How do you evacuate a drop tower?

[Anac0nda]

Here's something I've gathered:

 

If a malfunction occurs and the automatic ride cycle stops, first objective is to slowly bring the gondola down using the same motor that brings it up (i.e. the catch car) in automatic mode. Less wait for the customers and less fuss in general as everything happens with the help of the computer and automatics. If automatics are down, then use a manual override to move the motors slowly. This usually has to be done by maintenance and thus creates wait time for the customers on board.

 

If moving the gondola up or down isn't possible, there should always be a mechanism to drop the gondola at any height. I understand (and hope) that every drop tower uses magnetic brakes, and the (one of) the beauty of those is that they are safeproof. It doesn't matter how high the gondola is dropped, it's always brought down safely. Now how can you release the gondola from the catch car? Just mount a small hydraulics system that forces the pick-up locks to open, for example. If the whole park has no electricity, you can just include a pressurized tank in the catch car to hold up just enough power and transfer the opening command to it using batteries (data transfer doesn't require much really).

 

If dropping the gondola isn't possible either, manually rotating the motors to lower the gondola or even cutting the cables would still be a better idea in my opinion than to bring a cherry picker next to a car that isn't fastened in place. I cannot imagine myself opening my restraints and jumping into a basket at heights.

[scottm13]

That would be really, really unnerving--knowing the tower itself malfunctioned would not make me the most confident hanging against only those restraints, even if I knew they are very unlikely to also malfunction and pop. I'd imagine there would be that nagging thought: could it theoretically happen? There's a first time for everything, as they say.

 

That would be the thought going through the back of my mind too. Even though I know it would be so very extremely unlikely, if not impossible... that wouldn't stop me from freaking out about it the entire time.

Same here, although I think I'd almost be more afraid simply knowing it was an Intamin tower. I know on B&M rides, it's physically impossible for the safety bar to pop open, unless in the station/manually opened by an employee while evacuating the ride. While other manufacturers probably use a similar design, given Intamin's history of reliability issues, I'd probably begin to worry if I got stuck at the top of FF, or any of their other towers for that matter.

There aren't any manufacturers that make rides where the restraints just "pop open."

 

Intamin towers also have a manual drop mechanism on them, so if they cannot be lowered manually then that is another option. Outside of an incident similar to what happened at SFKK, I don't really see a time where a drop tower would have to be evacuated above the ground.

[Physical]

I understand (and hope) that every drop tower uses magnetic brakes

 

Demon Drop would like a word with you

[DoinItForTheFame]

...I don't really see a time where a drop tower would have to be evacuated above the ground.

 

I would say if there were a power outage which caused the ride to stop partway up the tower. But even in that case there are typically generators, and again, the manual release to drop the carriage. . . I really am having a hard time figuring it a reason a drop tower would need to be evacuated.