Evac Plans

[markjohns1]

I guess it depends on whether they can bring the floor back up during the E-stop or not. If they can, it's just a matter of opening the cabin up (using the manual release for the front panel, if necessary).

It certainly does depend on the angle of the capsules at the time of the E-Stop. If they are level, the floors could definitely be raised manually to get the guests out. There is also a release to manually level the capsule as well, which was used to make getting out with a ladder much easier and safer.

The easiest way to get the floors to come up and level the capsules would be to simply restart the ride system, which would allow the ride to return to its home position, both bringing the floors up and leveling the capsules. But that would require disconnecting power to the ride system and restarting it, which was not something you could really do with guests inside, especially if the E-stop was pushed for a legitimate reason.

 

[dreamscometrue]

It certainly does depend on the angle of the capsules at the time of the E-Stop. If they are level, the floors could definitely be raised manually to get the guests out. There is also a release to manually level the capsule as well, which was used to make getting out with a ladder much easier and safer.

The easiest way to get the floors to come up and level the capsules would be to simply restart the ride system, which would allow the ride to return to its home position, both bringing the floors up and leveling the capsules. But that would require disconnecting power to the ride system and restarting it, which was not something you could really do with guests inside, especially if the E-stop was pushed for a legitimate reason.

I don't really understand what is meant by bringing the floors up. Which floors and up to where? :shrug:

 

[mpoppins217]

I was wondering if anyone could answer a question for me about Splash Mountain. I was on the ride one night after it rained and it was just my log and 2 logs in front of mine that had people in it, the rest of the place was deserted. When inside by where the three possums are we hit a back up of logs (this is after the lights had come and the spiel to remain in your logs had come on for almost half the ride, so I'm assuming it took that long for us to hit a stopping point). We waited for a good 20 or so minutes when a CM comes running around. When he reached the end of the backed up logs (there were about 5 or so behind us so I'm assuming they caught the problem pretty soon...) he sprinted back. Was he counting how many logs were backed up? I made the assumption that's what he was doing in order to know how to set the drops for braking/spacing. Is that right or was he possibly doing something else?

Thanks! :wave:

 

[mousermerf]

Actually, to get technical the ToT cameras are part of the VVC "cages" that the elevator cars sit in while in the load and drop shafts. There are no cameras within the car itself. There are also a couple cameras along the 5th dimension to monitor the cars as they roll from one shaft to the other.

As for evacuation from Tower, the cars can be evacuated into the show scenes and 5th dimension levels from the Load shafts, and in the Drop shafts a panel in the back wall of the car can open up to evacuate Guests onto catwalks in the shaft. The panel can't be opened from within the car, only from behind it. (The cars on Horizons evacuated in a very similar way) Of course this would only happen in an emergency. The preferred scenario would be to lower the car to the basement slowly and unload like normal.

On Soarin', in a full power loss they have a generator(s) that can provide enough power to lower the carriages down to floor level. In an E-stop situation, it depends on which command button the CM pressed whether the carriages are immediately lowered down (such as a Guest issue where you want them down immediately) or an entire show stop that freezes the carriages in place (such as a problem down on the floor where you wouldn't want the carriages coming down).

-Rob

Does Soarin have a "power disconnect" for extreme emergencies and the motion needs to be stopped and other e-stops aren't responding? Other simulators, Star Tours and Body Wars, do in addition to the power-backup e-stops.

 

[mousermerf]

My wife, on the other hand, got evaced from Maelstrom during the official opening back in summer of 88. I had the 3-year-old who wouldn't ride anything inside and she had the baby that couldn't stand the bright lights outside. So she's going down the river backwards and the boat stops. She says people appeared from the walls and escorted her into hallways and out of the ride.

I opened the door (or rather, the person who was bringing me the back way to the preview of the princess dinner opened the door) into that exact scene on accident. Luckily it didn't trigger an e-stop.

 

[daringstoic]

I was wondering if anyone could answer a question for me about Splash Mountain. I was on the ride one night after it rained and it was just my log and 2 logs in front of mine that had people in it, the rest of the place was deserted. When inside by where the three possums are we hit a back up of logs (this is after the lights had come and the spiel to remain in your logs had come on for almost half the ride, so I'm assuming it took that long for us to hit a stopping point). We waited for a good 20 or so minutes when a CM comes running around. When he reached the end of the backed up logs (there were about 5 or so behind us so I'm assuming they caught the problem pretty soon...) he sprinted back. Was he counting how many logs were backed up? I made the assumption that's what he was doing in order to know how to set the drops for braking/spacing. Is that right or was he possibly doing something else?

Thanks! :wave:

If the ride started up right after that, it was probably an intrusion. If the ride had actually been broken, you would have been there for much longer, and heard spiels on the PA along the lines of, "Drop three being reset with 2 logs," about every segment of the ride track. There are motion detectors hidden throughout the ride, and if one gets set off, the whole ride has to be stopped. It sounds like you were coming up to Drop 2, and the approach to that (after the first outdoor drop, past the fishing hole, and the hopping Brer Rabbit AA) is the longest segment of the ride without a stopping point. The area where the little bunny is sweeping in front of the house is notorious for false alarms set off by people with their arms up in the air or waving cameras around, etc. When a regular motion detector gets set off, the ride has to be stopped immediately, and the lights are turned on. The tower CM calls down to the station and sends one of the CMs out into the mountain to visually check that nobody has gotten out of their log, even though they can pretty well tell that from the camera views that immediately pop up showing the area that the alarm occurred in. It sounds like he was just checking to make sure nobody was out wandering around before heading back to the station.

 

[mpoppins217]

If the ride started up right after that, it was probably an intrusion.....

Thank you so much, what a wonderful indepth answer! And glad to know it was nothing serious! :sohappy:

 

[Rob562]

I don't really understand what is meant by bringing the floors up. Which floors and up to where? :shrug:

Mission: Space has a section of floor that lowers underneath the capsules to allow them to fully pivot and twist. They needed the step into the cabin to be as low as possible, so they had to create the lowering floor. When it's lowered, it creates a large circular "moat" directly under all the capsules. You can see the area that drops as you enter and exit. There's a rubber edge at the separation in the floor.
You never see it in the down poition (unless you're there during an E-stop) because you're already closed up in your capsules, and it happens after the CMs enable the capsules and exit the chamber (so even the CMs usually only ever see the floor down during an E-stop). If you listen carefully you can hear it drop down just before the ride sequence starts in the capsule.

EDIT:
Look at the photo I posted earlier in the thread:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b84/steerr/Mission Space/100_0645.jpg
You can see the curved black line on the floor cutting across the white part of the floor tile. If you look at how close to the floor the bottom of the cabin is, you realize that it can barely pivot forward or backward before one of the edges would hit the non-lowered floor.

-Rob

 

[markjohns1]

Explanation of floors

That is correct. You can also see the floors drop and come up on the cameras in the bay and also through the crack between the main bay doors. Sometimes they have to drop the floors to clean as well in a situation that involves a lack of sickness bags and too much :hurl:, or if someone decides to bring an open soda on.

 

[dreamscometrue]

Mission: Space has a section of floor that lowers underneath the capsules to allow them to fully pivot and twist. They needed the step into the cabin to be as low as possible, so they had to create the lowering floor. When it's lowered, it creates a large circular "moat" directly under all the capsules. You can see the area that drops as you enter and exit. There's a rubber edge at the separation in the floor.
You never see it in the down poition (unless you're there during an E-stop) because you're already closed up in your capsules, and it happens after the CMs enable the capsules and exit the chamber (so even the CMs usually only ever see the floor down during an E-stop). If you listen carefully you can hear it drop down just before the ride sequence starts in the capsule.

EDIT:
Look at the photo I posted earlier in the thread:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b84/steerr/Mission Space/100_0645.jpg
You can see the curved black line on the floor cutting across the white part of the floor tile. If you look at how close to the floor the bottom of the cabin is, you realize that it can barely pivot forward or backward before one of the edges would hit the non-lowered floor.

-Rob

Wow, thanks so much for that great answer! I just never noticed that before or was aware of it. Cool!