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Meet
our new friend The 15 Seater Devonshire Aircraft
Those
of you who have been down the site over the past few months will
have seen the Devon Aircraft and its fairly large wings being prepared
by a team of engineers in the car park.
The engineers
have painstakingly taken out all the engines, lubrication and hydraulic
systems on all the aircraft. Special mesh has also been welded onto
the parts that divers potentially could squeeze into.We don't mind
you looking at these attractions but please do not attempt to go
inside the aircraft. This preparation alone has taken a number of
weeks.
So behind closed
doors on Monday 26th June 2006 at 0900hrs, a 30 tonne crane descended
onto the site. With the purpose of attempting to lift the training
platforms, one at a time, and the aircraft into the water. A very
special thanks goes out to The Avon
and Somerset Underwater Police Training Unit under the control
of Sgt Bob Randal for there help and support during the day.
Since these
attractions have been placed in the Quarry we have had some very
positive comments back on how they all add to the experience of
the site and make the diving much more rewarding. Fingers crossed
this will now stop any silt being kicked up from the training platform
area as the students will now be some 20ft above the bottom.
All these attractions
are in the shallow end of the Quarry and are easily visible to the
shallow divers amongst you. The technical bit was lowering the attractions
one by one under water, securing lifting bags to the attractions
and then ensuring enough air was inside each bag to lift the attractions
to the surface. Each lifting bag was capable of lifting 2 tonnes
and was supplied by Seaflex.
Each attraction
was then carefully manovered by hand and boat, and at times by Andrew
and the Police divers, into position down the far end of the Quarry.
They were turned to face south and then under control lowered to
their final resting place. Believe it or not this took us all day
and it did not stop raining once!
Our site
maps will show you where the new training platforms and aircraft
have been positioned.
We are in the
process of getting some new attractions together over the next 6-8
months and we have already managed to get our hands on a 18 tonne,
65ft barge from Holland, a Wessex Helicopter and a Jet Stream Aircraft
that will make our comprehensive list of attractions even bigger.
For details of our current attractions please visit our underwater
attractions page. more>
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