I'm with you on the Firebird thing but if you can imagine FoF was actually worse than Firebird with OTSR. Firebird is really close though and I really would love to see B&M find a way to put vests on the conversions.
Existing Roller Coaster Flight of Fear
- Thread starter Ludwig II
- Start date
FoF with OTSRs was so bad. Just constant, literally constant ping-ponging back and forth between the shoulder bars. The only real moments of respite were the launch, MCBR, and brake run.
For anyone who never rode it during that era, first of all you are fortunate — but second, if you could go back in time and experience it, you would be utterly incredulous over the fact that a ride at not one but two major amusement parks was allowed to run for years in that condition.
Anyway.
For anyone who never rode it during that era, first of all you are fortunate — but second, if you could go back in time and experience it, you would be utterly incredulous over the fact that a ride at not one but two major amusement parks was allowed to run for years in that condition.
Anyway.
@halfabee, 100% agree with your statement here.
The OTSR on FoF in those early years was so bad, that literally just one ride/torture-session was enough... and that was back when I was young/dumb enough, and did not know that migraines were a thing 😉
We went to opening day of FoF and after one ride left the park. My head was killing me from the restraints. They actually added extra padding before opening day and it still didn't help. So much better with the current restraints.
OTSRs should be removed on everything. They need to find a way. But the vest restraints on the newly renamed boomerang at Hershey I found uncomfortable. They are too tight on me. Not horrible, but not a great solution. Other rides seem to manage no OTSRs without vests. They need to do something like that.
I'm repeating myself from a prior post, but before the lap bars came in, the restraint padding on FoF just kept getting thicker over time. Eventually, when an adult or large-headed child pulled down the restraint, the thick padding descending on each side of their head often would try to fold down their ears a bit.
Lap bars saved the ride IMO.
Lap bars saved the ride IMO.
I don't want to say OTSRs but horse collars.... Things like the i305 restraints are comfortable and extremely important because of the sudden lateral changes. I personally like both the Vekoma and B&M vests but I can understand they aren't universally accepted and I think those are situations where they likely aren't required. Certainly all hard-molded OTSRs need to go.
I’ll be the renegade here and say I’ll take B&M’s hard molded OTSRs over their vests any day of the week. I can’t stand the vests’ constant tightening and digging into my collar bone.
Totally agree. I rode Valravn and much prefer Griffon because of the restraints. What I like about the restraints on Griffon is that I'll bunch up my shoulders so I get one or two clicks - plenty of room to move around. The only problem is after the drop I get stapled into the seat but I'll take that any day over the vests. Didn't care for them on Gatekeeper either.
Doesn’t seem that comparing vests to over the shoulder makes much sense on a dive coaster that has little to no head banging by the nature of the ride.
Vests are much more up for debate on boomerangs and other rapidly transitioning rides. Personally I’ll take the vests any day of the week over headbanging.
Vests are much more up for debate on boomerangs and other rapidly transitioning rides. Personally I’ll take the vests any day of the week over headbanging.
I'll agree that vests are much better for rapidly transitioning rides but I also agree with @Mushroom that I much prefer OTSR over vests on dive coasters and other smooth rides.
Why didn’t they do the same thing as KI and turn it into Flight Of Cheer for Winterfest? Maybe they didn’t want to open the area just for one ride.
The park tweeted that FOF is opening this weekend along with a link to FOF nostalgia.