SuperFalcon submersible expedition

So far, I have spent 2 days with Graham Hawkes and his team. The expedition was divided into 3 phases. The first 2 did not involve me. First, they mapped the reef system of the Gulf of Aqaba with a Jordanian research institute. The 2nd phase entailed taking dignitaries down in the sub, including the crown prince of Spain and King Abdullah of Jordan. Something very bad happened. They scene was a frenzy with secret service people. The crew though that they had secured all of the domes, but had not. When they put the sub in the water, it started flooding immediately and the King was trapped with water rising to above his waist. Fortunately, they were able to get the sub out of the water before anyone died. The King was very gracious. Nobody lost their heads!! The next day (after replacing most of the electronics that were fried from the salt water) the King had a successful dive.
I was wondering what my role was in this whole project. It wasn't until the 2nd day that I realized why I was invited here.
I am a test pilot. There are only 13 people, including the designer/builder/owner, that know how to fly this thing. It is a new technology; cutting edge. Nobody knows exactly what it can do, including the designer. It does not conform to any known specifications for a submersible in any country. So we are here to put the sub through its paces and discover its strengths and weaknesses.
The first dive was to refresh my memory about the controls. It went very well. I had already pre-visualized the controls in my mind. I did this dive with Graham (the designer). Next, I did a dive with his right hand man, Lee. He is a retired Navy F-16 fighter pilot and was the test pilot for Steve Fosset's jet propelled car that was to break the land speed record. Steve died in a plane crash in the Nevada desert a couple of years ago.
I had the forward cockpit on this one. He gave me complete control. We took the sub down to the bottom at 140 feet and cruised there for about 10 minutes. It was amazing. We saw many different fish. I had to navigate around small rock outcroppings from the bottom. The entire time we were just 2-3 feet off of the bottom. Then, he said "lets take it up. You can be as aggressive as you want." I said, "are you sure?" "Absolutely" he said. Soooo, at 130 feet I cranked it into full vertical ascent with full throttle forward. We raced to the surface and breached in an inverted position, landing on our back with our heads pressed into the dome. We were giggling like little school girls at this point. The sub promptly righted itself. I caught this on video. The ballast in the sub went flying into the back. Once we regained our composure, we radioed the chase boat that we were on the surface. Nobody had done this before, that is, putting the sub on its back. There had been discussions about whether it was possible, but nobody had tried it before. Super cool.
Tomorrow, I will be making a one-way underwater passage of about an hour from Tala Bay to the Royal Navy Pier. I will be following a contour along the bottom at about 120 feet. I hope to be able to test some of the other features of the sub along the way. Graham said that he wants to accompany me on the journey as my #2. Wish me luck.