How common is a wing failure, and how would you handle it?

[cool_hardware52]

Wing failures are rare. I've never seen a wing that was torn open, or punctured via a sharp object underwater. Surface pinch flats remain as the cause of 99% requested wing repairs.

Failure of the OPV, or complete loss of the OPV should be nothing more than an annoyance.

Having said that a corrugated hose failure or failure the elbow (or rapid exhaust pull dumps) or the "through hull" fittings where the corrugated hose meets the wing will render a wing unusable, and are not unknown.

This is a key reason DSS elected to manufacture their own fittings using acetal (Delrin is the Dupont trade name for acetal) We found over time that the ABS fittings common to the industry could crack, typically from over tightening or impact. It's also why we don't use weld on fittings. Weld on fittings usually work fine, but it's tricky to test the quality of the welds, and DSS produces many styles of wings, some in modest quantities. Destructively testing 2-4 bladders so you can make produce 1 or 2 is not cost effective.

I should point out that for the properly weighted diver the implications of a wing failure are less problematic than they are for the over weighted diver. Getting back to the surface is one issue, staying at the surface after you get there can be a bigger issue. Have a plan, including ditching your rig. Practice that with an empty wing....

Tobin

 

[PfcAJ]

Not to get too far off topic, but I think the original question has been answered pretty well so I have a slightly new but related topic for everyone.

When to ditch your rig?

I've wondered about this after watching the Black Coral documentary where one of the divers "basically" said, "All of your training and certs are great, definitely get them, but don't believe everything you hear. If you're OOG (assuming no other source around) you ditch your rig and swim as hard as you can for the surface."

Thoughts?

I wouldn't waste time futzing with gear.

 

[2airishuman]

In the event of an underwater wing failure (say a rupture) where you were suddenly overweighted by the whole rig... how would you handle this if you just lost all of your wing buoyancy? Wouldn't you have to ditch your entire rig and thus air? (assuming you were diving somewhere DEEP, without a surface 60 some feet down to rest on and wait it out until you had low air and better buoyancy to fin up).

I dive wet, often in a 7mm "farmer John." For deeper dives, I either dive a steel 120 with an H valve and a pony or steel 100 doubles. For the single, H valve, and pony, I end up with 14 pounds of lead on my belt. The pony is six pounds negative. At the beginning of my bottom time, my 30# wing is nearly full due to suit compression and the weight of the air I'm carrying. I have confirmed in separate experiments that I can comfortably swim up 15 pounds, so I know that if I drop the lead, I'll be able to swim my rig up with with a catastrophic wing failure. I would have the option of ditching the pony, also, if the ascent were to prove difficult, although it cannot be ditched as quickly as the lead. I also carry an SMB, and as a last resort could ditch my kit and ascend with just the pony.

For doubles, I have 20# of lead, and the math tells me that my doubles wing is providing about 36# of lift to compensate for suit compression and air at the beginning of bottom time. Ditching the lead leaves me 16# negative, again, a reasonable amount to swim up.

In either case, once I've ditched the lead, my rig will be neutral at some point in the ascent, as the wetsuit expands.

I still won't dive a wall without a hard bottom within recreational depths with these configurations. Not my kind of dive, and there are really only a couple of places around here where you could find something like that, and the only good reason to dive them is for tech training.

Around here if it's deep, it's cold. If it's warm, shallow, fresh water I'm diving a 3mm two piece suit, a steel 120 without the H valve (or with only one regulator), and 4# of lead, and I'm not going to go over a bottom deeper than 40 feet. At that depth I have four choices in the event of a wing failure. I can ditch my kit and swim to the surface, using a spool to control my ascent if I want. I can swim my rig up, possibly ditching the lead, though I've confirmed I can do it without ditching. I can work my way along the bottom to the shore. Or I can use the SMB for emergency buoyancy.

How common (or should I say uncommon) is a wing failure?

Who knows, common enough that I have a plan.

 

[CuzzA]

I wouldn't waste time futzing with gear.

I should have mentioned those Black Coral guys are deep divers (160-250 fsw). So I think they would be more inclined to say that. That's a long way to the surface.

But still, does the slow swimming drag and weight of the rig actually hurt more than the time to ditch?

 

[BreeAbyss]

I should have mentioned those Black Coral guys are deep divers (160-250 fsw). So I think they would be more inclined to say that. That's a long way to the surface.

But still, does the slow swimming drag and weight of the rig actually hurt more than the time to ditch?

Those black coral divers were pretty reckless though, like some of them had no redundancy and no gas planning, no proper buddy team or even proper decompression. Hopefully someone diving to those depths in this time would be a bit smarter and more prepared so ditching the rig from that depth wouldn't be an option

 

[RainPilot]

A lot of the earlier black coral divers had no BCD. In the documentary you hear them talking about sending a guy down to help a distressed diver because "he had a BCD" and his buddy couldn't swim them both out in full rig

Great film, crazy stuff....

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

... whatever happened to the notion of ditching weights? Why would you ditch your rig? Particularly because, as you ascend toward the surface, there's a good chance that some expanding air will become useable if you still have it ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[kelemvor]

... whatever happened to the notion of ditching weights? Why would you ditch your rig? Particularly because, as you ascend toward the surface, there's a good chance that some expanding air will become useable if you still have it ...

In my case, I don't need any extra lead to become negative. The tank I dive (and bp/w) is enough, even at reserve pressure. So, if I wanted to become positive I'd have to ditch the rig (or swim). I'm not sure exactly how negative it is at reserve, but negative enough that I can sink to the bottom of an 6' deep swimming pool.

I'd have to switch to a lighter tank to need lead. I guess maybe switching to a soft "positive" bcd might do the trick. I've tried both aluminum and kydex backplates. Still negative with either of those. I do use an STA, so that contributes. Maybe I need to look into one of the plates that doesn't need an STA.

 

[CuzzA]

Those black coral divers were pretty reckless though, like some of them had no redundancy and no gas planning, no proper buddy team or even proper decompression. Hopefully someone diving to those depths in this time would be a bit smarter and more prepared so ditching the rig from that depth wouldn't be an option

You forgot to mention, narked out of their mind.... In deed they were doing cutting edge stuff, before there were standards.

A lot of the earlier black coral divers had no BCD. In the documentary you hear them talking about sending a guy down to help a distressed diver because "he had a BCD" and his buddy couldn't swim them both out in full rig

Great film, crazy stuff....

I did enjoy the film very much.

... whatever happened to the notion of ditching weights? Why would you ditch your rig? Particularly because, as you ascend toward the surface, there's a good chance that some expanding air will become useable if you still have it ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I suppose an argument could be made that time and effort is of the essence as you're limited to the last breath you took, which may now be little gas in your lungs as you exhaled, so getting to the surface as quickly as possible is paramount. Of course going OOG is unacceptable, but it still happens so I thought it was worth bringing it up for discussion.

An old timer I dive with always razes me for my crotch strap and says I need to get rid of that thing because I should be able to ditch my rig as quickly as possible if necessary.

But I understand what your saying Bob and that is what's taught today.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I'd have to switch to a lighter tank to need lead. I guess maybe switching to a soft "positive" bcd might do the trick. I've tried both aluminum and kydex backplates. Still negative with either of those. I do use an STA, so that contributes. Maybe I need to look into one of the plates that doesn't need an STA.

To the best of my knowledge only DSS offers Kydex plates. (Other may offer ABS plastic plates) DSS plates and wings are designed for wobble free direct mounting, no STA required.


Tobin