I work at a ride and pulling on the air gates hard enough can lead to an automatic E-stop. Thankfully I haven't seen it happen in-person, but I know it can.
Was in line for Verbolten, ops were very vocal about staying off the air gates. Told people that messing with them can cause the ride to fault and shut down.
A small danger is that if you close the gates on a guest and they force it to stay open, if they let go the gate springs very fast and can easily harm someone, even though the air pressure is low the gates are still quite heavy. You can also cause the gates to spring around by flipping the gate switch while the gates are moving. I have never seen more than a bruise from being hit by the gates though.
The Premier rides air gates are particularly horrible. They locked pretty reilably so people couldn't open them manually. But they would break down at least once a week because one just wouldn't open. They also open with enough force to push someone into the track pretty easily.
A theme park i went to recently has manual gates for all of the rides, which have some sort of child proof locking mechanism (And they have a single gate for each ride which is both the entrance and exit) And I’m certain they designed the mechanism to prevent visitors from figuring out how to open it I was at that park on a day it was closed to the public to do two of the private “activities” the park offers, and to get to the area where the “activities” are done, i had to go through one of the gates to one of the rides, and i was given a ride in a weird vehicle, which is not designed to carry passengers (that vehicle is not part of any of the rides at the park), to get to the area of the park where the “activities” are done (which is out of view of the public areas)
The old arrow shuttle loop at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Revolution, doesn't have any air gates, just a yellow line. The operators have to shout at people day in day out to stay behind the yellow line.
Happy new year my friend! I'll admit it, I asked in genuine curiosity and you addressed it quickly. I'm really appreciative that you take the time to reply but also find a way to transform questions into 40+ minutes of content. Nothing like coming home and ending my week with some of your content
the cool thing about the B&M i use to work at was when it sent the fault (which happened a LOT our gates were typically pretty sloppy) it would allow all the trains to come back and "stack" close to the station rather than fully estop which i always thought was cool. some other rides were not like that.
Makes total sense. After all, the only part of the ride where a potential danger could exist is the station area. And if someone were to actually get in the danger zone instead of it just being the sloppy air gate mechanism, the operator could still hit the big red button(tm) and cause a full e-stop. At the same time, I still wonder how people survived and still survive in other parts of the world including my home country of Germany, where not all coasters have air gates. Sure, most new ones are built with air gates, but older ones often don't.
@@Colaholiker Coasters without air gates can be made just as safe by using regular manually-operated gates. I haven't been for years but IIRC that's how it works at my local park's old coaster. When the train stops at the station the operator unlocks the gate with a key and checks everyone's height as they enter. Then they lock the gate before starting the ride.
@@eDoc2020 Sure, this is an option. But i was talking about coasters where you walk all the way up to the loading area, and all that's between you and the track is a red line on the floor. Nothing stops you from just jumping in front of the moving train, except for your common sense.
@@Colaholiker I think it's mainly a culture shift. Most people are well-enough behaved but the park doesn't want to risk getting sued by the parents when some stupid kid walks out. It's worth noting that real trains (aka public transportation) also don't have safety gates around the tracks. If safety gates were a huge safety benefit you'd think they would be everywhere.
@@eDoc2020 It's probably also a question of how sue-happy people in a country generally are. i remember how shocked US friends were to learn how flat rides are run at fairs here in Germany. Like people waiting all around a Break Dancer ride, just arm's length away from the spinny bits. Seeing videos how everyone just runs onto the slowing ride to catch a seat made them hold their breath in disbelief 😁
I remember learning at our Vekoma Family Boomerang, they told me: if someone sits on an air gate or starts pushing against it, while the ride is moving, YOU push the E-Stop. Even if the train is going to stop on top of the lift and we gonna have to evac. The ride is going to do it for you if they do manage to trip the sensors, but if they don't and manage to climb over …
Alright this needs to be shown to anyone who enters a park. I wish people would listen to the handrail and gate spiels we give. I will say them over and over again and then if people don’t stop I will then directly call them out. People sometimes underestimate and or forget the power us ride ops have with a microphone.
When I first started riding coasters as a child, back in the early 80s at Six Flags Over Georgia, there were no air gates. I have very vivid memories of riding Great American Scream Machine and Dahlonega Mine Train, and there was just a red or yellow painted line on the ground that you weren’t supposed to cross. And people, including children, seemed capable of following instructions back then and not flinging themselves in front of a train. 😂 I don’t remember the year, but I can remember the first summer I encountered the gates. I was baffled by them and didn’t see the point. But now, as someone who visits many theme parks as an adult, watching kids and teenagers flop and flail all over the park like a fish out of water while bouncing basketballs and ignoring any and all instructions, I definitely see the merit. 😂
Twister at knoebels still has the line! People don’t listen though so the ride ops have to constantly yell at people to get back which you think would be common sense
I remember roller coasters having Air gates and being baffled by an amusement park that didn't have them thinking of that in the park was slacking in the safety department!😊😅
A lot of amusement parks have a large yellow line on the queue platform where the air gates are. At my home park, Hersheypark, when you are waiting on the ride platform to get on the roller coaster, they play an automated message that tells you to stand behind the yellow line while the air gates are closing.
Have you seen ElToroRyan's new video giving a brief breakdown of the Bullet Coaster crash in China? I saw your Short about it after it happened, but would love to hear more of a breakdown of the incident from your perspective now that more information has been released it seems! Love the videos!
One of my coworkers (software engineering) used the word "debounce" and I'd never heard the phrase before. Soon after I began watching this video and WOW 24:18 "we put a little bit of a debounce timer in there". Anyway, fun moment to stumble across the technique here, and definitely glad you're putting a little delay before cranking the PSI on the gate!
Yea as I understand it, debounce is mainly used to prevent errors from popping up instantly and get things to behave properly. I mainly use the term in place of “very small timer” haha
@@ryantheridemechanic Technically, the term comes from the "bounce" that mechanical contacts have when they close. They slam together, bounce off (hence the name), close again, and this can go on numerous times over a very short (talking about a few milliseconds worst case) until they settle in the closed position. With all relay logic, this is no problem, as the next relay doesn't react quickly enough for it to even matter. It simply can't follow these short pulses. However, when talking about an electronic input like on a PLC, those bounces are slow in comparison to the processing speed, so the PLC could see multiple edges of whatever it is being turned on and off rapidly. This is where debouncing in the original sense of the word comes in. But the term is used pretty generally for other instances where you just want to filter any short signal pulses away and only want to react once the signal is stable for a certain amount of time.
@@Colaholiker that is good to know. So my knowledge of Most thing come from troubleshooting and repair. Sounds like you’re more in the design and engineering side of things. Thanks for the information! I learned today, so it’s a good day!
@@ryantheridemechanic I'm a software developer in R&D with a company that sells (among other products, but that's my division) specialized industrial control stuff - but not at all ride related.
I honestly LOVE the GCI millenium flyer trains. Thats actually pretty cool what they did with the restraint locks. I always wondered how the KI ride ops are ok with letting you go with one click, and its a minimum of 2 on the Beast and Racer. Im not a very big guy, I just like room.
They're the most comfortable and well-riding coaster train I've been on. The first time I rode in a Millennium Flyer I could tell it was well designed and built just from the way it felt. Sad that they're basically at the end of their life cycle, they are such a jump ahead of the old PTC trains you used to see on everything.
Hey Ryan, I could talk about my ride op/attendant stories for decades... Air gates today! So. Let's talk. There was a group queueing for one of our bigger rides, an Intamin Multi Looper. The station was extremely busy, the queue was over an hour, and this obnoxious kid was shaking the gates whilst they were waiting for their ride. They were told to stay off three times, no idea why the batch host didn't sort them out, but that's another story. So, the train hit the brakes, train came in, and it wasn't one of the rides where the train required confirmation to come back into the station, so the train just kept trundling in. Miraculously, this kid didn't breach the gates at this point. Restraints popped up, riders got their bags, air gates popped open... But now this kid decided he didn't want them to be open. So he grabbed the gate and yanked it shut, and walked off without riding. Ride faulted during the busiest day of the year. It's bad enough when someone's too eager and faults the gates while they're shut, but what you don't consider is when someone just wants to cause trouble. Thankfully all the gate pairs were individually actuated... We had another flat ride which was my main allocation, where the air gates often siezed up (Air gates on a flat ride!? Have a guess which type for extra credit!), so when it was time to board riders, we actually had to tell guests to shake them. Felt really wrong to tell guests to do that! About those EMs for the initial latch... Would it be worth exploring EPMs? Only a momentary pulse is required to switch on or off the magnet. Also, having experience on a railroad, you only really need about three feet AND someone able to view that three feet "corridor" to safely clear a train from a platform. We actually use the three "operator" system on the railroad I worked on.
Some people just know how to make things a mess for others don’t they. The park I worked we didn’t care that the gates opened because we had a train of people to verify that haha! So the gates open never created faults. Just on closing. I’m not sure of the acronym you’re using for EPM could you elaborate on that?
@@ryantheridemechanic EPMs are Electro-permanent magnets, formed of two permanent magnets and a soft magnet. When the momentary charge is applied to the soft magnet, its crystals align one way or the other depending on the charge applied, which can serve to either swamp or amplify the fields of the permanent magnets accordingly.
@@danlastname9002 that’s interesting. I think that could be used but would have to be monitored somehow. Magnets are normally prone to corrosion and debris getting stuck inside preventing proper operation as well.
Thanks for the video. I know what my next selfie is, lol. Seriously I see people doing it a lot at my park. I almost got caught in the air gate on Rougarou slow people in front of me and I wanted on that train.
I doubt they’d remove people from the park for that kind of behaviour. When I was at Darien Lake, a man whipped out a literal pocket knife, capable of killing someone, while in line for Viper. He was showing it to his girlfriend, in a manner as if they had a plan to do something with it and he wanted to show her he got it in. He was not escorted out of the park, he followed me around the rest of my time there. He made some snarky comments to me reguarding the incident because he saw I reported him to the ride op, who presumably called security but security let him stay in the park (this is not on the ride op, it’s on their rediculous security theatre where you’ll see a ton of security but they don’t do crap about guests like the man with the knife).
So I really started watching your Channel via the Hyperia video recently. At the end you mentioned 'stay off the air gates.' And I wondered if that was a coincidence or you heard what happened so I asked you in the comments. Now I'm binge watching your videos and I understand that you say this all the time!!! So I don't know if you were aware, but on Hyperia's opening day, the ride kept having stoppages. They were quickly reset, a test train sent, and the ride was back up in single digit minutes (new ride, so the park's maintenance and ride manufacturer's own teams were on hand all day, hence the speed.) Turns out it was an air gate issue every time. They were announcing for people to stay off the gates each and every cycle, but they seemed to be super sensitive, slightest touch would e-stop the whole ride. Anyway, thought you should know, incase you didn't already, why you were getting so many comments about air gates on your Hyperia video. Great channel btw, I'm really enjoying it since I started binge watching this week.
It makes sense for Vekoma to put some extra effort in their Boomerang air gates. After all, unlike most other coasters, when the train flies through the station coming off the first lift, it's the fastest part of the ride, not just the train being pushed along by a few motors. On their Invertigo or especially their Giant Inverted Boomerang, they made the gates even taller so that you also can't reach over them. I wonder why they don't normally do one thing to keep the air gates shut that should be not too expensive (if you look at how much money they spend on a new ride in the first place). Just put the same mechanism on the end of the tie rods that is used for hydraulic restraints. When the air gates are supposed to move, power the unlock valve. When they are not, don't. Seeing how much force they can withstand, they should be strong enough to keep the air gates shut, even with people pushing against them. I just keep my hands (and all other body parts for that matter) off the air gates entirely. They are moving objects whose movement I don't control. So why should I be touching them? What I do do is lean against non-moving railings. But like you say Ryan, an adult leaning against one of these with the feet on the ground is not at a risk of falling anywhere. Overall, great explanation. However, I fear that the people who would need to watch it the most are not the people that are going to watch your videos here - at least not until you reach those 1.6 billion subscribers. (fingers crossed)
Vekoma builds their stations for the boomerangs. And every manufacturer tends not to design the station at all it’s up to the park. So the gates are part of the staton and they say station supplied by others. There’s the loop hole. Even complicated station systems are actually part of the ride track and the physical station is built around the ride track. Kind of interesting how that do that. But a park could always specify the manufacture to build the satiation that would probably double the cost of the station however. And I think I’m going to keep calling out arbitrary subscriber counts and say “I’m on my way” because it’s true haha!
"Rate of speed" is redundant. Speed is a rate of distance/time. Nobody says long length of distance. Still love the video! Also love the correct "crossed". lol
The only issue with air gates is when they shut early. I had to dodge one by jumping to the side when boarding a ride at Cedar Point as it began to shut before I had stepped onto the platform.
I'd love to see a live stream of your reactions visiting Little Amerricka and Mt. Olympus. Wisconsin's safety and liability laws are *very* different from California's! There's a coaster with neither restraints nor functioning block brakes, another one where you can reach over a short fence and touch the track.
I operate Maxx Force and even if a few people push hard, those air gates are not gonna move lol. My leg got trapped in them once and I was limping the rest of the day 😭. I’ve seen guests get squished a few times and always feel really bad for them.
Do you ever wonder how the airgates that you designed are doing now that you've been out of the industry for a bit? Kind of like how reality TV shows do a "where are they now?" segment? 😂
Not really. I built them like other airfares that never had problems. So I’m assuming they are holding up just fine. And the park hasn’t called me asking to help troubleshoot them haha!!
Thank you for these videos. Always excited for Fridays! Do all ride manufacturers provide the air gates? Or do the parks sometimes have to design their own?
I saw a video on Twitter yesterday where 2 guys were having a fight in a subway station in Philadelphia. one guy hit the other guy and he fell right into the tracks just as the train was coming. it was brutal
I'd be interested. In the 80s my Six Flag's coasters had some degree of manual braking ability and the operators would 'bounce' trains through the brake blocks and to a station stop by opening and closing the brakes in quick succession. All of their coasters had really herky-jerky stops for that reason, I'm fairly certain the operator was pushing a button to open the brakes and letting go to close it. Could have been a lever controlling the brake air pressure as well, normally spring-loaded to stay in the full service closed position. They obviously were homing the trains in the station manually to get them lined up with the gates. But if the operator needed to really speed an inbound train up to an empty station, they could. The actual panel operators were more highly trained then, they had far more authority over the machine than parks let them have now. By the time I worked at a park that degree of 'freedom' was gone and the ride control systems gave the operator little movement authority other than moving trains in and out of the station - homing is done by the system, not sight in most cases (some exceptions remain). I did know some managers who used the older systems I described, you had to be on your toes and hustle your dock crews to keep trains moving and potentially avoid a ride error from trains backing up.
@RyanTheRideMechanic I find ride maintenance and building fascinating and am considering a career change. I'd be a little late into things at 36 now but if I wanted to look into it what kind of degree would you recommend, or what directions would you recommend in general. I currently have an AoS degree but in a completely unrelated field, and would consider going back to finish a BS or higher if needed.
It really depends on what you want to be doing. If you just want to give maintenance a shot, you don’t really need a degree at all. It helps but almost everything is on the job training. Now if you want to get into design and building, a professional engineering (PE) in mechanical would be good but that’s a hard nail to hit then the majority of those jobs, especially amusement, will want the work history to back it up. If you go into general ride maintenance and you’re enthusiastic and want to learn, that already puts you leaps and bounds ahead of most mechanics who have the “it’s a paycheck” mentality.
Thanks. I ended up watching another video of yours that someone asked a similar question and you pretty much answered it for me in that video as well. Appreciate it! @@ryantheridemechanic
wait so is that how slim jims are made?? they just set up chickens on the air gates and wait? also im so glad he didn't end up calling on me, i had the same dumb idea as that other guy but i sat up front.
Yes. But that typically why they use cylinders with large pistons. If you increase the lever arm at the base you can run into the problem of the cylinder stroke has to be too long and then you can snap the air cylinder in half. So there’s a sweet spot.
Varied drastically from ride to ride. Some wheels would wear down. Some would just get old and crack and they needed to be replaced. High usage about 1 wheel every 14 days. Low usage would be about 5 wheels during rehab only.
With this you can go to the Job offering of C.E.O. of technical engeneering at Efteling Themepark. They have a job offering for that. You would become C.E.O. of Animatronic development, show technique development and the whole technical ride staff as well. Also, Intamin totally screwed their relationship with Toverland after contract breach with Toverland from Intamins side. The ride is now often closed and not operating as intended. Toverland is really pissed at Intamin (This was in a Dutch news article when guests got stuck for 3,5 hours on the Intamin parachute tower for the third time in a half year.) Toverland said Intamin did not hold up their end of the contract in this news article. Any thoughts on these things?
Just out of curiosity, what’s the average MTBF with proximity sensors used in newer coasters? Is there a big difference between the ones used by say B&M and Vekoma?
Most proximity sensors are purchased from P&F. Pepperell Fuchs. The types and sizes used are typically up to the company designing the control system. Like most designers specify Allen Bradley PLC. There is no real standard though.
They are actually spelled Pepperl & Fuchs 🤓 (Yeah, damn German names, but at least there is no umlaut). When it comes to Allen-Bradley PLCs, I think this is more of an US thing. In my part of the automation world, it really depends on the customers, European customers prefer to get Siemens PLCs, US customers prefer Allen-Bradley, and in Asia you see a lot of Omron. And I have seen a lot of Siemens in ride control systems in Europe too.
@@Colaholiker yea most of the time we specified AB logic controllers. But it’s mainly to keep all the software costs down when trying to link to a PLC. And the engineers were very familiar with the AB line of programming. I guess you could boil that down to less mistakes so it safer :)
@@ryantheridemechanic Absolutely. And over here in Europe, most PLC people are way more familiar with Siemens PLCs... I compare it to my own problems - I am normally using Linux on my computers. At work, I am forced to use Windows. Whenever something isn't working (and that happens a lot on Windows), I am struggling to find why.
Have you done a video on how much customers cause ride downtime versus actual maintenance issues? For example, a guest jumps into the ride area and the ride operator hits estop. Nothing wrong with the ride but everything wrong with a guest putting themselves into unnecessary danger.
“Why are stations high off the ground” I made a video about that actually. Why are stations high off the ground ua-cam.com/video/4Ek9ntR37hQ/v-deo.html
I cringe at some of the videos of rides over in Europe with no fencing and queues on the platform while it's running. In the "Anton Schwarzkopf Der Mann der in Amerika Wellen schlägt" documentary from 1978 -> at the 40 min mark is the grand opening of Greezed Lighting at AstroWorld. Notice all the ride ops standing on the platform while the train zips by at 50 mph just mere feet away. ua-cam.com/video/kELdEoz8o7U/v-deo.html
I watched that just now. Very nice. Yea that was back in the good old days where common sense ruled haha! Before they painted a box on the ground for safety…..
I remember a ride operator saying over the speaker, "Handles are good. Handles are great. Please don't sit on them. They can't handle your weight ".
Haha! 😛
A Banshee ride operator had to yell multiple times at one person and another and another. I was feeling that operators pain.
I work at a ride and pulling on the air gates hard enough can lead to an automatic E-stop. Thankfully I haven't seen it happen in-person, but I know it can.
Yep! Sometimes a fault sometimes an Estop. Depends on the ride.
Was in line for Verbolten, ops were very vocal about staying off the air gates. Told people that messing with them can cause the ride to fault and shut down.
A small danger is that if you close the gates on a guest and they force it to stay open, if they let go the gate springs very fast and can easily harm someone, even though the air pressure is low the gates are still quite heavy. You can also cause the gates to spring around by flipping the gate switch while the gates are moving. I have never seen more than a bruise from being hit by the gates though.
we're still waiting for the Stay off the Air Gates merch
Yea I need to look for a good company to take your money haha.
I second this!
The Premier rides air gates are particularly horrible. They locked pretty reilably so people couldn't open them manually. But they would break down at least once a week because one just wouldn't open. They also open with enough force to push someone into the track pretty easily.
A theme park i went to recently has manual gates for all of the rides, which have some sort of child proof locking mechanism
(And they have a single gate for each ride which is both the entrance and exit)
And I’m certain they designed the mechanism to prevent visitors from figuring out how to open it
I was at that park on a day it was closed to the public to do two of the private “activities” the park offers, and to get to the area where the “activities” are done, i had to go through one of the gates to one of the rides, and i was given a ride in a weird vehicle, which is not designed to carry passengers (that vehicle is not part of any of the rides at the park), to get to the area of the park where the “activities” are done (which is out of view of the public areas)
Interesting
The old arrow shuttle loop at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Revolution, doesn't have any air gates, just a yellow line. The operators have to shout at people day in day out to stay behind the yellow line.
Lots of old rides like that. Some places make them install gates some are fine left alone
Jersey devil at six flags great adventure just has an outlet of people for entrance and exit. No chain to stop people or gates.
Happy new year my friend!
I'll admit it, I asked in genuine curiosity and you addressed it quickly. I'm really appreciative that you take the time to reply but also find a way to transform questions into 40+ minutes of content. Nothing like coming home and ending my week with some of your content
Thank you! I try and answer best I can. I record what people last but the list is very long. Sometimes the fun ones come up to the top!
I have made an effort to never lean on the airgate or even touching it since the first time you said stay off the airgates
Awesome guest right here!
the cool thing about the B&M i use to work at was when it sent the fault (which happened a LOT our gates were typically pretty sloppy) it would allow all the trains to come back and "stack" close to the station rather than fully estop which i always thought was cool. some other rides were not like that.
Makes total sense. After all, the only part of the ride where a potential danger could exist is the station area. And if someone were to actually get in the danger zone instead of it just being the sloppy air gate mechanism, the operator could still hit the big red button(tm) and cause a full e-stop.
At the same time, I still wonder how people survived and still survive in other parts of the world including my home country of Germany, where not all coasters have air gates. Sure, most new ones are built with air gates, but older ones often don't.
@@Colaholiker Coasters without air gates can be made just as safe by using regular manually-operated gates. I haven't been for years but IIRC that's how it works at my local park's old coaster. When the train stops at the station the operator unlocks the gate with a key and checks everyone's height as they enter. Then they lock the gate before starting the ride.
@@eDoc2020 Sure, this is an option. But i was talking about coasters where you walk all the way up to the loading area, and all that's between you and the track is a red line on the floor. Nothing stops you from just jumping in front of the moving train, except for your common sense.
@@Colaholiker I think it's mainly a culture shift. Most people are well-enough behaved but the park doesn't want to risk getting sued by the parents when some stupid kid walks out.
It's worth noting that real trains (aka public transportation) also don't have safety gates around the tracks. If safety gates were a huge safety benefit you'd think they would be everywhere.
@@eDoc2020 It's probably also a question of how sue-happy people in a country generally are. i remember how shocked US friends were to learn how flat rides are run at fairs here in Germany. Like people waiting all around a Break Dancer ride, just arm's length away from the spinny bits. Seeing videos how everyone just runs onto the slowing ride to catch a seat made them hold their breath in disbelief 😁
I remember learning at our Vekoma Family Boomerang, they told me:
if someone sits on an air gate or starts pushing against it, while the ride is moving, YOU push the E-Stop. Even if the train is going to stop on top of the lift and we gonna have to evac. The ride is going to do it for you if they do manage to trip the sensors, but if they don't and manage to climb over …
Alright this needs to be shown to anyone who enters a park. I wish people would listen to the handrail and gate spiels we give. I will say them over and over again and then if people don’t stop I will then directly call them out. People sometimes underestimate and or forget the power us ride ops have with a microphone.
Share it as much as you like to!
When I first started riding coasters as a child, back in the early 80s at Six Flags Over Georgia, there were no air gates. I have very vivid memories of riding Great American Scream Machine and Dahlonega Mine Train, and there was just a red or yellow painted line on the ground that you weren’t supposed to cross. And people, including children, seemed capable of following instructions back then and not flinging themselves in front of a train. 😂 I don’t remember the year, but I can remember the first summer I encountered the gates. I was baffled by them and didn’t see the point. But now, as someone who visits many theme parks as an adult, watching kids and teenagers flop and flail all over the park like a fish out of water while bouncing basketballs and ignoring any and all instructions, I definitely see the merit. 😂
Yea. Lack of attention. I’ve always said people check their brain at the front gate. Sometimes even when they park the car!
Twister at knoebels still has the line!
People don’t listen though so the ride ops have to constantly yell at people to get back which you think would be common sense
@@SIDE9995_ yea I hear ya. I haven’t seen common sense in a long time.
@@ryantheridemechanicso true. As a former ride operator, the questions people ask are hilarious
I remember roller coasters having Air gates and being baffled by an amusement park that didn't have them thinking of that in the park was slacking in the safety department!😊😅
A lot of amusement parks have a large yellow line on the queue platform where the air gates are. At my home park, Hersheypark, when you are waiting on the ride platform to get on the roller coaster, they play an automated message that tells you to stand behind the yellow line while the air gates are closing.
Yea my park did the same thing. People with their feet on the right side and still leaning on that gates haha.
Have you seen ElToroRyan's new video giving a brief breakdown of the Bullet Coaster crash in China? I saw your Short about it after it happened, but would love to hear more of a breakdown of the incident from your perspective now that more information has been released it seems! Love the videos!
Keep saying it! LOL. Love the channel - really informative!
We were in line for iron gwazi and someone down the line leaned on the airgate and it shut the ride down for about 20 min .
Doh!
So smart for top thrill two to launch away from the station.
The train always wins. Always.
lol “down more than Lightning Rod” was so true
One of my coworkers (software engineering) used the word "debounce" and I'd never heard the phrase before. Soon after I began watching this video and WOW 24:18 "we put a little bit of a debounce timer in there". Anyway, fun moment to stumble across the technique here, and definitely glad you're putting a little delay before cranking the PSI on the gate!
Yea as I understand it, debounce is mainly used to prevent errors from popping up instantly and get things to behave properly. I mainly use the term in place of “very small timer” haha
@@ryantheridemechanic Technically, the term comes from the "bounce" that mechanical contacts have when they close. They slam together, bounce off (hence the name), close again, and this can go on numerous times over a very short (talking about a few milliseconds worst case) until they settle in the closed position. With all relay logic, this is no problem, as the next relay doesn't react quickly enough for it to even matter. It simply can't follow these short pulses.
However, when talking about an electronic input like on a PLC, those bounces are slow in comparison to the processing speed, so the PLC could see multiple edges of whatever it is being turned on and off rapidly. This is where debouncing in the original sense of the word comes in.
But the term is used pretty generally for other instances where you just want to filter any short signal pulses away and only want to react once the signal is stable for a certain amount of time.
@@Colaholiker that is good to know. So my knowledge of Most thing come from troubleshooting and repair. Sounds like you’re more in the design and engineering side of things. Thanks for the information! I learned today, so it’s a good day!
@@ryantheridemechanic I'm a software developer in R&D with a company that sells (among other products, but that's my division) specialized industrial control stuff - but not at all ride related.
No fail-safe for gates.... Got it, must fail-secure. So many similarities between security alarms and access control systems in the alarm industries.
Mechanically Separated = Chicken Nuggets!!!
1:14 We are watching this literally AS FIREWORKS ARE GOING OFF ALL AROUND US IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD on July 3rd. 😮
#stayofftheairgates
@@JimiStone even a broken clock is right twice a day.
In line for Mako watching the air gates and speed rails.
I honestly LOVE the GCI millenium flyer trains. Thats actually pretty cool what they did with the restraint locks. I always wondered how the KI ride ops are ok with letting you go with one click, and its a minimum of 2 on the Beast and Racer. Im not a very big guy, I just like room.
Room is best on woodies. Not too tight.
They're the most comfortable and well-riding coaster train I've been on. The first time I rode in a Millennium Flyer I could tell it was well designed and built just from the way it felt. Sad that they're basically at the end of their life cycle, they are such a jump ahead of the old PTC trains you used to see on everything.
Stay behind the yellow line
Hey Ryan, I could talk about my ride op/attendant stories for decades...
Air gates today! So. Let's talk.
There was a group queueing for one of our bigger rides, an Intamin Multi Looper. The station was extremely busy, the queue was over an hour, and this obnoxious kid was shaking the gates whilst they were waiting for their ride. They were told to stay off three times, no idea why the batch host didn't sort them out, but that's another story. So, the train hit the brakes, train came in, and it wasn't one of the rides where the train required confirmation to come back into the station, so the train just kept trundling in. Miraculously, this kid didn't breach the gates at this point. Restraints popped up, riders got their bags, air gates popped open...
But now this kid decided he didn't want them to be open. So he grabbed the gate and yanked it shut, and walked off without riding. Ride faulted during the busiest day of the year.
It's bad enough when someone's too eager and faults the gates while they're shut, but what you don't consider is when someone just wants to cause trouble. Thankfully all the gate pairs were individually actuated...
We had another flat ride which was my main allocation, where the air gates often siezed up (Air gates on a flat ride!? Have a guess which type for extra credit!), so when it was time to board riders, we actually had to tell guests to shake them. Felt really wrong to tell guests to do that!
About those EMs for the initial latch... Would it be worth exploring EPMs? Only a momentary pulse is required to switch on or off the magnet. Also, having experience on a railroad, you only really need about three feet AND someone able to view that three feet "corridor" to safely clear a train from a platform. We actually use the three "operator" system on the railroad I worked on.
Some people just know how to make things a mess for others don’t they. The park I worked we didn’t care that the gates opened because we had a train of people to verify that haha! So the gates open never created faults. Just on closing.
I’m not sure of the acronym you’re using for EPM could you elaborate on that?
@@ryantheridemechanic EPMs are Electro-permanent magnets, formed of two permanent magnets and a soft magnet. When the momentary charge is applied to the soft magnet, its crystals align one way or the other depending on the charge applied, which can serve to either swamp or amplify the fields of the permanent magnets accordingly.
@@danlastname9002 that’s interesting. I think that could be used but would have to be monitored somehow. Magnets are normally prone to corrosion and debris getting stuck inside preventing proper operation as well.
Same park? Did the kid go from shaking gate flat ride to coaster?
Thanks for the video. I know what my next selfie is, lol. Seriously I see people doing it a lot at my park. I almost got caught in the air gate on Rougarou slow people in front of me and I wanted on that train.
So RougaNO hurt you twice then?😂 I wish CP would send that coaster away.
I love that you never defined air gates.
Happy New Year Ryan!!! I really enjoy your videos and your twisted sense of humor. 😊. You are one of my favorite UA-camrs. Keep up the great work!
Happy new year! And thank you!
I doubt they’d remove people from the park for that kind of behaviour. When I was at Darien Lake, a man whipped out a literal pocket knife, capable of killing someone, while in line for Viper. He was showing it to his girlfriend, in a manner as if they had a plan to do something with it and he wanted to show her he got it in. He was not escorted out of the park, he followed me around the rest of my time there. He made some snarky comments to me reguarding the incident because he saw I reported him to the ride op, who presumably called security but security let him stay in the park (this is not on the ride op, it’s on their rediculous security theatre where you’ll see a ton of security but they don’t do crap about guests like the man with the knife).
Oh wow. I've been wondering what you meant when you said that. And it is in fact close to 4th of July. Very close. It's tomorrow. Kinda creepy.
So I really started watching your Channel via the Hyperia video recently. At the end you mentioned 'stay off the air gates.' And I wondered if that was a coincidence or you heard what happened so I asked you in the comments. Now I'm binge watching your videos and I understand that you say this all the time!!!
So I don't know if you were aware, but on Hyperia's opening day, the ride kept having stoppages. They were quickly reset, a test train sent, and the ride was back up in single digit minutes (new ride, so the park's maintenance and ride manufacturer's own teams were on hand all day, hence the speed.) Turns out it was an air gate issue every time. They were announcing for people to stay off the gates each and every cycle, but they seemed to be super sensitive, slightest touch would e-stop the whole ride.
Anyway, thought you should know, incase you didn't already, why you were getting so many comments about air gates on your Hyperia video.
Great channel btw, I'm really enjoying it since I started binge watching this week.
That’s great! I love when people find the channel and enjoy it! We will see what happens with Hyperia
@@ryantheridemechanicYeh, hopefully they fix the sensitive air gates whilst they fix whatever is wrong with the lift mechanism. :)
im guilty of sitting on the queue line rails 😅
Bruh...the way you used the subscribe flag 😂😂💀💀💀⚰️⚰️⚰️
What you really said is: "These fkn things" 😂😂😂
Oh good the subtext came through! 😂
😂 I especially loved the Taco Bell chime attached to it
It makes sense for Vekoma to put some extra effort in their Boomerang air gates. After all, unlike most other coasters, when the train flies through the station coming off the first lift, it's the fastest part of the ride, not just the train being pushed along by a few motors. On their Invertigo or especially their Giant Inverted Boomerang, they made the gates even taller so that you also can't reach over them.
I wonder why they don't normally do one thing to keep the air gates shut that should be not too expensive (if you look at how much money they spend on a new ride in the first place). Just put the same mechanism on the end of the tie rods that is used for hydraulic restraints. When the air gates are supposed to move, power the unlock valve. When they are not, don't. Seeing how much force they can withstand, they should be strong enough to keep the air gates shut, even with people pushing against them.
I just keep my hands (and all other body parts for that matter) off the air gates entirely. They are moving objects whose movement I don't control. So why should I be touching them? What I do do is lean against non-moving railings. But like you say Ryan, an adult leaning against one of these with the feet on the ground is not at a risk of falling anywhere.
Overall, great explanation. However, I fear that the people who would need to watch it the most are not the people that are going to watch your videos here - at least not until you reach those 1.6 billion subscribers. (fingers crossed)
Vekoma builds their stations for the boomerangs. And every manufacturer tends not to design the station at all it’s up to the park. So the gates are part of the staton and they say station supplied by others. There’s the loop hole. Even complicated station systems are actually part of the ride track and the physical station is built around the ride track. Kind of interesting how that do that. But a park could always specify the manufacture to build the satiation that would probably double the cost of the station however. And I think I’m going to keep calling out arbitrary subscriber counts and say “I’m on my way” because it’s true haha!
"Rate of speed" is redundant. Speed is a rate of distance/time. Nobody says long length of distance. Still love the video! Also love the correct "crossed". lol
The only issue with air gates is when they shut early. I had to dodge one by jumping to the side when boarding a ride at Cedar Point as it began to shut before I had stepped onto the platform.
And most of the time operators control that function.
@@ryantheridemechanic That was my assumption. They must have overlooked me standing behind people that were boarding in front of me.
I'd love to see a live stream of your reactions visiting Little Amerricka and Mt. Olympus. Wisconsin's safety and liability laws are *very* different from California's! There's a coaster with neither restraints nor functioning block brakes, another one where you can reach over a short fence and touch the track.
Yiiiiiiiiiiiii
Iiiiiikkkesss! 😬
I operate Maxx Force and even if a few people push hard, those air gates are not gonna move lol. My leg got trapped in them once and I was limping the rest of the day 😭. I’ve seen guests get squished a few times and always feel really bad for them.
Not fun at all! They can do damage
Do you ever wonder how the airgates that you designed are doing now that you've been out of the industry for a bit? Kind of like how reality TV shows do a "where are they now?" segment? 😂
Not really. I built them like other airfares that never had problems. So I’m assuming they are holding up just fine.
And the park hasn’t called me asking to help troubleshoot them haha!!
Thank you for these videos. Always excited for Fridays! Do all ride manufacturers provide the air gates? Or do the parks sometimes have to design their own?
Most parks supply Their own. I don’t have a solid number but I’m think manufactures rarely supply the gates unless it put in the ride bid.
I saw a video on Twitter yesterday where 2 guys were having a fight in a subway station in Philadelphia. one guy hit the other guy and he fell right into the tracks just as the train was coming. it was brutal
Yikes
Can you go into some of the controls of rides from old style controls to more modern. Like, how they work and maybe some quirks?
I'd be interested. In the 80s my Six Flag's coasters had some degree of manual braking ability and the operators would 'bounce' trains through the brake blocks and to a station stop by opening and closing the brakes in quick succession. All of their coasters had really herky-jerky stops for that reason, I'm fairly certain the operator was pushing a button to open the brakes and letting go to close it. Could have been a lever controlling the brake air pressure as well, normally spring-loaded to stay in the full service closed position. They obviously were homing the trains in the station manually to get them lined up with the gates. But if the operator needed to really speed an inbound train up to an empty station, they could.
The actual panel operators were more highly trained then, they had far more authority over the machine than parks let them have now. By the time I worked at a park that degree of 'freedom' was gone and the ride control systems gave the operator little movement authority other than moving trains in and out of the station - homing is done by the system, not sight in most cases (some exceptions remain). I did know some managers who used the older systems I described, you had to be on your toes and hustle your dock crews to keep trains moving and potentially avoid a ride error from trains backing up.
@RyanTheRideMechanic I find ride maintenance and building fascinating and am considering a career change. I'd be a little late into things at 36 now but if I wanted to look into it what kind of degree would you recommend, or what directions would you recommend in general. I currently have an AoS degree but in a completely unrelated field, and would consider going back to finish a BS or higher if needed.
It really depends on what you want to be doing. If you just want to give maintenance a shot, you don’t really need a degree at all. It helps but almost everything is on the job training.
Now if you want to get into design and building, a professional engineering (PE) in mechanical would be good but that’s a hard nail to hit then the majority of those jobs, especially amusement, will want the work history to back it up.
If you go into general ride maintenance and you’re enthusiastic and want to learn, that already puts you leaps and bounds ahead of most mechanics who have the “it’s a paycheck” mentality.
Thanks. I ended up watching another video of yours that someone asked a similar question and you pretty much answered it for me in that video as well. Appreciate it! @@ryantheridemechanic
wait so is that how slim jims are made?? they just set up chickens on the air gates and wait?
also im so glad he didn't end up calling on me, i had the same dumb idea as that other guy but i sat up front.
😂
Wouldn't the mechanical advantage from the length of the gate vs gate arm significantly decrease the amount of force needed to overcome the actuator?
Yes. But that typically why they use cylinders with large pistons. If you increase the lever arm at the base you can run into the problem of the cylinder stroke has to be too long and then you can snap the air cylinder in half. So there’s a sweet spot.
Nice. That makes sense.
How often do you have to replace the road wheels or does it vary from ride to ride
Varied drastically from ride to ride. Some wheels would wear down. Some would just get old and crack and they needed to be replaced. High usage about 1 wheel every 14 days. Low usage would be about 5 wheels during rehab only.
FINALLYYYYYYY
With this you can go to the Job offering of C.E.O. of technical engeneering at Efteling Themepark. They have a job offering for that. You would become C.E.O. of Animatronic development, show technique development and the whole technical ride staff as well. Also, Intamin totally screwed their relationship with Toverland after contract breach with Toverland from Intamins side. The ride is now often closed and not operating as intended. Toverland is really pissed at Intamin (This was in a Dutch news article when guests got stuck for 3,5 hours on the Intamin parachute tower for the third time in a half year.) Toverland said Intamin did not hold up their end of the contract in this news article. Any thoughts on these things?
Just out of curiosity, what’s the average MTBF with proximity sensors used in newer coasters? Is there a big difference between the ones used by say B&M and Vekoma?
Most proximity sensors are purchased from P&F. Pepperell Fuchs. The types and sizes used are typically up to the company designing the control system. Like most designers specify Allen Bradley PLC. There is no real standard though.
They are actually spelled Pepperl & Fuchs 🤓 (Yeah, damn German names, but at least there is no umlaut). When it comes to Allen-Bradley PLCs, I think this is more of an US thing. In my part of the automation world, it really depends on the customers, European customers prefer to get Siemens PLCs, US customers prefer Allen-Bradley, and in Asia you see a lot of Omron. And I have seen a lot of Siemens in ride control systems in Europe too.
@@Colaholiker yea most of the time we specified AB logic controllers. But it’s mainly to keep all the software costs down when trying to link to a PLC. And the engineers were very familiar with the AB line of programming. I guess you could boil that down to less mistakes so it safer :)
@@ryantheridemechanic Absolutely. And over here in Europe, most PLC people are way more familiar with Siemens PLCs...
I compare it to my own problems - I am normally using Linux on my computers. At work, I am forced to use Windows. Whenever something isn't working (and that happens a lot on Windows), I am struggling to find why.
@@Colaholiker it’s an epic battle with why Windows stopped 😅
Have you done a video on how much customers cause ride downtime versus actual maintenance issues? For example, a guest jumps into the ride area and the ride operator hits estop. Nothing wrong with the ride but everything wrong with a guest putting themselves into unnecessary danger.
Random question: Why are 99.9% of coaster stations elevated? And why are a lot of them elevated so high up, like 2 stories or so?
“Why are stations high off the ground”
I made a video about that actually.
Why are stations high off the ground
ua-cam.com/video/4Ek9ntR37hQ/v-deo.html
3 inch chamber at 120 psi...how much it that... simple math a world of ouch
I cringe at some of the videos of rides over in Europe with no fencing and queues on the platform while it's running. In the "Anton Schwarzkopf Der Mann der in Amerika Wellen schlägt" documentary from 1978 -> at the 40 min mark is the grand opening of Greezed Lighting at AstroWorld. Notice all the ride ops standing on the platform while the train zips by at 50 mph just mere feet away. ua-cam.com/video/kELdEoz8o7U/v-deo.html
BTW - The German title of the documentary translates to "Anton Schwarzkopf, the man who made waves in America"
I watched that just now. Very nice. Yea that was back in the good old days where common sense ruled haha! Before they painted a box on the ground for safety…..
That's what she said yes😂....... just not to me🫣