Wade G. Pemberton wrote:

> If you trust your computer to keep you from getting bent during a dive,
why don't
> you trust it's time to fly indicator?  If you don't trust your computer,
they why bother to
> lug it around on a dive?

I should have hired you as my straight man.  You've given me a great
opportunity to share information I think many will benefit from being
reminded of often.  There are three ways I can answer this, all true, but
progressively more accurate.  YMMV (but I hope it doesn't).

1. I do trust my computer, both to keep me from being bent and for telling
me when it's OK to fly.  The indicator on my computers is a simple 24 hour
countdown.  My decision to wait 24 hours is consistent with what it tells me
to do.

2. I have compared the decompression and no decompression algorythms of my
computers to tables, previous computers and my own diving experience.  I
have confirmed to my own satisfaction that they are as safe or safer than
other options I have and still do consider safe enough for the kind of
diving I do.  I do not have the kind of experience necessary to know whether
my, or any other computer's time to fly function is safe enough.  In fact,
to the best of my knowledge, nobody yet knows enough to predict the limits
of safety confidently.  Accordingly, I have a lot more trust in no deco and
deco diving with my computers than with their no fly function.  I generally
choose to comply or nearly comply with the 24 recommendation.  The more
intense my diving schedule, the more likely I am to wait 24 hours or more.
It just happens that my computer manufacturer programmed it the same way,
maybe even for the same reasons.  I can trust its no fly recommendation
because it matches what I have chosen for myself.

3. I don't simply or even completely trust tables or computers for my diving
or no fly times.  Each is a tool which I use as a source of information, or
if you prefer input, for the only computer I do trust, the organic one that
is original equipment on this particular model of human being.  Even more so
than my store bought computers, the original equipment one has been
thoroughly tested and found reliable.  I routinely vary my profile from the
computer's recommendations based on conditions at the time.  Adjustments are
generally more conservative than the computer's recommendations but may
occasionally be less conservative when there's good reason.

Lee