On May 24, 2003 while checking out my gear, I noticed that my Halcyon wing has another cut, 2 in fact, on the BP side.
See pics.
http://community.webshots.com/album/66671030EJMekM
This includes my previous pics of the first repair. The first 3 pics are from March, and the rest are from May.
The two holes I fixed in March with Aquaseal have not leaked again, after 27 dives so far. These are totally new.
The two new cuts seem to be impact cuts from the sharp BP which I taped once, but the tape has worn off because on the 36# wing, the material touches the lower edge of the BP when inflated. The cuts are about 2 inches away from the edge of the plate but I can fold the material to bring the cuts in line with the edges. Pic "closeup showing edge" shows this.
I don't know how the damage occured, but I am certain that the wing worked fine and did not lose air on my previous dive, on May 17. The holes are quite big and I would have noticed the air loss at the surface. After my previous problem, I do a very careful air test of the wing. I would have heard the noise and noticed the dropping pressure at that time as the wing would not hold air at all on May 24.
I patched these new holes the same day. See other pics. I also put some inner tube patches to protect the material and a lot of duct tape on the lower corners to prevent the thin wing material touching the rather sharp lower edges of the BP. I put the rubber patches on more as physical protection for the aquaseal, I don't think it was strictly necesary to seal the leaks.
I noted on a buddy's 27# wing that on his the material never touches the lower edge of the BP. The 36# has the extra side panel and that causes the bottom of the wing to push quite hard on the BP when fully inflated. The last pic shows this.
I still do not know exactly why this is happening, though from other posts it is clearly happening to others and not only to me. There are four wings with holes so far in just this post, plus mine is five. The other thread I saw about holes in wings had 6. Some are seam separations and some seem to be punctures like mine.
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24129&perpage=15&display=&pagenumber=1
I am sure I am not treating the wing especially badly; my previous BC has over a 100 dives on it and it is fine. In fact I had to use the old one on May 24 until I could repair the wing. (As an aside, after using the jacket BC again, I proved to myself that I prefer the wing. If it would hold air it would be great.)
The Halcyon wing is made of a very thin material, clearly much thinner than my Avid BC, and it is not very puncture resistant. Also, there is no inner air bladder, so any damage to the outside material results in a hole. This is compounded by very sharp edges on the BP due to rather poor quality control. I think I have solved the edge problem, but I really should not have to do so. The cuts occuring to the harness webbing where it comes through the holes in the BP are not very impressive either, though this is unlikely to be a serious problem as the webbing is much stronger than required and it could be cut 3/4 through and still work.
I don't know which model year mine is, but I bought it just last February in San Diego.
On the positive side, Aquaseal did a remarkable job in sealing holes that I thought were too big to seal. There are no leaks at all after the repairs. I put all the aquaseal on the outside as I did not see how I could do anything through the tiny access holes. I test the repair before each dive by power inflating until the lower valve opens up and there is no change to the repair. It is not pretty but it works.
I have not yet contacted Halcyon. Until recently, I lived in Chile and just moved to Peru 2 weeks ago. I have not really fully moved yet in fact. I did not want to send away the the wing and lose it for my last few dives before I moved. Right now I am on top of a mountain in Peru. No diving going on here.
Even in the most optimistic case, if Halcyon should replace the wing, the truth is that I expect it to be punctured again anyway. Unless my mods to the backplate and the rubber patches solve the problem.
Gerry
