Ahh, one of my proudest feats as a lead -- no one ever failed a certification test under my instruction!RandyV wrote:So I have to ask -- how exactly did they go about training you guys? Did they have you shadow a shift, run the ride before the park opened, etc. Just curious -- it's something I never really thought about.
I always wanted to work at the park during the summers, but I lived way too far away to make it possible.
As I remember when you first were assigned to ride ops there was a basic ride op test. You had an orientation with your ride lead and he got you ready for the test. Then you would walk down to the ops training room which was on the service road behind Rapids. You sat down, and took your test on the good 'ole Scantron. I'm pretty sure Scantrons are still around but it was just a slip of paper with rectangle boxes you filled in with a #2 pencil.
Once you had your Ride Op badge then began training for your rides. The primary trainer was almost always your ride lead however each area of the park when I was there also had a couple of training leads who's sole job (aside from wearing amazingly funny BBL yellow shirts and blue shorts) was to train new ride ops.
When I worked at SFGA this was the time of year about that things were getting going, I could have sworn we opened weekends last couple of weeks of April (or that could have been when ride ops started, I can't remember). Anyway, beginning of the year is where the ride lead gets to train his/her crew to get ready for the year since chances are most of your crew will not be certified on the ride you're working.
If the lead isn't certified on that ride he has to be certified as well. Each ride has an operating manual and your first introduction would be to go over the manual. Some rides like Lobster had an incredibly simple and short manual and coasters usually had big ones. As I recall Rapids had the biggest ride manual, there was a lot of stuff to remember.
As a lead I usually started with the manual so the trainee could get familiar with all the parts. Then I would have them shadow me working the attendant position. Every ride has an attendant position and most have more than one. I would show the trainee the various attendant positions and have him/her watch me and then work them all before I would sit down with the manual again and prep for the test. Once the trainee thought he/she was ready off to take the test he/she would go.
In order to pass the test I think you had to get 80% of the questions right. The test would have basic questions about operations of the ride (what is the height restriction, how many people in each car, what is the restraint check procedure, etc) and were all multiple choice. If you got the 80%, and you would know right away, you would get your badge punched with your certification. When I first started there were two parts to the badge your ID and the certification badge but then they got cheap and combined it into one.
Once trained on attendant it was then time for controls. Again, I would start with the control section of the manual and then have the trainee watch me run controls while pointing out operation. Then I would have them "drive" (as running controls was called) while I observed them. Once I thought they were comfortable, off again to take the test.
Usually a ride op would get certified on attendant and controls for his/her assigned ride. Lots of people would get cross trained on other adjacent rides so they could fill in if needed when another crew was short. Once in a while, on a complicated ride like Rapids, you would have some people who would never get certified on controls.
The most fun I had doing training was the spring of 1992, I was lead for Condor/Dodge but Columbia/Tower didn't have their leads yet (still at college I think) and my college let out early. Every spring there was a "Physics Day" at the park where high school students would come and do "experiments" related to physics at the park. Most students used this as a day to screw around.
Anyway, the park is staffed bare bones for Physics Day but they need most of the rides open. So physics day 1992 I got three or four "silver tags" (full time employees) sent over to me to train to run four rides with the limited staff I had. These folks had not been trained. So I quickly trained them on attendant across the rides and sent them to take their tests like any ride op would have to. They all passed. It was my proudest achievement -- aside from the fact that none of my trainees ever failed the test (and failing wasn't all that rare).
See, ya had to ask! To this day though I still remember the four set of breaks for Shockwave though -- safety, holding, ready, station (not counting the "c" block brakes which were before the boomerang). All because of SFGA ride op tests.
--Guy
