Galactica: General Discussion

[pluk]

What steps are involved in a galactica lift evac? I know them on a brief level .

The ones under the lift hill, primarily.

 

[Matt.GC]

Just so this is straight in my head because I'm struggling to imagine it. The primary way of emergency evacuating Air is on the brake run from the prone position, so how is this done? Do they remove the leg restraints first before slowly releasing the main restraint so that you land on your feet? I know you're pretty close to the ground on the brake run, I'm just wondering how the physicality of removing people from face down works?

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[Alsty]

Pretty much. They have a platform they can bring out and put under the craft. First step, release the flaps and then you can put your feet onto the platform to support yourself. Then they can hold and release the harness carefully. This is done one seat at a time.

 

[John]

I'm sure I've seen them manually lowering the seats into the loading position (one row at a time) on the brake run - that seems a much better method than trying to evac from the prone position?

 

[Ian]

Just to wrap everything up in one post, there are basically two ways of evacing.

The easy way is to put the steps under a row and release the leg flaps. You then ask the guest to place their feet on the step and put their weight on them as if standing. Once they are happy with that you then release the OTSR. There’s a few parts to the restraints. There’s a switch on the base of the leg flaps which releases the rubber vest tensioners (shown with a yellow arrow on the image 1. Note there’s also another on the back of each row, but when the craft is prone you can’t access this, hence the second one (bless you B&M for thinking things through properly!)) and you then use the release key to undo the actual lock in the lap block of the harness. I believe there’s also a step to pull back the failsafe bolt (the one at the end of the arm rest which mechanically pops out as the craft tilts into the prone position) but I can’t remember exactly how that happens... I think you insert something between the armrest and OTSR to hold it back as the restraint comes up. The host will open the OTSR (well, fold it down!) and the guest effectively walks out of the seat stooped over. When you’re down the step you then stand upright and make sure not to whack your head off the craft! It sounds confusing and not like it should work, but it makes sense if you see it in practice.

Alternatively there’s hard way. Above each row of seats is a slot on the rear face of the chassis cover (circled in red on image 1). This connects to the holding pins which keeps the row held in the prone position (these are the things that make the screeching sound when the craft first goes prone or is about to come back down. They grind a bit as they go in and out). A host will insert the winder into here and twist it, which manually turns the mechanism and retracts the pin. Once the pins are wound in the row will drop down. Although there are gas struts on each row, they can still come down with some force, so need a bit of support from other hosts to prevent them from slamming down and giving everyone on the row whiplash! You also may need a bit of upwards force on the row so the pins can be wound back a little easier, as they’ve got the weight of the row and guests pulling down on them. When in a station the T bar braces the weight and controls the decent. Once the seats are down you release the OTSRs as normal and the guests climb out just like they would if you were evacing Nemesis for example.

Image 1


As you can imagine, the second way is very time consuming and hard on the ride team. It’s easier just to pull the steps out and release from the prone position wherever possible (naturally there may be cases where this isn’t possible, such as if a guest is unable to “walk out” of the seat). Because it’s far less staff intensive you can rattle through the seats fairly quickly, and also be doing multiple rows at once. You also don’t have to worry about trying to reset the craft into the prone position or manually raising the T bar so the craft can return to the station once the problem is cleared.

For a lift evac it will be the same process, but as others have said, you’ll drive the evac platform up to the row to provide a floor for guests to stand on. You can see the platform parked at the top of the lift pit when you’re on the ride (shown with a red arrow in image 2). It has folding railings that are down when not needed, and is powered by an onboard engine so it can run without a power supply. It straddles the width of the lift and drives from a gear on the motor that drives over a row of teeth on the side of the stairs. Lift evacs are more complex thanks to the height and incline, so it’s always preferable to drive the craft off the lift and get it to the brake run for a ground evac if you can.

Image 2

 

[jon81uk]

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?

I loved the orignal air theme music. I've got great memories of 2002/3 sorta time, I'd got my first Tussauds annual pass, queuing up over the hill in the summer sunshine with the air music in the background and the Heroes characters practising assuming the position in their cult on the monitors overheard. Not so great was the fact the entire queue cheered when they finally managed to get the weight balance on a train right and at last despatched!
But I found the original Air theme nicely relaxing, sure they could have done with finishing the tunnel and lift hill, but the overall feel wasn't bad.

But with Galactica, the enclosed station doesn't make any sense now they aren't playing the video any longer inside. It never seemed to make sense to have the whole bridge enclosed to me, just made it feel small and then tatty as it fell apart. At least the enclosed stations made sense as there were videos.
But the VR worked for what, two seasons? All we have really now is a portal feature. The rest no longer makes sense.

 

[Josh]

There’s a few parts to the restraints. There’s a switch on the base of the leg flaps which releases the rubber vest tensioners (shown with a yellow arrow on the image 1. Note there’s also another on the back of each row, but when the craft is prone you can’t access this, hence the second one (bless you B&M for thinking things through properly!))

Close the switch under the leg flaps is only used to release the flaps, not the vests. Hosts use it in station to put peoples legs in if they didn't hold them back when the flaps closed the first time. The switch on the back of each seat is the only way of opening the vests manually. When in prone the hosts use a long ruler to poke it through the gap.

 

[Skyscraper]

Hopefully it's nothing serious, but Galactica has had loads of downtime today.

 

[Danscott22]

This was on 2 stations but 2 crafts yesterday, and even then there were a number of seats not in use, which massively inflated the queue time.

 

[Olivus Prime]

I loved the orignal air theme music. I've got great memories of 2002/3 sorta time, I'd got my first Tussauds annual pass, queuing up over the hill in the summer sunshine with the air music in the background and the Heroes characters practising assuming the position in their cult on the monitors overheard. Not so great was the fact the entire queue cheered when they finally managed to get the weight balance on a train right and at last despatched!
But I found the original Air theme nicely relaxing, sure they could have done with finishing the tunnel and lift hill, but the overall feel wasn't bad.

But with Galactica, the enclosed station doesn't make any sense now they aren't playing the video any longer inside. It never seemed to make sense to have the whole bridge enclosed to me, just made it feel small and then tatty as it fell apart. At least the enclosed stations made sense as there were videos.
But the VR worked for what, two seasons? All we have really now is a portal feature. The rest no longer makes sense.

It speaks to the quality of the original Air music that people haven't been left with bad memories of hearing that 3 minute track on loop when queuing 2 hours for the ride.

The Galactica space theming feels generic as hell to me, and somehow even more out of place in the area than Air's theming was. Not to mention the minimalist Air theme fit the ride as a high concept - it was about giving you the experience of flight, not trying to tell some story about a travel agent sending you to space.

If they end up retheming this ride once again (unlikely), they should take pointers from their work on Smiler and Wicker Man. Can't speak for their build quality but they both feel like they blend with existing 20 year old areas pretty well.

 

[Trooper Looper]

Tbh I don't see why they shouldn't consider retheming it back to air. The ride itself was still quite popular to the GP before Galactica. Galactica did have its popularity for the first 2 seasons, but dwindled over time when VR lost its relevancy in the Theme Park industry.

I wouldn't be surprised that many of the GP still think that the VR is still there, since there's practically been no advertisement of its removal.

I think the reason the ride is so popular without its VR is the fact it's a pretty perfect ride for literally anybody to ride, thrillseeker or not, and the flying sensation. Not to forget that lot of people, including the GP actually still hate the VR and puts a lot of people off the ride from it being very nauseous, even when it's long gone.

Incredibly fun, relaxing, and not too thrilling. The Perfect ride for everyone.

If they did bring Back air though, they'd definitely would have have bring some theming from its concept art preferably in order to drag the General Publics attention, since almost any theming is good at that, and a lot of Adverts all over the Internet, heck, maybe even an advert on the Telly about Airs return. Probably a 1 in 10 happening, but hey, its better than seeing the worlds first permanent flying roller coaster being slowly forgotten by the Higher Ups.

 

[Jb85]

@Trooper Looper i happen to agree with you but I think within the next 10 years the ride will be gone

 

[Trooper Looper]

@Trooper Looper i happen to agree with you but I think within the next 10 years the ride will be gone

I'd highly doubt its removal is anytime soon. Maybe 20 years minimum?
It'd be great if they did bring Back air with its concept theming as Nemesis undergoes its retrack. Itd be a great way to make Forbidden Valley popular again as the retrack goes underway. It would take just over a closed season to retheme it back with some additional rockwork added. Keep the portal but repaint it to a silvery grey to blend in with the area.
Airs theme is a lot more suitable for the rides Exterior than Galacticas. That bridge seriously just needs removing with the walls put there, like someone else said earlier, that part of the ride is a great photo opportunity.

Heres a thought, if it does ever undergo a retheme back to air, have Airs soundtrack for the outside queue and area, and have Galacticas for the station to create adrenaline?

 

[Ethan]

I'd highly doubt its removal is anytime soon. Maybe 20 years minimum?

20 more years!? Its already 20 this year can't see them keeping the ride until its 40. There could be 2 more sw's in the next decade and I can't see them fitting 2 more in without removing current rides, so something will have to go

 

[Trooper Looper]

20 more years!? Its already 20 this year can't see them keeping the ride until its 40. There could be 2 more sw's in the next decade and I can't see them fitting 2 more in without removing current rides, so something will have to go

You're right, 20 seems like a bit of a stretch. How about 12?

 

[Ethan]

You're right, 20 seems like a bit of a stretch. How about 12?

I guess it all depends on if they have enough room to build new Sw's without having to remove current attractions. I'm not sure how much room they have remaining for new rides. If they had to remove current rides then I can see Galactica being the first out of the big 7 tbh. Rita still does a good job at pulling in the crowds but I don't feel like the same attraction is there for Galactica anymore

 

[JAperson]

Non of the SW's are going anywhere anytime soon. Galactica has probably got at least another 10-15 years in it. I don't think we'll get an SW until about 2026 and I don't think that'll need to replace any of the current ones. So if they decided to remove it for SW10 that's not likely to happen until at least 2029 but I actually think it's more likely that Rita will go first. Meaning that likely all of the SW's are safe until about 2035. My personal opinion is that I think all of the SW's are safe for a good ten years and that Rita is likely to be removed before any of the SW's.

 

[Trooper Looper]

It'll be sad when the day comes that air, the world's first flying roller coaster will bite the dust. A one of a kind flying roller coaster.

When other B&M flyers try to be thrilling, Air tries to create a flying sensation. A sensation you can't really get anywhere else.

 

[Rick]

I can't believe people are talking about dumping extremely popular multi-million pound assets like they're an old hoover you take to a car boot sale.

 

[Ethan]

I can't believe people are talking about dumping extremely popular multi-million pound assets like they're an old hoover you take to a car boot sale.

Oh I don't think any of the rides are going any time soon. But when the time does come I personally think Galactica will be the first SW gone. Depends how long the smiler lasts before it falls apart lol