G-suit repairs

[tinbender2]

Anyone know where I can get a G-suit repaired?

It has two small holes in a leg bladder, approximately 9mm in diameter.

I'm pretty handy at repairs, just don't have the information to do it myself.

Thanks.

[ffuries]

Are you talking about the bladder itself? If so I know in the Air Force we condemned them when the bladders had holes in it. The leak test we performed was to inflate the G-suit to 5 PSI and if it leaked more than 1 PSI in 1 minute it was condemned. There are no provisions in the Tech Order to repair the bladders themselves.

If you are talking about the outer material (Green NOMEX shell), I know the Tech Order allowed 5 (IIRC) repairs before condemning the G-suit. I would recommend hand stitching (Darning) the hole with NOMEX thread, taking care to miss the bladder or take a piece of NOMEX material (Old flight suits make great donors) and create a patch to cover both holes with one patch, again hand stitching with NOMEX thread and taking care to miss the bladder. I can't remember what the exact Tech Order was that covered G-suits, but it was in the 14P series.

ETA: Found the Tech Orders.

CSU-13A/P and CSU-13B/P = Tech Order 14P3-6-121
CSU-22/P and CSU-23/P = Tech Order 14P3-6-141

ETA: You can take the seam apart at the zipper and fold the material back out of the way, and run a stitch back and forth, left and right over the hole, and then re-sew the zipper and seam, again using NOMEX thread.