Wing Lift Capacity

[Christian Rivers-Martin]

I just purchased a Hollis S25 LX wing with aluminium backplate and Solo harness. I'll be diving with a 5mm neoprene drysuit and single 15L / 120 steel cylinder.

The wing has a lift of 25lbs / 11kg, will this be enough to safely dive in the ocean?

 

[CuzzA]

@DevonDiver has this buoyancy calculator on his website. http://www.scubatechphilippines.com/wing-lift-calculator.xls

I'm going to venture to guess you'll be fine with the drysuit, but if it failed, a 25 lbs wing seems rather small for a big steel 120. However, we have no idea about the other gear you use so I would use the calculator.

 

[Christian Rivers-Martin]

I have 26lbs of Lead on a separate belt as well as ScubaPro Twin Jet Max fins, apart from that I carry very little, just my Suunto Vyper Air and line cutter

 

[Insta-Gator]

You have 10# for your head, then your BP/W, your cylinder with regs, plus any other gear you may have attached. Even with the 26# of ditchable weight, I would think a larger wing would be in order.

 

[Christian Rivers-Martin]

My backplate is aluminium and only weighs 0.78 grams, about 1lb, according to this calculator I need 25lbs of lift

 

[runsongas]

I think you plugged the numbers in wrong. if you need 26 pounds to be neutral at 3m, that would put suit at 29 pounds with -10 head, -11 tank full, -2 tank empty, -1 BP. That puts needed lift at 38 pounds.

the 38 pounds would also cover the 29 + 9 in a total suit flood.

 

[captio2000]

You'e gonna want that wing to float all gear you have even if you are in it.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba.]

I'm going to agree with those who say you need more lift.

 

[cool_hardware52]

I just purchased a Hollis S25 LX wing with aluminium backplate and Solo harness. I'll be diving with a 5mm neoprene drysuit and single 15L / 120 steel cylinder.

The wing has a lift of 25lbs / 11kg, will this be enough to safely dive in the ocean?

Any BC needs to meet two criteria:

1) Offer enough lift to float your 'rig' without you and your buoyant exposure suit attached to it. If you know the buoyancy numbers for the cylinder you are using you will get pretty close by simply weighing the rest of your rig, i.e. plate, harness, regulator, ballast attached to the rig etc. Of course this will slightly over estimate the net negative of your rig in the water, but that's not a terrible thing.

2) Offer enough lift to compensate for the maximum possible change in buoyancy of your exposure suit.
Every exposure suit has the potential to lose all the buoyancy it started with. Neo wet suits can compress, Shell Drysuits can fail in such a way as they can no longer trap a bubble, and neo drysuits can do both.

Almost in cold water the divers suit will dictate the minimum required wing lift. This should be somewhat obvious as most cold water divers will need ballast in excess of what their rig provides.

I'd recommend testing the buoyancy of your suit, but I would expect a 5mm Neo Dry suit with undies to be more than 25 lbs positive.

Tobin

 

[Christian Rivers-Martin]

So should I exchange it for the Hollis S38 LX or Hollis C45 LX?

I feel like the C45 is too big for a single tank, tank wrap could be an issue. Also the S38 seems to have a neater cam band attachment