Nomad with twins

[johnnyblackau]

Hi

I went for my first dive with my nomad xt today with my twin 12l fabers bolted on. My question is that I found it quite difficult to get good balanced trim. I'm thinking that it may have something to with the shape of the wing with larger volume of air around the hips as opposed to an even spread. Has anyone else had this problem? Something else i noticed was that once i dumped all the air from the wing, I had to add more than i'm used to (coming from a jacket style) which meant that with the depth changes it was making staying at that depth more difficult almost creating a runaway accent. Is this again due to the wing style? thoughts?

blackie

 

[BabyDuck]

ok, i'm lost. the nomad is a sidemount wing. how are your tanks attached?

 

[johnnyblackau]

I've got the XT model that can be used for sm, bm single and bm twins. I'm using the stab plates as instructed by dive rite - so it's not an adhoc system. To be honest it all comes together quite nicely.

http://www.diverite.com/products/catalog/nomad/bc4650p

 

[OkByMe]

You might be a little over-weighted judging from the symptoms. Try half the weight. The more air you have in your wing, the bigger the swing will be.

I dive a transpack, rec wing (which is close to the Nomad) with double steel 85's, and side-mount al80 and al55 in a 3/5 wet suit... I do not have any weight except for lights and reels and of course the regulators. That is just about the max for that setup. When I ditch the stages, and dump some air, I'm good to go. The wing is barely inflated.

 

[johnnyblackau]

I'm not carrying any weight other than the tanks and reels. I spoke to another tec guru and he's suggested to move the tank down on the grommets else use tail weights

 

[OkByMe]

OK. The nomad wing does extend further back than the rec wing and also has a more tapered shape putting a lot of air in the butt end. The reason being that you would be side mounted and the tanks would extend further back. So the back mount is higher and the bubble in the butt of the wing is "off center".

If you are feet light, then the guru may be right. Move the set down as far as you can and still reach the valves. If you still feel like you are wobbling and/or feet light, you may have to add a weight belt with a few pounds. A feet light trim can be doubly aggravating if you are in a dry suit too. Another thing to consider... If the wing has "taco" tabs, you might try pulling the wing in at the bottom and balance that way. I do it with the rec wing when I'm traveling light.

The Idea is to use as little weight as possible, which translates into as little air as possible so you are more streamlined. A small bubble in the wing is much easier to control with depth and attitude changes. Have you tried side mount in that rig yet? You said twin... Do you have a manifold? If not, it would be easy to snap them out of bands and give side mount a shot. The only time I back mount is when I carry a lot gas or rec single and pony.

The best trim I ever have is when I'm back mounted and side mounted loaded with 4 to 5 tanks, no weight just gear and the wing is about 3/4 inflated. With just doubles, I carry about 6 lbs to make sure I'm not tank light with a buoyancy change at the end of the dive. The wing is about 1/4 inflated.

 

[johnnyblackau]

I'm saving my sidemount experience for my tdi sidemount course in October... I have heard too many people say its something that you should be taught and the learning curve will be a lot better therefore the dives better. I have the tanks manifolded .... To be honest ill do majority of my dives in sidemount so ill probably end up splitting the tanks and occasionally put them back together when I really need to make life convenient ... It just bugged me not having the trim I want...