Any other park improvements?

Actually, I said RUMORS

Brian Short said:
...for the rumors of a MAJOR Mantis facelift...------------------
Mantis Crew '02 - Mantis Rocks!

All that we had heard was that it was rumors about what they wanted to do with Mantis. Whether or not they do it, is totally up to them. But then again, everyone on these boards always takes a rumor and explodes into the next best thing...

If used correctly Air Gates have no effect on load times. The correct way to use them would be as soon as the train stops and the floor is up the gates open. Thats how it's done on Maggie. Other parks wait until everyone has excited the train.
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Welcome back Magnum riders how was your ride?

The only problems is that they impede the ride ops from being able to check the restraints from the gate side untilt they are pulled back. This could be why Mantis' station is being enlarged. There simply isn't enough room for ride ops to move through the queue side if they had gates.

This could also be why they are going so fast with the new ride construction.

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June 28th: LocoBazooka Tour (Sevendust headlining)
July 11th: Korn, Puddle of Mudd, and Deadsy

Brian Short, I love those rumors! Freeway for Mantis would be heaven for me. I sure would like to see that third train back in business as well. Mantis does indeed rock! Thumbs up to you and the 2002 crew!

CP bound makes a good argument for double gates like on Millennium Force since they don't stick out so far and get in the way of the ops. The gates themselves on Magnum aren't too bad, but I don't like how the op has to "climb into a cage" to close the gates and press the dispatch enable. Kind of tough to hustle back there when you have a pillar that you're going to have to go around and then you have to make sure you don't press e-stop also! :)

Long live the knocks!!! :)

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

I don't know who you are macho nachos, but I already love you too. Thanks for being a reassuring voice in this otherwise crowded, noisy, complaining forum that is GTTP. If you wanna talk, my new AIM name is coolin10tions. Later

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MANTIS ROCKS 2002

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MDOmnis said:
CP bound makes a good argument for double gates like on Millennium Force since they don't stick out so far and get in the way of the ops.

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Right. The other thing about double gates is that they can open more quickly than single gates. Although Cedar Point's solution has been to move the rails back far enough that when the gates are open, there is still ample room to move along the side of the train...as on Magnum, where the open gate barely sticks out past the pillar. This, by the way, is in accordance with the ASTM draft standard that says that the gate should be clear of the ride envelope when open.

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The gates themselves on Magnum aren't too bad, but I don't like how the op has to "climb into a cage" to close the gates and press the dispatch enable. Kind of tough to hustle back there when you have a pillar that you're going to have to go around and then you have to make sure you don't press e-stop also! :)

Long live the knocks!!! :)

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That's the real problem on Magnum now. Whoever came up with that co-dispatch enable position apparently knows little or nothing about the way Cedar Point ride operations function....Why couldn't they have just mounted the co-dispatch button on the unload side at the uptrack end (where the operator at that position can see into the doghouse) or better yet, on the downtrack end, on the outside of the doghouse?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Probably because they're thinking like it's an inverter, where no one person can see the entire train, both sides and in between card, from one place.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

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MDOmnis said:
I don't like how the op has to "climb into a cage" to close the gates and press the dispatch enable. Kind of tough to hustle back there when you have a pillar that you're going to have to go around and then you have to make sure you don't press e-stop also!

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Load 3 isn't that hard of a postion becuase all you have to do is close the air gates, check car 6, and hold down the dispatch enable button. When I worked on Magnum this year, I would usually be done before the rest of the crew was done checking their lap bars. Of course, I could just be use to trying to hit Corkscrew's 22 second interval that we hardly ever hit.

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Corkscrew Crew 2002
http://www.msu.edu/~kemppai8/ --- My stupid website

Hey Brian Short! Mantis needs more champions like you :). Are you still working there? I'd love to say hi to you. I'll be there every Sunday(work permitting) til the end of the season. Last year I had my very last ride on Mantis' very last train of the season. Millennium Mania last year was amazing, riding front car in the pouring rain with just one other person in the whole train. That first loop went on forever and a day! Oh well, now I'm rambling.....sorry!
*** This post was edited by macho nachos 9/26/2002 11:50:04 PM ***

Nope, I'm back in college now. I'll be going back next year though, so you'll just have to wait and see me then. :-)

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MANTIS ROCKS 2002

Sapman - I agree that load 3 wouldn't be that hard, but unfortunately, it looked to me like the load 3 person was often load 2 and load 3. Whenever the crew is running with 7 instead of 8 people, that's the area that is going to be short. It used to be that unload 2 would disappear so unload 1 would check cars 2-6, but now there are only two people on unload so they pull the person from load. Also, rotation starts on that side (and of course we all know rotation takes like 15 mintues! :)) leaving only two people for load. The gates seem to be okay, but the positioning of that button leaves a lot to be desired.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew