DIR Liftbag deployment

[ericfine50]

Hello,

I was just reading an interesting discussion about lift bag deployment (closed and open bottom bags) on Quest and thought it would a nice to hear what others did and/or allow people who are not part of quest to read some of the repsonses.


Anyone want to go first??

ERic

 

[Uncle Pug]

Well Shane carries the Halcyon BIG something~or~other and I carry the 70# lift bag. We only shoot it when we need it but we carry them any time we are diving doubles for the safety of redundant lift.

When we are ascending with a live boat or in an area with boat traffic we shoot the bag. 70' is a good place to shoot the bag if you have deco to do since that is a gas switch and if you take a full 3 minutes there you have the extra time to fiddle with the bag. Whomever is the bag man will pull out his bag while the other guy gets out the spool.

The Bag Guy holds out the bag for the Spool Guy to tie it off and then when everything is OK he inflates the bag with his suit inflator hose. The argon keeps the bag vertical at the surface since it is denser than air. After this the Bag Guy gives and gets the OK to let the bag go and the spool guy lets the spool spin freely in front of him. When the spool stops spinning the Spool Guy clips it off with a double ender and we just hang there and watch the spool. If it starts blowing away with a surface wind or current the Spool Guy grabs in and gives a yank every so often to keep it with us.

When it is time to come up 10' the Spool Guy is repsonsible for winding up the spool. When the Spool Guy drops the double ender the Bag Guy is responsible for getting out a spare. I have never dropped the double ender... Shane has and it is still there somewhere for you to find. These things cost $5~$8 so load up and head on out there. Finders keepers.

Can I quit now or do I have to go into how we rinse, drain, dry and fold the thing?

 

[Uncle Pug]

Good question came to me in a PM and I thought the answer....
Excuse me...
My answer...
Belonged here:
>>>>
Got a question...is the spool you mention in your post different from the reel you would use when running a line in a cave or wreck? If yes, can you describe?
>>>>

Yes.... the spool that we use is a small delrin spool with #24 braided line on it. Once the bag is deployed the spool is released to spin in the water. It doesn't go up and it doesn't go down... it just spins until the bag hits the surface... then as it begins to gently sink we take it and snap the double ender over the line and through one of the holes around the rim.

The reason we do not use a wreck or cave reel has to do with jamming. If the reel should jam and you are holding onto it you will be pulled up...not good. If the reel should jam and you let go...bye bye bag~n~reel. Some pull out a bunch of line to keep this from happening but that is a huge accident waiting to happen. When the line gets wrapped around your ankles and drags you to the surface you will wish you had used a little jam proof spool.

video of a single diver deploying a bag can be downloaded here:
http://www.fifthd.com/divestore/classes/video/sbag.htm
A picture of the spool we use:

 

[Scubaroo]

Hey! That looks like the safety reel I bought from Canadian Extreme - except unnecessarily expensive

Whats the go with open versus closed lift bags for diving wet? Closed circuit sounds fine for diving dry, because your drysuit provides redundant bouyancy... and if your LP inflator hose goes, you might have argon on the suit, but what about us poor uneducated folks living in trailer parks (or in warmer climes) who still dive with a wetsuit? Should we go for an open lift bag for bouyancy redundancy? Is a BC puncture (leaving the LP inflator hose functioning - okay for closed bags), or a LP inflator hose failure, the more likely? An open bag we could fill from the regulator.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Originally posted by bengiddins
Hey! what about us poor uneducated folks living in trailer parks (or in warmer climes) who still dive with a wetsuit? Should we go for an open lift bag for bouyancy redundancy?

You uneducated folks living in trailer parks (or warmer climes) make me jealous.... I'm gonna freeze my butt off tonight even with the argon!

Any way to answer your question...
If you are diving wet you can swim your rig up without any air in the BC right? So what are you worried about?

And you know how to inflate the BC with the oral inflator

The closed bag will not tip over and dump the air at the surface.

However someone will be along momentarily to tell you about the duckbill valve that allows you to inflate your bag with a second stage but traps the air inside preventing spillage....

any minute now........
......
.....

 

[WetDane]

UP -
argon is denser than air - therefore your argument that the marker or bag will stay vertical on the surface is flawed - it will lay down - the only way to make it raise up out of the water would be to use He - ¿no?

Also - make sure that whatever bag you have - the inlet valve is oneway - like the Halcyon ones - this means that you can breather into the bag if for some reason you have to. These bags naturally will need to have a dump valve so the eccessive pressure can relieve as it goes up.

Big T

 

[Uncle Pug]

Originally posted by WetDane
UP -
argon is denser than air - therefore your argument that the marker or bag will stay vertical on the surface is flawed - it will lay down - the only way to make it raise up out of the water would be to use He - ¿no?

Hey Terkel - the argon bit was a troll and you are the only one who caught it...

And no helium won't hold the bag up either.

 

[WetDane]

Yeah - the bag is most likely too heavy for even Helium to keep it up - you are just going to have to sit there and tug on it...
;-)

Big T

 

[Aquamaniac]

Uncle Pug once bubbled...


And you know how to inflate the BC with the oral inflator

The closed bag will not tip over and dump the air at the surface.

However someone will be along momentarily to tell you about the duckbill valve that allows you to inflate your bag with a second stage but traps the air inside preventing spillage....

any minute now........
......
.....

OK OK its been 8 months now, and Im sick of waiting.........you said any minute now, c'mon, time to fess up.....

 

[Uncle Pug]

Aquamaniac once bubbled...
you said any minute now, c'mon, time to fess up.....

I 'spect those three little letters *DIR* scared the duckbill bag bunch away from this thread...

BTW, 5thD is now carrying an OC bag with the duckbill open bottom... and I thought I saw "Halcyon" on it