Dive Planes and Optimum Normal Dive
 

Something I've been experimenting with for a while now is how to dive the boat promptly without performing a crash dive.

Maybe there is something I'm not understanding completely, but let me start with how the boat is configured:

* It is broadly set up for neutral bouyancy with the MBT flooded. It will hold depth at zero angle and a level boat.

To commence a dive (single crew), I do the following:

* Set engines to electric and ahead half
* Dive planes down 20 dgrees both fore and aft
* Flood the MBT (fore first to get the nose down)

The boat seems to stick on the surface a bit longer than anticipated, given the dynamic pitching of the boat.

It seems that not until both MBT are flooded will the boat actually start to dive.

Am I just being impatient? :P

Thanks in advance.

I've been playing around with the tanks and I've gotten to the point that I can dive the ship in about 35secs. Here's how i do it.

Basically you want to keep some water in the ballast tanks while cruising on the surface. Anything more than a total of 35m^3 between the 2 main ballast tanks will cause you to lose significant speed(a loss of more than 1kn)

I keep 10m^3 in the rear main ballast tank and 25m^3 in the front main ballast tank. Keep your dive plans at 0. This will keep the ship level while the tanks are primed

If you need to dive to periscope depth;
-Switch to electric engines(Half ahead)If you don't do this first there is a very good chance you'll flood the diesels,
-Open and flood both the front and rear tanks
-Make for a full flat dive(front planes all the way down and the rear plans all the way up)
-Once you reach a depth of 10.5m, bring both of the dive planes back to 0. By the time they reach 0 you'll be at or near a depth of 12m and neutrally buoyant. Adjust your depth as needed by using the dive planes.

If you need to dive deeper than 20m, follow the above steps but set your rear dive plans to -30 and flood the neg tank.