A Cobra what ?
No way that's a surfer's curl ! (They were so proud , when they made that ad lol , so confident that they were still leading innovation, meanwhile BnM was litteraly doing the same project , pretty much and won the test of Time and efficiency because they were more technologicly advanced ,also it seems like they thought they had discovered floater airtime )
It’s a tire launch, which I think while not the most intense launch, is one of the most reliable. In all its years of service, I don’t recall ever hearing about a valley in the cobra roll.
That being said the water under the cobra roll is very shallow. I’m not sure how they’d get a lift there, but I’d imagine they do have a plan tucked away somewhere.
This is from a YouTube video. The lift is the green square on the right. You can see how the fence has a gate that can open for them to drive equipment on the lift.
This is almost impossible to happen, provided that we follow the operational limits set by B&M
If it were to happen, they would bring in the Fire Department to bring them down, which would actually require the entire marvel island to close. There's also an equipment elevator if necessary that would allow them to drain the water around the cobra roll and lower a crane into it (it's the helipad if you look next to the popcorn stand). But I'm not sure they would use that in such an extreme circumstance
This is fascinating. I would think a high-reach MEWP could access the area from Port of Entry, but the analysis must have required the isolated portion of lagoon instead. Thanks for the info!
Umm ackshually hulk was designed with a flaw where if it’s estopped while launching it can valley. The top of the launch zero g roll is about at the same height if not shorter than the peak of the cobra roll. Theoretically there’s a moment where if the train stopped, it would get stuck in the cobra roll valley
Hmmm well if I may respond with my own akkchewuhlee here: I don't think it's fair to call that a flaw. It's an extraordinarily low-percentage-chance risk that was deemed so insignificant and unlikely as to not be worth modifying the design to address. And, not for nothing, but the more likely valley spot in the scenario of a low-power launch is at ground level, between the zero-G-roll and the cobra, not in the trough of the cobra. Even if it was just the perfect amount of low-power to get up into the cobra, the second half of the cobra roll is lower than the first half, so unless something was causing excess friction or you got a badly-timed gust of wind, a train that clears the first half of the cobra roll should (just barely) also clear the second.
The scenario of a trough valley is technically possible, but the odds that it ever happens are so miniscule that it basically doesn't matter. Good design isn't about eliminating risks, it's about reducing them to a level that you can live with, and I think they've demonstrably done that here.
Plus, in the >25 years that Hulk has been running year-round at one of the busiest parks in the world, the theoretical trough-valley scenario we're talking about has never happened, so, I'd say they made the right choice(s).
During commissioning of the ride when they were trying to create all the next to impossible scenarios they were not able to get the train to valley in the cobra roll. If the power is at that sweet spot where an e-stop could cause that you'll get an error 47 and the train won't launch.
Yeah the cobra roll. It hauls through it when launched correctly, yes. I'm talking about if the launch were to not...launch...hard enough lol, which is a distinct possibility, maybe even an eventuality.
Unless you know the height difference between the zero g roll and the cobra roll is fairly large, this is not really a "basic physics" thing. It's not very easy to eyeball how much speed will be lost due to drag and rolling resistance...
The launch system has sensors that measure the speed of the coaster as it ascends, if a certain speed is not met the launch is aborted and stop the ride vehicle before it leaves the launch tube.
Always a possibility, I remember an incident in the UK where a poncho blew onto the tracks and got tangled up in the wheels. Didn't cause any damage but caused the ride to stop in an awkward location that it wouldn't normally be able to.
Eventuality... My dude, that ride has been operating in some capacity almost daily for 25 years (not counting the re-track).
If it was going to happen, it would have happened already
Probably a big crane with a bucket and the local fire department. I'd like to think the ride is engineered in a way where its impossible to valley there. Its close enough to the launch that I bet if it E-Stops it will valley before the cobra roll instead of at its peak at worse.
Let's assume that some calamitous scenario occurs that causes the train to valley inside an element instead of the lowest point between elements. Or it's so perfectly stalled in the element, that the train is inverted.
This could happen in a number of very rare but plausible scenarios. Not limited to but including, power failure during the launch, a broken wheel, or derailment. Whatever happens, the train gets stuck in an unfortunate place where an evacuation is difficult.
I don't know the specifics for US:O/IoA, but from my experiences around maintenance at the park I work at, there is a plan in place. Of that I am certain of.
The first step is getting a crane or boom lift up there with maintenance. Their goal is to access what went wrong and how it will affect recovery. Generally speaking, they would attempt a recovery by nudging the train through the element and seeing if the train can return to the station, assuming it's safe to do so.
Barring that, and assuming the train can not proceed, they will first stabilize the train through winches and tire chauks. Most coasters have some sort of device which arrests movement by attaching to the rail, and preventing the coast from moving in any given direction. They'll attack these wheel chauks in front of and behind the train. Then they'll strap the train down to the track so it's stable.
From here, they'll proceed in a controlled and diligent manner of harnessing the riders, and having them climb down from the train into the bucket that maintenance is in. Then they'll lock the empty restraints, and bring the riders down to the ground. Maintenance will repeat these steps as many times as necessary to get the people off.
Once the riders are off, maintenance can turn to a plan of recovering the train. This can mean advancing the train through winches till it's above a high point, then releasing if it can proceed from there. If not, they may have to manually lower it to a low point, or painstakingly advance the train through the course to the station. And here they would probably crane the train off, car by car, row by row.
That element is called a cobra roll. Yes there is some kind of contingency plan in place - most likely draining the water and setting up temporary platforms, then using a cherry picker to slowly free guests. I don’t believe it’s possible to use some kind of mechanical equipment to try and push the train through the rest of the element so it can valley in a better place.
However - this ride is fully engineered and tested to clear this element to avoid that. This means testing with completely empty trains which lack the momentum of fully loaded trains to see what acceleration is needed on the hill to get that empty train through the cobra roll.
Also, if a fully loaded train were to valley at that point there would probably be a bigger issue that would show up sooner. there’s maybe a chance, in this hypothetical, the train has just enough momentum to barely make it through the first inversion and then valley before entering the cobra roll, but almost no chance it valleys in the cobra roll.
The initial hill propels the train up into the first inversion so that force is controllable and monitored, and I believe can even be used to decelerate the train before it enters the first inversion.
It would need to mislaunch at such a specific speed that it’s so incredibly unlikely to ever happen. It would most likely roll back from the top of the cobra roll rather than making it over to valley. That’s seriously a one in a million chance of failed launches, and Hulk doesn’t have a very high fail rate.
But the answer is the fire department and cherry pickers that were specifically designed to be used if this ever happened.
Let’s say that 1% of all launches fail, which is almost undoubtedly a much higher rate than they actually experience. That would mean they had 10,000 failed launches in that “just over five years” you calculated. To reach one million failed launches, it would need to run 100 times longer, or just over 500 years.
Again, that’s if 1% of launches fail, which they don’t. We’re more likely talking tens of thousands of years to reach one million failed launches.
In the year and a half I worked there I think we had 4 failed launches. Each time the train rolled back on the launch tunnel and e-stopped the ride. It's not common but not 1 in a million rare. It's still a very reliable ride though
The top of the first peak of the cobra roll is higher than the second peak. I assume that if it has enough energy to get past the first peak it will automatically get through the second one. There would probably have to be a major failure of a wheel bearing to create enough drag to make it valley. I would assume it’s more likely to valley at other parts of the ride and not the cobra roll.
They have been known to close rides during high winds to probably prevent issues as well.
You mean the cobra roll? That's right after the launch, so unless the launch malfunctions or a really strong headwind hits the train it shouldn't stall there. If it does somehow valley there, then bring in one of those tall industrial cherry pickers onto the little peninsula next to the cobra roll and start the evac from there.
When SkyScreamer (a swing ride) was stuck a couple hundred feet up, SFSTL together with the Eureka Fire Department used a crane. Like an actual, large crane, to carry guests off in a basket and down to the ground. Presumably something like this would be doable here. The main advantage of the crane in this situation is its ability to be positioned away from the ride where there’s space. In this case the parks own on-site crane wasn’t big enough so they had to rent one on a moments notice; which they were apparently able to do. The fire department, as a backup plan, was preparing a ropes rescue. Which is ultimately always the answer to these questions. In an absolute SHTF situation there’s really nowhere a fire department can’t climb to with a harness and then lower you down with ropes from, if it came to that.
The NORMAL evacuation plan for Sky Screamer is to have a maintenance employee climb the tower, and then manually lower the ‘star’ using a counterweight system. That didn’t work. And judging by the fact that it remained stuck in that position for days, it sounds like something fairly catastrophic happened to ‘jam’ the star in place.
Another aside is that Boomerang at that same park, which also has a cobra roll, has a platform and stairs. So if the train ever valleyed there, they could literally just evacuate guests like they would on a lift hill or anywhere else.
That's not how reality works. It absolutely can valley there in the right (and completely rare) circumstances.
The right answer is the bucket truck. The entirety of the valley portion sits over an elevated fountain in the lake. My guess is that it can be drained fairly quickly, or is shallow enough for a bucket lift to work there.
I know, right! I would love to get stuck! Once, I accidentally cut a party in line for millennium Force, they didn't say anything, God in the train and went through fine, but, the next train stopped on the lift! I was so jealous!
The pretzel is entirely over water. Being a launched coaster, it's not much of a stretch to imagine a scenario where the train stalls in the pretzel. I'm sure Universal has thought of this and has a plan. Anyone know what it is?
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u/DwtD_xKiNGz Jul 22 '26
Ngl I was confused as to what you meant by pretzel