What ride mechanics can and cant say during a ride call

Just some basic ideas of what Mechanics should and should not say. mainly the should not part....

[@Jenlovescoasters]

At Knotts i was walking by xcel, and the ride op at guest greet told ppl it needed a clutch. The trains were 57 chevys. 😂 clever!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Haha!

[@InsaneCoaster]

Awesome video! I work as a ride operator and have worked as an assistant to ride engineers at my park (I'm currently working towards becoming a full ride engineer) and so much of this resonates with my experiences too. Of course guests should never be expected to understand how rides function, but I think exaggeration and dramatisation from the media often makes guests assume an exceptionally bad problem like a major mechanical or structural fault has occurred when a ride stops, when in reality it's probably something like a manual e-stop or a common fault we're used to experiencing such as the types you mentioned. In fact, I always find it quite amusing when the queueline cheers at us for 'fixing' the ride when all we've done is reset an e-stop and restarted it!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yea. Movies like final destination don’t help either. We had so many ride calls after that movie came out. Thanks for the comment!

[@Jenlovescoasters]

"Evict it with extreme prejudice"😂😂😂

[@geekmoto1363]

as a ride operator, i got asked the question, and i came up with "could be 5 minutes, could be 5 hours we just don't know"

[@ryantheridemechanic]

I’d get so frustrated at errors that are just “reset” type errors. I wanted to fox them so they stopped happening but would need the original programmer and a team of engineer’s to make that happen. Normally it’s not with the effort. Sad. To know it could be better. Thanks for the comment.

[@Jenlovescoasters]

During the time change, my current coaster gets a direct sunbeam into the photo eye in block 2, and I get a ghost train and the lift won't start. New ops still send the train to a dead lift. 😂 I take a garbage can, and put it in the sun's path. Lol!

[@simoncurrie5520]

When I worked at a well known seaside park in England. The Answer to people demanding to know what was wrong with the ride. It's Fucked Lad.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

😂😂😂

[@ryantheridemechanic]

My luck that would have been a reporter

[@DigitalAndInnovation]

11:48 I love that line "evict it with extreme prejudice"!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Right! They make such a mess

[@Deurklink]

Haha funny that you mention it, little tubes over outdoor photo eyes was exactly what one of our clients came up with to shield against sunlight in their latest project

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Bug magnet!!! Plus….. depending on the photo eye and orientation the tube can make it worse. One set of photo eyes we had to paint the inside of the tube flat black so it did not reflect the sun as much as possible.

[@DangerHuub]

Hey everyone

[@gregg5958]

I got asked by guests if an arrow corkscrew was going to be open later in the day. It had scaffolding around it, was being painted and even had some track missing. But yeah…we’ll get right on that and open it in a bit…lol.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

I understand people are hopeful though.

[@dinokillergaming]

Even just operating a ride I would cringe at the possible critters running across the sensors especially the photo eye at the top of the lift hill the hyper coaster I operated. Climbing that lift hill to restart the lift sucks and my legs would hurt for days.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Was the lift enable button at the top for that one? Put B&m had 3 low mid and top

[@dinokillergaming]

@@ryantheridemechanic yeah it was a giovanola hyper. I think it has 3 photo eyes on the lift hill, one at the bottom when the train engages the chain one in the middle and one near the top to kinda slow down as it crest the top.

[@nathanielp5959]

It funny you mention photo eyes, cause at Cedar Point, theres a time in about middle of august, Gemini has to shut down for about 30 mins to let the sun pass so that the C block dosent trip and cause a ghost train. Ghost trains are fun to have to reset.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yep that’s a photo eye issue. Mid September we lost out B&M floorless because they station would not allow the floor to go down. Though someone was standing there.

[@Colaholiker]

I am surprised to hear that photo eyes are still a thing on rides. I know Arrow used them a lot back in the day, and when I had my first visit to Cedar Point a few weeks ago (I don't live in America, so it's not that simple for me to get there), I was surprised to see them still being used on Gemini. Here in Germany, I haven't seen them in a long time, the last coaster I remember having them was Holiday Park's "Superwirbel". I would have thought the industry has switched over to inductive proximity sensors by now, as they are immune to sunlight, critters, greasy deposits and anything that is not metal. Sure, both types do the same thing, detecting whether there is an object in the spot they are supposed to monitor - but the proximity sensors cause a lot less problems. And for all of you out there who now start to worry that some "older" method is still being used there - THEY ARE EQUALLY SAFE, the benefits are purely on the operational side, requiring less maintenance and leading to ride shutdowns less often.😁

[@ryantheridemechanic]

They rank around 1) captive logic, 2) proximity position, 3) visual (photo-eyes) Mainly just as a 3rd check but still relighted on to shut the ride down. I know Disney loves using photo forks to allow control on sloppy ride tolerances.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

So from experience also, greasy prox sensors will error as well because eventually…. The grease will hold metal flake from brakes and wear, then the prox will flag.

[@Colaholiker]

​@@ryantheridemechanic Thanks for the detail! ;-)

[@amusement420]

@@ryantheridemechanic The old Cedar Point Paddlewheel ride had something like the Clampetts vs McCoys shooting at each other when the boat passed by. I was walking thru Frontier Trail alone which is near it after a late night ride on Maverick. It started to rain the type of slow heavy raindrops straight down. The props picked that up and started shooting at each other 'Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang...' lol I wish I would have recorded that.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@amusement420 kink of Erie as well haha

[@Duffster115]

This is a good Chanel and I love to hear some things about this amazing industry from a mechanic's point of view! Not anywhere near as much as what was covered in the video but I have a very basic understanding from things ive heard of how these amazing machines work and such. I also got to work at my local park as a ride op in 2021 and I know if the rides were to have problems as mentioned we don't really give them an exact time because we don't really know at best they might say something like check back in Blank amount of time

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thanks for the great comment!

[@bassjasinski]

Great content. I figured you would just tell visitors “This ride is built from a million parts sourced from the cheapest supplier haha” 😂

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Then shortly after, hey the HR manager wants to see you for some reason? I don’t know just bring your keys radio and ID. Haha

[@kendonagan5535]

From a guest point of view, i think we are all looking for a little more transparency. Can we be assured that if they don't clear the queue then they are at least expecting a "quick" fix? I always get worried that they will give the announcement that the ride is temporarily down even though they are pretty sure that it is toast for the day.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Some times it’s a discovery issue. I’ve made calls before where I said it was safe to send the ride crew either home or away rides down for the day. And then 3 hours later we figured it out and lost the last 3 hours of up time for the day. But for the short term. If they let you stay in the queue, it typically won’t be long. If I get there and it’s going to be down for hour or more I tell the operators to clear the queue especially if the work that needs to be done is sensitive or dangerous to bystanders.

[@ElectricLumens]

Do any parks attempt to use spider repellents for the sensors or is it not considered worth it? Not sure how many spider repellents are just snake oil.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Some pens do that. EPA will slow that down. But it’s possible.

[@mxslick50]

**** Please read my ENTIRE comment before posting any nasty or snarky replies. **** 9:50 Sure, that is the park's business, BUT the public should also know about the safety of the rides, and parks need to be (and pretty much have been) transparent about ANY safety-related issues with a given ride. I am mainly referring to things like height, weight or heath issue restrictions/warnings, but also about known past or current issues of any kind (design, mechanical failures, weather ops restrictions). Obviously the latter items I mentioned don't need to (nor should be) posted on signs in the queue, but should be available if requested by the public. I worked as an entertainment tech at a park in So. Calif. and got to get to know a lot about all of the rides there, the rides dept. was pretty open about information when requested. (That was also true with the GP, as I had a good friend make a request just to see what the response would be. They provided him with all the info he requested, even the "unfavorable" stuff.) Also, this comment is not to imply that you or any other mechanic should freely discuss safety or other issues with the GP during operating hours, but instead maybe refer any questions to guest services to be handled there.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

I also know in California you can go to the state and request their last inspection of whatever rid your looking at. It expensive $1 per line an a typical report on a single ride would cost 2-300$ but they will sell it to you. Then you can trend that data.

[@danhadland7087]

Would be good to hear your thoughts on tbe smiler crash at alton towers