Dumping air from a wing

[Paul Burgess]

I have a couple of questions about diving with wings. As I don't have any experience of these so I hope someone can help.

Firstly, I have noticed that a lot of wings have the bottom dump valve on the underside of the wing. Does this prevent the air from escaping as it may not be the upper-most point? How does this work in practice?

Secondly, many wings don't have an upper/shoulder dump. What is the rationale behind this? As far as I can see it means that you must always have to be in a horizontal attitude or you must use the corrugated hose.

Can anyone let me know how they get round these issues when using wings which are set up in this way?

Cheers,
Paul

[Dr Stevil]

Wings, or rather the bladder of the wing, can be fitted either way around so the dump can be arranged outermost if preferred, don't know about lacking shoulder dumps, my OMS has one. My wing rarely has any air in it underwater as I use the suit mainly for buoancy so if I need to dump air from it I'll be around the 35m region so dumping air is not really a big issue for me

[JohnD]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Paul Burgess @ Mar. 03 2004,17:39)]Secondly, many wings don't have an upper/shoulder dump. What is the rationale behind this? As far as I can see it means that you must always have to be in a horizontal attitude or you must use the corrugated hose.

<font color='#F52887'>remember that the corrugated hose is a pull dump and that is why you do not need another one on the opposite shoulder, although there is usually a blanked off one but that is for fitting a secondary bladder. and in common with Steve, my wing has no air in it underwater I only inflate it when I am at the surface.

[daz]

The bottom dump is usually used to dump air if you are in a heads down attitude.

The corrugated hose can be lifted up to dump or on virtually every one I have seen also pull to dump.

Also I was told that the corrugated pull dump is usually a non return type dump where as other pull dumps may not be and although I have no evidence to support this being the case on all jackets/wings or even any jackets/wings, &nbsp;I have noticed that when I used to dump by lifting the hose or using the bottom pull dump I usually ended up with water in the bladder.

Since I have started to solely use pull dump I have not needed to drain any out after a dive. &nbsp;Although I cannot for the life of me see how it is non return, &nbsp;seems to work the same as a normal pull dump.

If anyone has not tried this yet I would be interested to see what other peoples experiences are.

Daz

[Mark Chase]

My wings dump is on the front of the wing so on the surface at the beginng of the dive I lean back and slightly to the right to dump gas. Once under I stay horizontal throughought as much of the dive as possable and the position of the dump becomes prety irelivent. If low on back gas on the 6m stop and on the edge of boyancy control I might have to go virtical to dump the last few grams of wing gas but but its never much of a big deal.


My hosde is routed under my arm so I only ever pull dump

ATB

Mark Chase

[tiewrapdiver]

I'm currently in the process of modifying a buddy redwing, i've swapped the shoulders over so the hose comes over my left side, and i have actually installed a pull dump on the other shoulder because i find it easier than using the hose dumping method. I'm also planning to route the inflator under my arm like Mark has mentioned.

But like everyone else i use my suit for bouyancy when diving so its not really much of an issue.

[Fathoms Down]

I use a DiveRite bladder and haven't found this a problem at all. I usually dive in a drysuit so only use the wing for buoyancy at the surface but the other week I got the chance to try out my twins and harness in a pool (and so without my drysuit) and didn't find dumping air a problem at all. The DiveRite wings come with dumps at the bottom of the wing and a hose pull dump.

[wreckweasel]

Its kinda linked to your weighting. You're supposed to be aiming for neutral bouyancy with your weighting, which means your wing is just a bouyancy trimming device.

The idea is that when you pull the arse dump, it only vents the excess pressure (since your weighting was spot on), so it doesnt need to be on top of the wing.

In practise, most people need to do a slight roll and sometimes stick their arse up.

As someone else said... you can always fight back the jedi's of DIR and go upright for a few seconds to lose air through your hose if you want.

The pull to dump arrangements vary, but I dont know of *any* that have a non return system, its just too complex/costly.

As an aside, I remove mine and replace with an elbow, for the simple reason that I've have the pull cord wear through the corrugated hose (many moons ago). The DIR chaps do it simply to remove something that you dont need, that could fail. Horses for courses

[Driftwood]

<font color='#0000FF'>Is it just me or is the OMS standard length top dump cord insanely, stupidly short as I can never find the damn thing when rigged up.....

Gee at most three inches, how embarassing.... &nbsp;

[Stu Sheridan]

<font color='#0000FF'>It's not just you Drift.
The first thing any OMS owner should do is buy some black cord and clear tubing (B&amp;Q) and extend their shoulder dump.
Mine runs over my shoulder (snoopy loop on harness) and down to where my drysuit inflator is. Also where my wing inflator is.
All easily locatable in the same area for single handed operation.

Stu.