Lightweight Doubles Wing Suggestion?

[ElectricZombie]

A 55lbs Halcyon Explorer wing should be fine for steel 72 doubles. There may be a tiny bit of wrap, but not enough to matter.

I compared the size of my 55lbs wing to my buddys 40lb wing...the 55lbs wing is just slightly bigger. I say get a 55lbs wing and use that for all your doubles diving.

 

[ezinternet]

Thanks for your comments. I admit it without defense - I AM inexperienced with doubles It was my first time out with 'em.

The most striking difference was the leverage exerted by the wing pulling me around. I suppose with doubles (of any size) that the edges of the bag are further away from my centerline, so the feeling of the shift in buoyancy when the air moves to a side is magnified, as compared to a narrow profiled single wing.

As compared to the 50#, do people think that a 40# wing such as the OMS or a Dive Rite Rec wing would be less prone to the shifting? Anyone using a Rec wing with doubles?

Also, putting aside the potential failure modes and risks of "bungied" wings - putting those aside for just a moment - do the bungies actually damp or limit the effect of air movement in side to side rolling? The OMS page, for example, makes the claim that: "The OMS ® elastomeric bands evenly compress the BC, eliminating the massive airshift associated with non-banded BCs that typically occurs when changing body plane."

They claim "eliminating" the shift. Is that anywhere close to what people experience with the bound-up wings?

 

[nyresq]

I dive a OMS 45lb bungeed wing, I dove it several times without the bungees installed and then installed the bands. I can honestly say the bands do make a big difference in the air shift.
I won't get into the good vs bad.... dir vs death sentence topic of bungeed wings, but, yes the bands do help the air shift.

 

[Genesis]

Thanks for your comments. I admit it without defense - I AM inexperienced with doubles It was my first time out with 'em.

The most striking difference was the leverage exerted by the wing pulling me around. I suppose with doubles (of any size) that the edges of the bag are further away from my centerline, so the feeling of the shift in buoyancy when the air moves to a side is magnified, as compared to a narrow profiled single wing.

As compared to the 50#, do people think that a 40# wing such as the OMS or a Dive Rite Rec wing would be less prone to the shifting? Anyone using a Rec wing with doubles?

Also, putting aside the potential failure modes and risks of "bungied" wings - putting those aside for just a moment - do the bungies actually damp or limit the effect of air movement in side to side rolling? The OMS page, for example, makes the claim that: "The OMS ® elastomeric bands evenly compress the BC, eliminating the massive airshift associated with non-banded BCs that typically occurs when changing body plane."

They claim "eliminating" the shift. Is that anywhere close to what people experience with the bound-up wings?

Yes the OMS BWODs will do that, and its their advantage over a non-bungied version. However, its a minor one, because if you get far enough over the air will still shift - just not as significant of one.

With that said, the real problem is not the air shifting in the wing. A singles wing will do this too if you roll enough.

The real problem is that you have a lot of heavy, negative TANK which is ABOVE the lift of the wing. The issue is one of center of gravity .vs. center of buoyancy. If the CB is ever ABOVE the CG, then you are unstable and will roll over! Also, with double 100s you have roughly 15lbs of gas in the tanks, which means that when full you have 15lbs of air in the wing - which is enough to shift around and cause trouble. With even a big single (100cf tank) you only have half that much gas in there.

With a single rig this doesn't happen until you roll WAY over. With a doubles rig, with or without the retraction bands, it will happen before you reach the 90 degree roll point. Wings which stay entirely "below" the tanks EXACERBATE this effect. Whether this is "good" or "bad" depends on your perspective; my perspective is that its BAD, as static instability is never good, since it requires effort to maintain position under those conditions.

With aluminum tanks there is much less of an effect in this regard, BUT aluminum doubles are (IMHO) horrifyingly painful for other reasons, not the least of which is that they are about +6 when empty, which means you need more weight on the belt - possibly a LOT more weight. However, they should not be unstable to a significant degree. Steels are negative even empty which means they will be quite unstable if you roll when full, and somewhat-less-so when empty. Also, if you're going to dive AL doubles in the ocean you must pay CLOSE attention to galvanic action between the bands and tanks, lest you end up with a pair of wind chimes.

BTW in the ocean there are reasons to LIKE the steel "keels"; if you ever have to lay on your back and wait for a boat pickup you'll appreciate it. That's a completely stable position with steels - with aluminum tanks it is NOT.

If you can find someone with an Abyss wing give that a try. I love mine and find that it is MUCH more stable than the other "traditional" wing shapes. Its designed to put the inflation out where it "wraps" the tanks, much like my singles wing does, and as a result it dives a LOT more like my singles wing. You can still get overcenter and do a turtle imitation, but you have to work a bit harder at it.

 

[Wendy]

When I dive double Al80's I use the dive rite trek wings with the bungees removed. I also dive the same wings with my lp steel 85's. Just cuz you buy something with bungees on it doesn't mean you can't take them off.