ALF's Back in Illuminations!

goofyfan13

goofyfan13

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Air Launch Firework's Back in Illuminations!

Alright, stopped at Epcot tonight to catch Illuminations before I fly home tomorrow for Spring Break. Much to my suprise, the rumors we heard a long time back about the opening shot launch point changing, as well as the ALF's coming back have finally come true. Now today may have not been the first day, but they weren't there two weeks ago.

The opening shot after the drum beats is now shot off of the American Gardens Theater. Once this happened, I was suprised not to hear the usual charges for the first two "Big Bang" mortars, but needless to say, they went off. So much better with the ALF's in place. :sohappy: Nothing quite like those first two mortar bursts unannounced. Looks like they finally figured out a safe way to put them back in.


Now, I forgot to take my camera today, so I apologize, but the only thing worthwhile that I saw for getting pictures of was Yak and Yeti, they have a wall up thats about 2 stories tall now. So the building has gone vertical.

Also, saw the Laugh Floor today. Not a bad show, they still have some kinks to work out, but it's a pretty decent show. Nothing really side-splittingly funny, but I had a few chuckles. The animation does need a little work though.

Thats all the major stuff I noticed today, I kinda jumped between parks pretty quick. Sorry I don't have any pictures for you all! :( :wave:
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
goofyfan13 said:
Alright, stopped at Epcot tonight to catch Illuminations before I fly home tomorrow for Spring Break. Much to my suprise, the rumors we heard a long time back about the opening shot launch point changing, as well as the ALF's coming back have finally come true. Now today may have not been the first day, but they weren't there two weeks ago.

The opening shot after the drum beats is now shot off of the American Gardens Theater. Once this happened, I was suprised not to hear the usual charges for the first two "Big Bang" mortars, but needless to say, they went off. So much better with the ALF's in place. :sohappy: Nothing quite like those first two mortar bursts unannounced. Looks like they finally figured out a safe way to put them back in.
Click to expand...

Yay! I can't wait to see it again in June. I've missed the ALF shots the past few visits.

The main thing that they had to work out was a location around the Lagoon that wouldn't require firing over a Guest area, and thus closing off the walkway for the shot. And because the AG theater is closer to the center of the lagoon than its old firing point in the UK, they had to play with the air pressures involved to get the proper arc through the sky.

Now I'm curious as to when the Earth globe rehab will happen.

-Rob
 
goofyfan13

goofyfan13

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Rob562 said:
Yay! I can't wait to see it again in June. I've missed the ALF shots the past few visits.

The main thing that they had to work out was a location around the Lagoon that wouldn't require firing over a Guest area, and thus closing off the walkway for the shot. And because the AG theater is closer to the center of the lagoon than its old firing point in the UK, they had to play with the air pressures involved to get the proper arc through the sky.

Now I'm curious as to when the Earth globe rehab will happen.

-Rob
Click to expand...

Yea, hopefully they get the globe going soon. It's looking pretty bad.
 
goofyfan13

goofyfan13

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Kal_el8604 said:
sorry to sound like a noob, but what is an ALF?

I read this thread thinking that a certain creature from melmac was in epcot
Click to expand...

Air-Launch Firework.

Basically, traditional mortar shells in firework shows are launched by a gunpowder charge. Creating smoke and a loud thud. ALF is a technology where the mortar is launched out of a tube with compressed air, and is detonated by a microchip if I'm not mistaken. Basically, no gunpowder smoke, and no loud thud.
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
Kal_el8604 said:
sorry to sound like a noob, but what is an ALF?

I read this thread thinking that a certain creature from melmac was in epcot
Click to expand...

ALF = Air-Launched Fireworks.

It's the Disney-created system for launching fireworks with compressed air rather than the typical explosive launch charge. In Reflections of Earth, they use it both for the opening comet that arcs across the sky, as well as the two shells that meet up with the comet in mid-air to provide the Big Bang. The air-launcher allows those two shells to be launched from the water unnoticed. (A traditionally launched shell would have had an unmistakable flash, smoke and "thwump" as it launched and lessened the impact of the comet appearing to streak through the sky and exploding on cue)
Apart from those three shells, the rest of RoE is launched traditionally.

A couple years ago, there was an accident with the launcher on the inferno barge. One of the shells exploded in its launch tube during setup, causing significant damage (but not human injury, thankfully). The inferno barge was taken out of the show for months for repairs. The comet was launched from the UK shoreline, and the explosion shells were more visible (and audible) launched from the water. Even after the inferno barge returned, the ALF systems weren't used.

Since then, WDI has worked to find a suitable place to re-locate the land-based ALF launcher so that the comet wouldn't have to fire over a Guest area. It used to be mounted on the top of the perfume shop in the UK (the back end of the row of buildings with the tea shop at the front), and every show they had to close off the walkway in the UK for about 5 minutes until after the shell had launched safely. Now that they relocated the launcher, it doesn't launch over a Guest area and thus doesn't cause any foot traffic issues.

Oh, and Disneyland has since adopted the ALF system to launch almost ALL of their fireworks. They were having air-quality issues with the launch-charge smoke drifting into nearby residential areas, and the ALF system lessened that quite a lot. There were also California state air-quality emisison standards they had to meet.

-Rob
 
goofyfan13

goofyfan13

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Rob562 said:
ALF = Air-Launched Fireworks.

It's the Disney-created system for launching fireworks with compressed air rather than the typical explosive launch charge. In Reflections of Earth, they use it both for the opening comet that arcs across the sky as well as the two shells that meet up with the comet in mid-air to provide the Big Bang. The air-launcher allows those two shells to be launched from the water unnoticed. (A traditionally launched shell would have had an unmistakable flash, smoke and "thwump" as it launched and lessened the impact of the comet appearing to streak through the sky and exploding on cue)
Apart from those three shells, the rest of RoE is launched traditionally.

A couple years ago, there was an accident with the launcher on the inferno barge. One of the shells exploded in its launch tube during setup, causing significant damage (but not human injury, thankfully). The inferno barge was taken out of the show for months for repairs. When it returned, the ALF systems weren't used, and the comet was launched from the UK shoreline, and the explosion shells were more visible (and audible).

Since then, WDI has worked to find a suitable place to re-locate the land-based ALF launcher so that the comet wouldn't have to fire over a Guest area. It used to be mounted on the top of the perfume shop in the UK (the row of buildings with the tea shop at the front end), and every show they had to close off the walkway in the UK for about 5 minutes until after the shell had launched safely. Now that they relocated the launcher, it doesn't launch over a Guest area and thus doesn't cause any foot traffic issues.

-Rob
Click to expand...

Much more detailed than my description. Listen to this one. :wave:
 
CrashNet

CrashNet

Well-Known Member
Yes! Fantastic news! I'm really loving all of this TLC Epcot seems to be getting lately.

Rob, the Globe should go down for rehab in April. They'll show a revised version of the show during its absence (about 2 minutes shorter with new pyro)

One other thing...if anyone is there tonight, report back if ALFs were in tonight's show. They may have just tested it yesterday and it hasn't been fully implemented.
 
G

goodolgm

Active Member
AWESOME NEWS! The 'big bang' never worked right without the air launch. The two shells always went off a second apart from the other, and it just never had the same effect as the ALF-launched shells. Hope someone can get some video soon ;)
 
mkt

mkt

When a paradise is lost go straight to Disney™
Premium Member
alf.jpg
 
M

Magic Freak

New Member
They were testing this effect around two weeks ago when i was working late at epcot one night. I didn't think that it would be put back in the show this quickly though.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Looking forward to seeing what sounds like a top quality show in October. Indeed, dare I say it, the whole park sounds like it`s being spruced up for its birthday :D

Thanks for the updates - it`s good to have the ALF location confirmed. Hoping for some video soon if anyone can manage it :wave:
 

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