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Would think they'd have some kind of winch to lift it to clear and lower the brakes... Unless the mechanicals are toast as well
 
Alright, so the water is low in that photo, which means the pumps were turned off, most likely due to an e-stop. Could have been for any number of things. Guest jumping out after a cell phone would cause an operator to hit the e-stop. What is in the photo is not technically a log jam, but rather the natural result of an e-stop, where the boats cannot be dispatched and the arm cannot swap back and forth between troughs. A log jam is when either two logs get stuck at the dispatch end of the station (very very rare) or when the arm swings back before the boat clears and stops the boat (more common). Simply having logs back up at the ride exit won't cause an issue until it backs up to the photoeye at the end of the swing arm. Since there were no boats in the other channel, I can most likely assume this wasn't the case. Also surprised that the operators didn't get the people off that were between exit and the swing arm. We did that during shutdowns before the evac order was given. I (as a lead at the time) was allowed to give the evac order automatically if the pumps were shut off, even before someone called the ride down.
 
Also surprised that the operators didn't get the people off that were between exit and the swing arm. We did that during shutdowns before the evac order was given. I (as a lead at the time) was allowed to give the evac order automatically if the pumps were shut off
So that was what I found disturbing about the whole situation. In the picture, I am in the second to last boat with my SIL, so I didn’t witness the actual dropping and didn’t realize something was wrong until I noticed we stopped moving and someone was crying on the platform. Basically, a young woman dropped her phone as she exited the boat. The family was obviously upset and they must have confronted the ride operator (blue shirt in the photo) because she looked very flustered and had also been crying. Their boat remained on the lift for a few minutes and they couldn’t retrieve it, so they moved the next boat onto the lift which led to more arguing from the family because they must’ve wanted it cleared instead. Shortly after we noticed the pumps turned off, and one team member told us they were checking to see if it was safe to evacuate the two boats that were in front next to the platform. Now I understand that they had to evacuate at least 2 boats from the elevated track and that is why we didn’t see many team members giving us guidance on the platform, but eventually tempers started to rise among those of us stuck in the boats…
 
To slightly defend what happened there, there's a chance they might have held off in any evacuation to ensure that phone that was dropped wouldn't have caused any more damage to the ride itself. I'd been in a similar situation at Knoebles where someone dropped something in the ride basin and some boats piled up as they hit the e-stop, stuck on a boat.
 
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So, I need to preface the next part with the relationships between some of the people in the boats. The first boat to be cleared after the phone dropping was my son, daughter and 2 nieces, all between 8-12yo. They were on the empty boat in the picture. Behind them were two ladies who used either QQ or an accessibility pass to ride between our group. Behind them were my FIL and my niece who is a type 1 diabetic. I was with her mom behind them, and another family was in the last boat. While we were stuck, my niece’s levels dropped but luckily had sugar packets with her. My FIL was beyond frustrated that the operators were concerned more about the phone and equipment than the stranded boats so he climbed onto the platform to help get my niece out (despite the poor ride operator in the blue trying to keep everyone calm without any reinforcement from management). As they exited, he confronted the family that dropped the phone (why they were still allowed on the platform and on the exit stairs once the ride was shut down is beyond me) and blamed them for not securing their loose articles, leading to more shouting just as the other 2 ladies in the front boat got themselves out and onto the platform. One of them proceeded to collapse/faint shortly after taking a few steps and medics were called…
 
So eventually someone came to help evacuate the last boats by helping us climb over the waterway onto a side railing and then placing a metal plank over the waterway . Some of the phone-dropped family members were still on the exit stairs by the platform but my SIL and I just left and wanted to get our kids who were wandering around since getting off the ride 20+ minutes earlier. Overall I did feel really bad for the young female ride operator that seemed to be crying throughout the ordeal either because she was yelled or because she wasn’t sure what to do. My impression was that they were stretched thin and that led to a lot of confusion and little communication to us in the boats. We couldn’t hear any of the announcements from the intercom in the queue. I understand that the lift mechanism could have been damaged but if the ride was evacuated then the platform should have been cleared and someone should have explained to us the next steps, during which we could have explained our concerns about medical issues. Hopefully the other lady was fine. As for the family that lost their phone, they confronted my FIL a little later in front of Der Wirbelwind and more screaming occurred so apologies if anyone witnessed that.
 
One thing I noticed last night was that the boats were up on the stop bumper thing but then they slid backwards so none of the boat was actually on the bumper until a boat came up from behind and bumped it back on. Hopefully that made sense, haha.
 
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^ Good question Gavin...

Anyway, I imagine the other lift was removed because it was more trouble than it was worth to maintenance. Why maintain two lift motors when you don't have to?
If I’m remembering correctly, there was never 2 lifts, it had what was known as a spillway drop. Not many flumes have them, but if you watch the arrow documentary by ACE, there’s a brief mention about that. It would make sense given the support structure there.
 
When do we expect flumes & possibly rapids to open this season. Water Country is slated to open May 14…
 
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Several Arrow flumes were made with “spillway” drops. They were a short drop followed by a ramp up back into the flume. No lift.

Powder Keg Flume at Carowinds originally had one and it was removed at some point before the entire removal of the ride. Kennywoods removed log Jammer also had one. It was a nice feature

I think they were removed from some flumes because of the possibility of valleying.

Ripsaw Falls at Islands of Adventure has something similar to this at the bottom of the main drop, but it’s taken at much higher speed and that ride has restraints.

Was Le Scoot once surrounded by trees? It’s pretty hideous now built over larger amounts of concrete slab.
 
I love Invadr dearly, but I'll never forgive what it did to the Le Scoot experience.
I figured it was inevitable, after what I remember one person saying in the 40th anniversary documentary: that they were choosing between New France and France for Griffon. To me, it said they had considered removing flume altogether, or shoving something behind it.
 
I figured it was inevitable, after what I remember one person saying in the 40th anniversary documentary: that they were choosing between New France and France for Griffon. To me, it said they had considered removing flume altogether, or shoving something behind it.
I’d rather them shove something behind it than tear it down.
 
If I’m remembering correctly, there was never 2 lifts, it had what was known as a spillway drop. Not many flumes have them, but if you watch the arrow documentary by ACE, there’s a brief mention about that. It would make sense given the support structure there.

You are correct. Take my (and everyone else's) posts from a decade ago with a grain of salt. BGW history facts are FAR more accessible these days than they were back then. Plus, in the last decade, people have surfaced a ton of previously-lost-to-the-hivemind park knowledge as well. 😋
 
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