Travel wing?

buddhasummer:

How much lift does the travel wing have? how heavy is your rig? Are you using a plate? How negative when full is your 120 tank? The wing needs enough lift to float your rig without you in it assuming its greater than the weight your using with a thin, vacation?, suit.

The Travel wing has 25lbs of lift. Depending on what steel 120 your using it could be around 12lbs negative when full, if for example you're using a steel plate with SS cam bands plus regs you are looking at about 8 or so pounds. That being the case and assuming my math is correct you'd have around 5lbs to play with. How much lead do you wear, if any?

Without all the information I'd be hesitant to say its all good, but I suspect it will be. Hopefully one of the experts will chime in shortly. Good luck.

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Dive Rite:

RDRINK25,
We do not recommend the Travel wing for such a large cylinder. It is designed for AL cylinders and some small steel cylinders. For larger cylinders the Voyager wing is recommended.

Safe Diving,
Jared

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RDRINK25:

Thanks for the help I would be using the aluminum plate and 4lbs lead maybe. This is for rec diving. I have both the rec and travel but I used it in Cozumel and they had steel 120's and seemed to be much. I have used the travel with steel 100's but was hoping to use it with a 120.

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awap:

What is the basis for this recommendation?

awap,
The Travel wing has only 25 lbs of lift. Where this may be enough lift for some divers with heavier steels, for most it is not enough to comfortably float them at the surface. There are also so many other factors to consider (weight, exposure protection, natural bouyancy). In all of our spec and literature we rate the Travel wing for smaller cylinders. Not saying it might not be enough, but for most people it isn't.

Safe Diving,
Jared

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Dive Rite:

awap:

What is the basis for this recommendation?

awap,
The Travel wing has only 25 lbs of lift. Where this may be enough lift for some divers with heavier steels, for most it is not enough to comfortably float them at the surface. There are also so many other factors to consider (weight, exposure protection, natural bouyancy). In all of our spec and literature we rate the Travel wing for smaller cylinders. Not saying it might not be enough, but for most people it isn't.

Safe Diving,
Jared

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Thank you for your reply. This is your forum and I am not sure you really want to host and sponsor this discussion here but it may still be worthwhile.

It seems to me that using a BCD to float a diver and his gear is a rather trivial feature that is automatically satisfied (for competent, correctly weighted divers) as long as the device will float the gear package at the surface without the diver (and his exposure protection), and will compensate for buoyancy changes at depth due to compression and the consumption of gas. I agree that some of the less common heavy 120s may be too much for a travel wing. Clearly the Heiser 120 at 26+ pounds negative is too much for that wing. Even a Faber 120 at 16+ pounds negative is probably pushing it when you add a plate and a regulator. But most other 120s are about 10 pounds negative and should be just fine with that wing as long as the diver does not add too much additional weight in the form of the plate, regulator, and attached lead. Heck, many popular steel tanks are in that same buoyancy class including HP100s, LP95s, and even some HP80s (which would probably be considered a small steel cylinder. But one must be careful that a wing is adequate for the task at hand. Large steel tanks along with heavy wetsuits may task a wings capacity at depth qwhen it has to compensate for the extra weight of a full tank and the buoyancy loss caused by wetsuit compression. A 7mm wetsuit could easily lose 20+/- pounds of buoyancy at depth due to compression. Couple that with a 10 pound load of gas in a full tank and you will have exceeded the capacity of a 25 lb wing. One of my rigs is your travel wing on a 5 lb aluminum plate and an HP100 (PST E7) which I use in 70 degree water with a 5mm suit. No problem at depth but I have to watch it a bit on the surface. First off, I lose a little lift due to the mounting restricting the full inflation of the wing. Then I sometime add a couple more pounds of lead directly to the plate (usually only for salt water diving). Well, when I add a Scubapro M7 for a first stage (a 3 pounds) it is pretty close to the edge when it comes to floating my rig on the surface. A couple weeks ago, I was diving that rig in a a local lake and it almost sunk when I checked it on the surface. The problem was an OPV gasket that had gotten a bit week. A flip of the gasket and removal of the extra 2 lb of lead and is was fine again.

I bring this up because the simple rules of thumb like "designed for AL cylinders and some small steel cylinders". may not always work. They could leave you with an unnecessarily large wing (no catastrophe but undesirable) or an inadequate wing that may leave you watching your gear sink to the bottom. I just think it is better to have a basic understanding of the requirements and the physics rather than depending or course rules or unnecessarily large wings.

I keep waiting for Dive Rite to get into the "tropical wing" arena with something in the 17+/- pound category. They work well in warm waters and pack nicely in a 50 pound weight limit bag. Your travel wing is a heavy weight in that arena but a good compromise for divers who must also satisfy their cooler water requirements with a single rig.

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chrpai:

@awap-

I hear you. I think I'm siding with DR on this one. If a diver understands the physics then they can make that decision themselves. If a diver doesn't understand, then they can be on the safe side and take DR's general advice. I know which diver I prefer to be.

Personally I dive a 1pc 7mil in the winter (52f) with an LP95 and SS BP and use a 27lb wing. It works perfectly fine for me although on one occasion it prompted a local instructor to say "man, can that little a$$ wing float that big a$$ tank?" my reply was "um, yeah, I wouldn't be diving it if it couldn't. That tank is only 10lbs negative when full."

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