I don't know if you will have the same opportunities of being able to visit the factory and get personally trained by the CEO!



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