Wind Closures

I am so happy! 1st time in a year at CP tomarrow!!! Theres a 60% chance of rain, but I hope it will just scare people off. (Remember, a 60% chance of rain is not bad, considering that there is a 40% chance of dryness!) Anyways... here is my question.

How strong does the wind have to be to shut down certain rides? (MPH)

Side question.... How does the forcast of rain usually effect the crowds?

Can't answer the first question but for the second one, it usually makes the park dead. Or at least if it really does turn out to be an overcast day where the potential for rain is always present. On Sun the 11th, it sprinkled for most of the afternoon and the park pretty much got a lot emptier. So hope it's just overcast and that it doesn't pour or anything.

On Coastermania they forcasted thunderstorms, but didn't feel a drop all day. It was hot too. God Bless those mist fans.

it seems everytime i go to the point,the sky ride is closed due to wind.

I believe sky ride shuts down if the wind goes above 20 mph, raptor shuts down at 30 mph.

CP's on a peninsula off of Lake Erie, is the Sky Ride ever open?? I got to ride it once when I was there last and that was it, it was closed the rest of the time. It's always kind of breezy there.

It ran all day when I was last there.
[Friday or Memorial Weekend]

I will never understand Sky Ride.

Isn't it the same system as a ski lift? It was designed by the same company that built a few in Michigan and Colorado. Do they shut them down like that on the tops of mountains?

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Dispatch Master, This is Transport one! I'm losing control, I'm losing control!

No, actually. The gondolas are different than the ski lift cars. They sway more, for one.

Besides, ski lifts are designed more for facing winds, rather than lateral winds.

I'm not so sure that single cable ski lift gondolas, of similar design as Ski Ride, sway any less. They may even sway more because ski lift cars usually have windows, which would make for even more surface area on each car for the wind to catch. I've seen gondolas closed at ski areas because of wind, and ski areas may be more liberal in how much wind the system will run in, compared to Cedar Point.

Opening day Raptor was shut down for almost the whole day, tward closing they opened it back up, MF was down for like and hour because of wind. Also sky ride.

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"The shade, is a tool, A device, a saviour"
My own summer (shove it)-Deftones

Yes, the big enclosed passenger gondolas would sway more, but the ski lifts Magnum is sinking! is talking about are the tiny benches that you jump right out of. They probably don't weigh more than 100 lbs and they have very little wind resistance.

Pete, you may have the answer to this...

At ski areas, are there typically windbreaks around the loading and unloading areas of detachables?

The primary concern I can think of for the Sky Ride (aside from the mess created by some riders when the gondolas sway too much) is that if the gondola is angled too far either way when it hits the track at the station, it can derail and/or jam before it unclamps. I saw this happen as a result of rider misbehavior a few years ago; it was rather messy. Perhaps that is less of a problem for resort lifts, perhaps because they are longer, or they are more sheltered at the loading and unloading points? Remember, too, that the lowest point on CP's Sky Ride is about ten feet higher (relative to grade) than the lowest point on a ski gondola...

--Dave Althoff, Jr., merely speculating again...

Dave,

Detachable chairlifts usually have no windbreaks. The loading and unloading stations are built pretty much to grade, and are open on all sides. The equipment and operators room, next to the loading area, is the only type of windbreak. Of course, detachable chairlifts hardly swing, because of the small surface area. Gondolas at ski areas have stations very similar to Cedar Point's, though the stations are usually close to grade at the base. The summit is a different story, I've seen stations built on top of wind swept cliffs. Those usually have long bumpers, built out from the station, that the sides of the cars can hit to stop swaying. Similar to the guides at the buttom of Iron Dragon that the guide wheels engage.

If they sway too much, they and if it were timed right (not that you would want to) two gondolas could hit one another as they pass each other.

I was referring to the enclosed ones that the company that created Sky Ride builds.

That is a good point, Pete. I wonder what would keep them from adding the guide wheels. It would certainly help, at least a little.

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Dispatch Master, This is Transport one! I'm losing control, I'm losing control!

I think I didn't describe things too clearly. I didn't mean that the cars actually had guide wheels, but the bumpers coming out from the station look a little like the Iron Dragon guides. The car goes between the bumpers, and the side of the car hits the bumper if it swings too much. Ski lift cars have no wheels at the bottom like Iron Dragon. Imagine a guard rail on both sides of the highway, with just enough space for your car. Any movement away from center would cause the car to hit the guardrail. That's how it's set up on some ski lifts.

Makes sense to me. By the way, yesterday the rides that were closed due to wind were Magnum, Sky Ride, Giant Wheel, and Space Spiral. Apparently there was also a power outage in the corner of the park near Peanuts Playground, and Millennium Force was down mechanical...oh, and Gemini rolled back (again), with weights in it. Apparently with not enough weights in it.

By the time I got to the park, the power outage had been fixed, and Millennium Force came up right about 1:00pm. By 2pm, everything was running, and a cold, windy, miserable day had turned absolutely gorgeous.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Sunday morning I talked to someone in Park Operations and they said power was out in the resort entrence, kiddy areas, and back to the Corkscrew, also the Power Tower got stuck, but everything was working again a little after opening, and that power loss has never happened before. I asked about the wind and he said that Raptor only closes with a wind coming from the back, no matter how strong it is from the other directions, and that the sky ride is always closed in wind because they sway too much. Millenium Force was open for the first 45 minutes, and then shut down, and re-opened at 12:30. They were telling people it probablu wouldnt open until later that night, but it opened quickly.

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Whats life if you never get to the point?

Last season they had a small hiccup in the power it lasted for about five seconds. I was in Breakers checking out the Rotunda when it happened. The Elevators where stuck and the computers at the main desk where not working. Looking out one of the windows I saw that Corkscrew, Magnum, and Mantis had all stopped. (probably caused a blocking error)?

Speaking of power outages, what happens to the spinning rides when the power goes out? I would hate to be stuck upside down on Chaos or Witches Wheel.

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Dispatch Master, This is Transport one! I'm losing control, I'm losing control!