Quote:
| Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] (peter k @ Feb. 14 2004,18:05)] |
Quote:
| Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] ]Does a suit have enough buoancy to lift a diver with 2/3 stages+assorted crap? You buy a wing that will lift xlb, but you don't buy a suit like that! Having the wing inflator on your LHP means that if the RHP goes down for whatever reason then you know that you've got enough lift from the wing to get you up as opposed to straining the suit. |
Fair point Peter, but if you loose the RHP (a likely scenario), you loose your primary buoyancy device (wing), to get the wing back again, you simply plug the suit inflator into the wing and bingo! At this point, you don't need the suit inflator because you are heading up. Also, you can orally inflate the wing. In reality, you don't really need either, until you hit the surface, then you can inflate orally, so if RHP fails, you can just forget it, switch to backup and ascend.
The point about wings and lift is that if the rig is properly balanced in the first place, you only need enough lift to offset the weight of gas in the tanks when they are full (about 6-7 kg?). Where you need a wing with 20kg (or whatever) of lift is just to float you comfortably on the surface before and after the dive, to float your gear if you need to remove it and for rescue (i.e. to lift two divers with full tanks etc.)
DIR is more about the sum of all the parts rather than just "what goes where". If one part is missing, then it doesn't work and it isn't "right". A diver who is properly balanced will be able to ascend using fins, suit, SMB or whatever with full tanks and no wing.
Hope this helps - it's good to have some DIR talk back on this forum.
Bob