Jb85
TS Member
Yes!!!!
Being back the AIR tunnel topic
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Galactica: General Discussion
- Thread starter Rob
- Start date
Being back the AIR tunnel topic
Skyscraper
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
Got to bump the thread and share this as it's so funny 
Thameslink Rail
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Smiler
Got to bump the thread and share this as it's so funny
I can't make out what they are singing...
siralgenon
TS Member
Sweet Caroline, Living on a Prayer and We Shall Not Be Moved
It doesn't normally take that long to get the offending phone / camera off someone & normally only one host would go up the lift. More likely a Trouble light on the control system or Ride Stop / E-Stop that effectively shuts the ride down and stops the trains anywhere between the start of the brake run & top of the lift (e.g. where they can be stopped).
Threaten them with a lift-hill evacuation (which we could do back in my days there). It focussed their mind and made them comply.
Due to the rise in snowflakes / wokes you'd probably not get away with that nowadays.
All I can say is send them to a German Fair. If you're not seated within 20seconds with your harness locked, you're out. No messing around with removing / tightening shoes / laces. No messing with baggage cages etc. You're on fast or out of the exit and don't ride. German Fairs have legendary throughputs.
There isn't any floor below the craft so surely it's impossible
Error
TS Member
How do B&M flying coasters do a lift hill evacuation?
Can they make the trains fold back down so you’re sitting up right? God that’s making me feel twitchy just thinking about it
Put your hands out and brace for impact.
Dave
TS Founding Member
Moveable ramp and winch down the craft, to my knowledge outside of practice evacuations it’s never actually been done. They have a back up generator for the lift hill motor so even in the event of a power cut they would just clear the final break run and power the craft over the lift and evacuate in the brakes. Pretty much the only thing that would result in a lift hill evac is a lift chain snap.
It’s certainly high on the Towers “we really don’t want to have to do it” list. Along with a sky ride evac over the valley (though watching them practice that is cool).
AT86
TS Member
Amazing photos!
Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
I’m not sure if this has been posted already, but I just found a really interesting RideRater article; What was the point of Galactica?: https://riderater.co.uk/8099/what-was-the-point-of-galactica/
Personally, I don’t think Galactica was as much of a fruitless exploit as this article implies. Before Galactica came along, Air lacked a sense of theme, even though it was nicely styled, and I feel like Galactica gave it one, personally. The portal is fab, I like what they did with the station and the pre-boarding videos with EVE and the whole explanation about the different planets, I love the soundtrack, and on the whole, I just considerably prefer the vibe of Galactica to the vibe of Air, personally. Also, it bought with it the Rollercoaster Restaurant, which I absolutely love!
Now let’s address the elephant in the room, and the ride’s main USP; the VR. I personally had 2 experiences with Galactica’s virtual reality; one shortly after opening in April 2016, and one in July 2017 once the VR had “worn in” so to speak. In April 2016, I really enjoyed it; I thought it was a really cool way to enhance the ride, and something really very unique. However, when I rerode in July 2017, I didn’t like it at all. It probably didn’t help that the audio was broken when I rode in 2017, but in general, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I didn’t want the headset on when I was riding, and the VR impressed me far, far less. I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, I think it ultimately boils down to the fact that VR was a cool novelty on the first go, but wasn’t an especially rerideable experience, and lost a lot of the novelty factor once it wore in a bit and lost its shiny newness. It also majorly reduced the ride’s capacity; I seem to remember trains taking about 10 minutes to dispatch each time when the VR was fully integrated, which is a substantial reduction when compared to the amount of time it takes trains to dispatch now (probably less than 2 minutes). The VR certainly had its fans for sure, but on the whole, it was somewhat unreliable (I seem to remember numerous occasions where the ride had no VR due to some kind of technical problem), not particularly rerideable and didn’t seem overly popular on the whole, either, especially once we passed the initial honeymoon period. So in that regard, I think it’s safe to say that the VR element of Galactica was a bit of a flop.
So on the whole, do I think that Galactica was a mistake? In hindsight, quite possibly, but I certainly don’t think the retheme was without merit by any means, and the VR did provide a cool, marketable way to revitalise Air, at least initially. If you think of it as a revitalisation of Air, then I think that the retheme was not pointless at all, even if the main selling point wasn’t a huge success. Ultimately, if I ask myself whether it improved Air, I think it did, so that makes it at least somewhat worthwhile in my eyes.
What do you guys think?
Personally, I don’t think Galactica was as much of a fruitless exploit as this article implies. Before Galactica came along, Air lacked a sense of theme, even though it was nicely styled, and I feel like Galactica gave it one, personally. The portal is fab, I like what they did with the station and the pre-boarding videos with EVE and the whole explanation about the different planets, I love the soundtrack, and on the whole, I just considerably prefer the vibe of Galactica to the vibe of Air, personally. Also, it bought with it the Rollercoaster Restaurant, which I absolutely love!
Now let’s address the elephant in the room, and the ride’s main USP; the VR. I personally had 2 experiences with Galactica’s virtual reality; one shortly after opening in April 2016, and one in July 2017 once the VR had “worn in” so to speak. In April 2016, I really enjoyed it; I thought it was a really cool way to enhance the ride, and something really very unique. However, when I rerode in July 2017, I didn’t like it at all. It probably didn’t help that the audio was broken when I rode in 2017, but in general, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much I didn’t want the headset on when I was riding, and the VR impressed me far, far less. I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, I think it ultimately boils down to the fact that VR was a cool novelty on the first go, but wasn’t an especially rerideable experience, and lost a lot of the novelty factor once it wore in a bit and lost its shiny newness. It also majorly reduced the ride’s capacity; I seem to remember trains taking about 10 minutes to dispatch each time when the VR was fully integrated, which is a substantial reduction when compared to the amount of time it takes trains to dispatch now (probably less than 2 minutes). The VR certainly had its fans for sure, but on the whole, it was somewhat unreliable (I seem to remember numerous occasions where the ride had no VR due to some kind of technical problem), not particularly rerideable and didn’t seem overly popular on the whole, either, especially once we passed the initial honeymoon period. So in that regard, I think it’s safe to say that the VR element of Galactica was a bit of a flop.
So on the whole, do I think that Galactica was a mistake? In hindsight, quite possibly, but I certainly don’t think the retheme was without merit by any means, and the VR did provide a cool, marketable way to revitalise Air, at least initially. If you think of it as a revitalisation of Air, then I think that the retheme was not pointless at all, even if the main selling point wasn’t a huge success. Ultimately, if I ask myself whether it improved Air, I think it did, so that makes it at least somewhat worthwhile in my eyes.
What do you guys think?
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Spot on. The absolute last thing you want to have to do is a lift hill evacuation on Galactica. Having done a practice one back in 2002 it took about 45mins to do one row of the train. We didn't bother doing the other row with staff on - we just restarted the ride.
Both the service brakes & safety brakes can be manually released & reset to the default [closed] position by Technical Services, who would then use the diesel generator to jog the lift chain to get the train onto the free-roll. It would make a pretty abrupt stop in the service brakes, but at least a ground-level evacuation could then take place. I dread to think how many levels of safety protocol are in place for doing manual brake releases / resets & then using the diesel generator now following the events on The Smiler. It will be a lot for sure, with "two sets of eyes" on everything - no relying on CCTV.
Dave
TS Founding Member
In the old days (pre-2000’s) they used to pay the sky ride operator higher than any other operator on park even though it’s a fairly easy role in normal circumstance because they coordinated evacuations and had a lot of responsibility in the event of an emergency (the other big fear was a station fire during operation). Pretty sure that hasn’t been the case for a long time!