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Wicker Man - General Discussion - Part Two

I wonder if it's just OTT Merlin safety procedures.

Or Wardley deliberately reprofiled that drop with structural issues because they never let him build a woodie from scratch :p
 
Mikw said:
That's true, Thirteen still remains a pig at times, The Smiler has been pretty good the last few years though
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I think Thirteen suffers slightly due to the woodland location, I would imagine it is likely that adds to the damp and cold which can't help the ride. Wickerman possibly isn't helped either.

The location of the park adds a lot, but I think the Staffordshire countryside possibly does add some environmental factors.
 
Ethan said:
I don't think anyone can argue that a bit of downtime and maintenance on wicker man isn't anywhere near as much hastle as the smiler has brought them
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agreed, that was a major Health and Safety incident though(if it’s the crash your referring to). This is hopefully just general maintenance. But it is worrying because of the frequency of closures so early in its operating life.
 
Connor98 said:
agreed, that was a major Health and Safety incident though(if it’s the crash your referring to). This is hopefully just general maintenance. But it is worrying because of the frequency of closures so early in its operating life.
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It deciding to discard the occasional bolt or general surplus to requirements bit of metal when it first opened, wasn't the best start to things either.
 
jon81uk said:
I think Thirteen suffers slightly due to the woodland location, I would imagine it is likely that adds to the damp and cold which can't help the ride. Wickerman possibly isn't helped either.

The location of the park adds a lot, but I think the Staffordshire countryside possibly does add some environmental factors.
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That is part of it, like the Pleasure Beach relentlessly suffering the effects of the Irish Sea.

That said, the redesigning of the brakes on the ride and its fussy nature with regards to weight/load are nothing to do with trees.
 
Air, Thirteen and The Smiler were way more unreliable in their first few years than Wicker Man, they run well today. Is this really that concering?
 
OilyWater said:
Air, Thirteen and The Smiler were way more unreliable in their first few years than Wicker Man, they run well today. Is this really that concering?
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I don't know about 'concerning' but I would struggle to think of a GCI woodie that has a downtime record like Wicker Man.

With two of the others that you mention it was the prototype nature of the ride system that was responsible for a fair share of the problems. The other has just been a headache from start to finish ... (especially on the 12th inversion, some might say).
 
It was down all day Sunday and Monday, and looks to be down all day today as well. Wasn’t any clear sign of any work taking place, and no track work like previously.

The worse thing as always with towers is their blatant laying or denying. You ask them on socials and they’ll just say to keep checking the app. When it’s been down for more than a few days they need to be clear and just say it won’t open today, as the management will know full well.
 
djtruefitt said:
It was down all day Sunday and Monday, and looks to be down all day today as well. Wasn’t any clear sign of any work taking place, and no track work like previously.

The worse thing as always with towers is their blatant laying or denying. You ask them on socials and they’ll just say to keep checking the app. When it’s been down for more than a few days they need to be clear and just say it won’t open today, as the management will know full well.
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I wonder when it will reopen
 
I think the frustrating thing is altons lack of honesty. After 3 days they should be informing people it’s down and not going to be open for a few days.

saying teams are working when in reality they are waiting for parts or off site advice is just a lie and looks unprofessional
 
Ben said:
I think the frustrating thing is altons lack of honesty. After 3 days they should be informing people it’s down and not going to be open for a few days.

saying teams are working when in reality they are waiting for parts or off site advice is just a lie and looks unprofessional
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It better be open by Saturday as I want my first night ride on it
 
It seemed to run fine when I rode it on its last full day of operation on Friday. Of course that’s coming from someone who is GP and hasn’t a scooby.

I’d love to be a fly on the wall on the behind the scenes maintenance of these rides.
 
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