Lift Specialist
July 26th, 2010
This past week was lift specialist instruction taught through NAPD (National Academy of Police Diving) . The class went well and all passed their skills demonstration test. Students practiced boat recoveries, car recoveries, and moving and positioning of underwater pipe lines.
Josh Thomson removing an air hose from the air bag so the pipe can be moved to its desired location.
Divers Colin Price (right) Josh Thomson (center) and Mark Sowash (left) inside their recovered boat.
The boat was lifted in two stages, one just to get it close to the surface and off the bottom and the second to get the sides out of the water. (In order to bail water out of the boat so it would be independent of the lift bags.)
The lifting pontoon holds all of the needed gear so it is a short swim to get what is needed no matter the lift.
This pontoon contained all the gear needed to make a safe controlled lift of any vehicle, small boat, small aircraft, or anything needing to be lifted. It was easy to move and the swim to get more gear short and fast. It was able to be lifted while the divers were standing right next to the object, and keeping an eye on the lifting process.
