There's been a lot of consternation in this forum concerning the Yeti, so I thought I'd throw in my two cents and a clarification.
The Yeti doesn't necessarily run in B mode because it's broken. It also runs in that mode when it's not operating within very specific and stringent A mode operating parameters. Motions of the Yeti are closely monitored by a number of systems. When any single monitored motion is detected to be outside of the set parameters the Yeti is automatically shutdown. Obviously this is done for safety purposes. The Yeti interacts with the guests far too closely so the benefit of the doubt is given to the guests, not the Yeti. Safety is far more important than allowing the show to go on.
Despite the extensive testing performed for months on the Yeti prior to EE opening to guests (probably more testing than any device Disney has ever built), there are still instances where things can happen. When something as large, complicated, and powerful as the Yeti has to operate for hours upon hours during a day, things are bound to occur that no testing or design consideration can anticipate. Each shutdown event is logged and scrutinized to determine why it happened and adjustments are made. Shutdown faults are to be expected, especially initially. Uptime will improve but even 10 years down the road you can be sure there will be the occassional fault that never happened before. That's the way of complicated mechanical devices.
What's really a shame is that flying by on a coaster doesn't do the Yeti any justice whatsoever. Guests don't get a good idea what it's really doing. To fully appreciate the Yeti people need to stand on the platform just below it, where the fans and strobes are mounted, and watch it go through a few cycles. It's absolutely breath-taking and awe-inspiring. It's a shame Disney doesn't give tours of that. It's understandable though. Liability and all that.
And just to clear something up, there are actually 3 modes for the Yeti. There's A mode, for which it goes through its full range of motion. There's B1 mode in which there's a limited range of Yeti motion (most people probably wouldn't be able to distinguish between B1 mode and A mode unless paying close attention, which is hard to do while going 30 mph
). Then there's B2 mode which is no Yeti motion, fans/strobes only.
The above is purely my personal opinion and is not intended to represent the views or opinions of my employer.
