CP Ride Ops Training?

I was just wondering what kind of training ride operators go through as far as general and specific ride training, especially coasters. Are they real strict on rules such as all clears, safety zones, stacking etc? Do they tell you a certain way to speil such as verbally saying "all clear" and "ready"? Is the training real vigorous? Also how many people do you guys have running one ride on an average summer day including breaks and things like that? Do things normally run pretty smoothly? Sorry about all the questions but I currently work in a theme park and am real interested in how CP runs things inside the action. Thanks!

It's a spy from Six Flags;)!

-Eagle

Humm lets see. For the training, every ride is different. I worked on Monster and Witches Wheel, and to learn how to operate those was pretty simple. In fact monster is one of I believe 3 circular rides in the park that is still manually operated. Anyhow, I was also train in the gemini childrens area when I went over there. That training took about 10 minutes...no joke. As for the number of people working on your ride. That all depends on the budget. If they think your ride or ride area can operate with less people, then they will do it. Some rides would have three or more people coming in to do breaks. But other rides would only get one person. Like I said, it all depends on what ride you are on. You team leader or assistant team leader will train you for the ride. I guess the rides are pretty independent. The sups are there just to oversee and make sure everything is going smoothly. That was probably a little bit random on the answers, but I hope that answered your questions.

Dont you guys transfer trains on and off yourselves on coasters?

Yes we do get to transfer on the trains and it is very simple the control panel at the transfer track is very easy. I loved to transfer on and off trains. It is a position that many of the crew members fight over. *** Edited 11/9/2004 4:34:50 PM UTC by cpfreak2***

At Michigan's Adventure we weren't allowed to transfer the train on Timbers. We had to stand there and look stupid as maitnence came and did it.

Coaster are different from other rides. You need to pass a test before you can run the controls. How much training depends on the ride. The training isn't forced on you, time is taken to make sure you know what you're doing, that's how I did it as a TL. Some are simple some are more complex, some have one button, some have 30 buttons. It's all about how fast you catch on and how well you can pay attention. And yea they're strict, but you can attribute the great safety record directly to that.

How often do you guys get to run up and down the stairs along the lift hills like magnum or mantis. Do you guys get to go in the Millennium Force cart and take the elevator on TTD to the 420 mark?

Walking the lift is part of being trained on a coaster, meaning in a lot of cases you must have walked the lift to be able to work on platform. Sometimes that can result in doing it twice in one day. Ride operators doing lift-walks happens on a daily basis. Now the MF cart and TTD elevator...hahaha...good one. The only way to hit 420 on TTD is to actually ride the ride. There's no need for ride ops to be up there, it's dangerous and has nothing to do with safely operating the ride.