Wing lift requirements .. Help..

[Andy692]

hi guys ,
thanks for the info , Yeah she is pretty small , 5'2 tall and 67kg / 147 lbs ..

I don't think I accounted for the weight in the tank , yeah if we switch to doubles at some stage , then I think she would need to swap wings..

 

[rjack321]

hi guys ,
thanks for the info , Yeah she is pretty small , 5'2 tall and 67kg / 147 lbs ..

I don't think I accounted for the weight in the tank , yeah if we switch to doubles at some stage , then I think she would need to swap wings..

18-20-22lb single wings are mostly paired with 3-5mm wetsuits in the tropics
For 7mm wetsuits with more compression and drysuits 28-40lb single wings are customary in cold water
You can kind of fudge these on the margins depending on the circumstances.

Comparatively, the smallest doubles wing is about 40lbs, that is for al80s and similar sized tanks.

 

[The Chairman]

Please don't undersize the wing. Figure out what you need and double it. There is no good reason to keep it small. You're really not moving fast enough to worry about any small additional drag.

 

[loosenit2]

might be important to specify whether you are talking about weight requirements in fresh or salt water. In fresh water when I wear a 7mm wetsuit, 6mm boots, 5mm hood and use an AL80 I only need 16 lbs of weight (im 6' 190 lbs). That would go up to 20-22 lbs in salt water and that would be the difference between a 22lb wing being sufficient and not appropriate.

if you do decide you want a larger wing dgx sells a compact wing with 30lbs of lift and VDH sells a 35 lb wing that is only about 1" larger than their 22 lb wing, so very compact, both good options.

 

[Andy692]

sure ..

We mainly dive from our boat salt water , at reasonable shallow levels , and as of now her wing has been fine , but we have decided to extend our diving and next year we are looking to do some deeper dives , which would take us roughly to 30m , If she needs the larger wing then I dont have any problem getting it , but if we was only going to do the odd dive going to that depth , it seemed sensible to see if her current wing would be ok for the few one off dives ..

she is only small , and my workings seem to fit with what others have said , if we were to continue diving at the deeper depths then obviously the small investment of a larger wing would be worth it ..

in hindsight, she should have got the bigger wing from go , but at the time she wanted something compact and easier to stow on the boat, fundermeutaly was for yacht maintenance, hull scrubbing , prop clearing , light salvage in marinas .....

 

[Rooster59]

If you dive from your own boat and dive often, you could experiment. Sling up 5-8lbs and try a partial ascent with the extra weight and see how it goes. It might give you an idea how much extra lift you have right now with a 22lb wing. Gotta be careful with an uncontrolled ascent if the weight gets dropped with a full wing.

 

[Andy692]

yeah, had been thinking about something much like this ..

 

[johndiver999]

Lol how much extra lead is she gonna hand carry? Is the amount equal to the extra loss in buoyancy from the thick suit at a deeper depth?

So if she can ascend from 40 feet with 5 extra lbs, how does
That apply to a 7 mm at 100’feet?

Rather than doing in water experiments (whose applicability is nebulous) with the daughter, why not
See how much lead it takes to sink the suit and follow
The remainder of my suggestion?

I don’t think saltwater versus freshwater makes a difference in this situation

 

[garyh]

Please don't undersize the wing. Figure out what you need and double it. There is no good reason to keep it small. You're really not moving fast enough to worry about any small additional drag.

+1 better to have a bit to much than not enough when you really need it

 

[Julius SCHMIDT]

There has been a fashion for a while amongst some on here and others blindly following, to shrink wings so much that once you squeeze it between the tank and the plate and the back of the person wearing this stuff where it is not able to be fully inflated, if you surface in a lumpy sea and it can lump up unexpectedly during a dive then keeping your gasping splashed face above it all becomes really difficult

But twice your required lift is going to be a real pain in the back

Streamlining???????