It might just be a GCI thing? I noticed Troy doing that a couple months back

Looks as though the tensioner has given up or isn't set correctly. There's certainly not enough tension in the chain, which is allowing these oscillations to occur. That'll put extra strain and wear on the motor.

Think GCI may need to come fix that if it's still doing it.

I visited this weekend and unfortunately the chain was still doing that. It was my first time on the ride and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Bag drop is still an issue, batching in to the pre show is still an issue as hursty pointed out, there isn’t enough room in the station. Also, the staff who allocate seating seem unnecessarily strict on where you go. I witnessed single riders be separated on several occasions.

However good news is despite some stormy weather, flames were fully functional and the ride in torrential rain is amazing. Definitely runs better later in the day, I’m hoping to get there for Scarefest

I'm next to the chain now and it is going around normally. I'm expecting now that it has something to do with the weather and wet conditions.

I visited today and didn't notice the chain acting up.

Found the lift hill's staggering / rocking backwards and forwards peculiar but the rest of the ride was phenomenal. Caught the queue at good times during the day and didn't wait for more than 30 minutes per wait. The fire on the statue seemed to work well, flaring up at every cart entering the Wicker Man. The intro room worked fine the first time, though it didn't work properly and seemed to mess up the second, possibly due to one of the other guests standing Infront of the automatic doors. Really enjoyed the ride overall.

HoneyBagel wrote:

I visited today and didn't notice the chain acting up.

Found the lift hill's staggering / rocking backwards and forwards peculiar but the rest of the ride was phenomenal. Caught the queue at good times during the day and didn't wait for more than 30 minutes per wait.

Glad you got some short queues and a good first experience of the pre-show.
It'll be interesting to see what happens with the lift, I expect someone will ask about it in the presentation tomorrow!

Did two runs today and it is so much better in the warm than the near icy temperatures in April when I last did it! Nice amount of air time and flung around everywhere.

Here is a follow up of the lift hill chain operating in 24°c

Did anyone ask about the chain lift in the presentation at the event? If so, what was said about it?

Nothing was asked about the chain lift.

It's not just Wicker Man that has that 'issue' with the chain lift, a fair few GCI's have a strange rocking motion from time to time. I wouldn't think it's anything to be concerned about. 

One thing that was mentioned in the presentation was some slight changes have been made in the last couple of weeks in regards to the way the preshow operates. I can't recall exactly but something to do with the resetting of it and the doors has now been improved. It goes to show they are constantly tweaking the ride to get it up to its optimum operating capacity. 

The lift hill felt it was working much more as intended this weekend, compared with Justin's original video, where the chain lifted right the way out of the trough and slapped back down.

I watched the same position as the original video and when the train first connects with the chain there is a slight lift of at most 10cm, which happens happens once. This would be fairly expected, as the tension in the chain, and to a lesser extent the work done by the motor, has to readjust to the train's weight. My assumption is there's something like a weighted floating cog in the hut shown in Justin's second video, which will move up and down to allow the tension in the chain to adjust from no train, to train attached. That'll bounce a little bit when the train first attaches and then gently settle down. This bouncing as the tensioner balances itself is the most likely cause of the rowing effect the train has on the first half of the lift hill. My guess is that in May, the tensioning device was way off in its calibration and it was bouncing around a lot more, causing the chain to snap around to a greater extent further down the line.

My guess is that fixing this issue was why it was closed for a few days.

As for pre-show changes. From all the runs this weekend, the change appears to be jam as many people into pre-show as possible and clog the station up. I didn't see any half empty trains this time from pre-show holding things up and the station being empty. But I did see the pre-show effect reset many times, both before and after the pre-show due to people just being jammed in without necessarily anywhere for them to go. Oh and the exit doors don't work.

Was there anything said about the last part of the ride? As it is just dark with nothing, it is quite a loss of opportunity.. the music however kicks in and it sounds like something is about to happen..

Hopefully some additions to the 2019 season perhaps?!

Adz wrote:

It's not just Wicker Man that has that 'issue' with the chain lift, a fair few GCI's have a strange rocking motion from time to time. I wouldn't think it's anything to be concerned about. 

One thing that was mentioned in the presentation was some slight changes have been made in the last couple of weeks in regards to the way the preshow operates. I can't recall exactly but something to do with the resetting of it and the doors has now been improved. It goes to show they are constantly tweaking the ride to get it up to its optimum operating capacity. 

When I went during school season the preshow was what slowed down the queues, they were struggling to close the doors in synchronization with the show start and finished, which resulted with empty trains going around the circuit. This now makes sense to why the pre show was having issues!

PhNx Survivor wrote:

Was there anything said about the last part of the ride? As it is just dark with nothing, it is quite a loss of opportunity.. the music however kicks in and it sounds like something is about to happen..

Hopefully some additions to the 2019 season perhaps?!

Yes there was.

Nothing specific, but it's certainly an area that has potential for things to be added. But, there are technical limitations, as this is where the maintenance and train storage area are, along with transfer tracks.

Smoke, lighting, projections etc. are all things that they should be able to very easily add to the maintenance area. None of these take up much space and are almost fairly basic to install.

Smoke and lighting are already present within the tunnel, but I think they want to do a little more to it, evolving that part of the ride further, adding to the story and ride experience. Personally, I'd like to see more done to the sound tunnels too, and see a return of the lift hill music which was absent during the 4 days I was there. The preshow batching still needs some work too, although it was a lot better.

These are only small things and I love the ride thoroughly. Best ride at Alton by far!

Interesting to hear the lift hill music wasn't on / working. Although, to be honest, I can't remember really noticing it too much anyway. I don't think the the sound tunnels need any work really – the heavy smoke effects are sufficient (and long as they're working properly). The maintenance shed what the only part of the ride that stood out as being a bit inconsistent from the rest of the experience, even with the small amount of lighting and smoke effects that were there.

If anything on the sound tunnels, I think the first tunnel needs slightly more smoke, not too much, and lights down the sides to look like burning embers..

The second tunnel ideally wants to have more Smoke aswell as a little gust of wind removes all the smoke in the tunnel.

Apart from that, I agree the maintenance shed should have some form of projection of some sort, like the shed appearing to set fire and burn whilst you inside, hence the entire reason being an offering to the Wicker Man. I know they can’t do much, but something is better than nothing... just happy that they have acknowledged this.

And as for Saturday, I didn’t join in with you guys at the meetings, as I didn’t even realise you were there

However, I did ride Wicker Man 4 times, each time the pre-show was well received and played fine, the problem with the door opening was a slight dilemma but a small problem if anything, the station dispatches were rather quick, and had a brilliant ride at front and back for the first time, since the ride opened, you can clearly see they have improved.

Considering the fire theme for the shed, perhaps the longer you stack in the shed the more intense the fire effects become? This would add more tension and would make it a lot less boring waiting in the tunnels.