When ever I am in the Philippines I head up to Arizona Dive Centre at Subic Bay for some wreck diving. A number of eras of wrecks are available to dive from the Spanish-American War, the Second World War and the Vietnam War.

The Skyraider is a Vietnam War era aircraft that is located not too far from the airfield. I don’t know much about the event leading up to why the aircraft is in the water, one suspects an incident arising not long after take-off. There is still a parachute in the rear section of the aircraft and there was previously an oxygen mask next to the rear seat that is now gone. The boat crew locate the wreck in the bay via GPS and send a shot line down.

Every time I have dived the wreck with Arizona the shot line has just been a number of meters away from the starboard wing – they get it right. The wreck is small so the plan is to move slowly over the wreck checking every detail. The engine and propeller are missing and haven’t yet been located although we have spent a little time looking. The engine mounting is still attached so looking in there is always good, the air intake is also interesting.

The depth is reasonable, around about 36 meters so a nitrox dive gives you a reasonable time to explore the wreck. For me, the 50 caliber guns mounted on the wings is a highlight of this dive. Arizona Dive Centre are a fairly conservative dive Centre so a EAN28 mix is generally chosen, I would prefer a higher partial pressure as I was taught a 1.5 ATA was selected as best gas mix. As I’m diving with other divers who follow a more conservative profile, I generally select a similar mix as them.

These days I dive in a backplate and wing so it is pretty easy to run a set of doubles or carry a single tank with either a EAN50 mix or 100% O2 depending upon what is available. I carry a handheld HID dive light that throws out a blue beam like a light sabre. The visibility is usually poor on this dive and can get a whole lot worse with the silty bottom. Luckily for me, only the first dive has been wiped out by a hard kicking and over-weighted newly certified advanced open water diver.

I generally dive this site with experienced divers who take pride in their buoyancy and don’t kick up silt and destroying the site for the other divers in the group. The ascent is back up the shot line located a few meters from the starboard wing where all mandatory stops are executed. A hang tank if attached to the surface marker so any divers low on gas can breathe off the rig. The boat is not attached to the shot line as it would drag the weight, instead they just hang around the vicinity, they know the runtime and move in and pick up surfaced divers as required.