Flight of Fear
- Thread starter Ludwig II
- Start date
It's gonna be an ai generated picture of an alien on a roller coaster with FLIGHT OF FEAR at the top and 30th anniversary at the bottom both in tiny, unreadable text
Yeah on the back it's gonna say FINAL YEAR in massive bold font
Does anyone in the know think it could be closed for a slight unannounced retheme? Not likely but you never know.
Could simply be just a staffing issue. For an operator to reach a Level 1 (Board Operator) there are 7 checklists (Copy of the Ride Manual) that they have to go through. Two of those require 8 hours each of operating the ride while supervised by a trainer and can only be done one at a time. For context, most of the larger rides at KD only have 3 or 4 checklists to reach Level 1.
This is not true anymore. Coasters don't do hours. They just have to do a certain amount of ride cycles.
if something were to happen to flight of fear years from now, I rather have a retheme of the ride to finding a temple and all hell breaks loose, something like the old tomb raider ride at kings island
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Definitely not in my estimation.
Flight of Fear has been on suicide watch for years now. It will very likely only take one major, costly problem for the park to pull the plug. Investing in theming up a ride with such an uncertain future would be a very foolish move—particularly when Backlot, a ride with a TON more life left in it, still needs to be addressed.
More likely than not, Flight of Fear will reopen within a couple weeks and everything will be fine. Seems premature to be theorizing replacements within 24 hours of it showing up on the scheduled ride closures list.
I was told by someone on the last day of the season in November (who I think may be in this thread with us lol) who said flight was likely going to be this year’s pantherian.
From what I understand the electromagnets burning did a bit of damage but I wonder if they could Frankenstein this and joker? May just be easier to call up premier to fix it up though, they’re not that expensive to work with.
I personally wonder if they would do a refurb/retheme like busch gardens did? It would be a good way to extend the life of a fan favorite (one they didn’t utterly fuck over like volcano) plus busch seemed very happy with how the nessie refurb did. Also flight is like one of the main rides people buy a fast lane for so I think it makes its money. Likely just getting it working rn I feel like they would’ve said by now otherwise.
Who knows though, the fact it’s on the closure list and not a demo permit on the hanover website is promising that they’re willing to work on it (though it’s not like that’s necessarily stopped them from just demolishing stuff before)
From what I understand the electromagnets burning did a bit of damage but I wonder if they could Frankenstein this and joker? May just be easier to call up premier to fix it up though, they’re not that expensive to work with.
I personally wonder if they would do a refurb/retheme like busch gardens did? It would be a good way to extend the life of a fan favorite (one they didn’t utterly fuck over like volcano) plus busch seemed very happy with how the nessie refurb did. Also flight is like one of the main rides people buy a fast lane for so I think it makes its money. Likely just getting it working rn I feel like they would’ve said by now otherwise.
Who knows though, the fact it’s on the closure list and not a demo permit on the hanover website is promising that they’re willing to work on it (though it’s not like that’s necessarily stopped them from just demolishing stuff before)
Just out of curiosity what makes you say Backlot has way more life in it than FoF? I agree with you, but to say the difference between the two is THAT large a gap in years seems a little silly. I know the ride system on Backlot is much improved over FoF, especially in the LIMs, but with the effects all but shot half the draw of the ride is gone.
I think that if Six Flags was smart (and I’m being realistic here) the next two coasters would be a Vekoma family launch, akin to Big Bear Mountain but shorter, and a Vekoma Tilt, over Lake Charles. I think a tilt is an easy improvement over Anaconda, and honestly could be the replacement for Ana AND FoF and nobody would bat an eye IF they invest in a high quality layout and theming package. The family launch could be placed in Old Virginia and either complement Backlot or be a spiritual replacement to it.
With Rapterra next door, losing FoF would not necessitate a high thrill launch coaster, just a top quality looper. Realistically losing FoF and/or Backlot but gaining a Vek family launch and tilt in the next 10 years would still be a improvement over today’s lineup.
I also get the gap in a hyper, and inverted coaster, but the latter was already somewhat addressed with Rapterra.
Flight of Fear was a prototype in literally every way—launch, track, trains, controls, everything—and even just the structure itself has shown its age pretty severely over the years. Initial quality was questionable and it hasn't aged particularly gracefully at all from what I understand.
Backlot is a full ten years newer, didn't push the tech anywhere near as hard, and benefited greatly from the decade of coaster design and manufacturing experience that Premier gained from the likes of Flight of Fear.
All of these first gen Premier LIM coasters are definitely on borrowed time if you ask me (the remaining spaghetti bowls and the Mr. Freeze clones). The two Flight of Fears in particular though were the prototypes and, to be honest, I'll be very surprised if they make it to the next decade.
In Kings Dominion's case in particular, I think FoF is almost certainly the next major coaster to go—whether it kills itself or Kings Dominion simply sees fit to move on.
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I would add that from what I have heard Flight of Fear is most year the single most expensive maintenance budget item in the park surpass only slightly by Pantherian when a major issue like last year pops up. I honestly expect that it will makebit through it's 30th anniversary and thennin year 31 or two be put to sleep.
Alright so here’s my final takeaway on if. FoF will prob be closed for the first few weeks of the season (hopefully not longer) but I think it’s going to stay for at least this season and maybe the next if they bothered making merch for it. Hopefully we can get a closure announcement like SFA so we can get our final rides on it before it actually does close permanently.
Like I said, I think the most likely outcome is that Flight of Fear will reopen without incident within a few weeks and everything will be water under the bridge until the next time it hiccups. One of these times the doubters WILL be correct, but without insight into the exact issue, costs, etc, it's not going to be possible to predict which spin of the barrel will eventually lead to Flight of Fear's end.
That being said, I would never assume that the left hand has any idea what the right hand is doing at Kings Dominion or any Six Flags park. Cedar Fair in particular has a long, prosperous history of making wildly contradictory moves in quick succession despite it making absolutely zero sense. My favorite example of this will always be Thunder Road (rebuild most all of the coaster from the footers-up only to demo the entire thing basically immediately afterwards for a wave pool), but we have MANY, MANY examples in this chain of different people/departments pulling in wildly different directions leading to completely insane-looking company behavior.
That being said, I would never assume that the left hand has any idea what the right hand is doing at Kings Dominion or any Six Flags park. Cedar Fair in particular has a long, prosperous history of making wildly contradictory moves in quick succession despite it making absolutely zero sense. My favorite example of this will always be Thunder Road (rebuild most all of the coaster from the footers-up only to demo the entire thing basically immediately afterwards for a wave pool), but we have MANY, MANY examples in this chain of different people/departments pulling in wildly different directions leading to completely insane-looking company behavior.
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Yes with every single stat on the back including total number of riders since 1996, train capacity, and electrical power in watts required to power the ride.With ride stats
There was a point where I would have agreed, but I've come around. When the main gathering area is designed to be the main camping point for the Whey Foundation, so to mix that Whey Foundation with now a military instillation muddles the lore more. How do you explain why they are there, do you change the Whey Foundation to be a cover now, do you take something somewhat grounded and add a mystical element with the temples and aliens/military.
BLSC is the FAR easier refurb IMO. Change the Mini Coopers into Jeeps, and put as many fake trees as possible. Now it becomes an expedition from the base camp into unexplored depths of the jungle mountain side. The MCBR/Scene can be dethemed from the helicopter attack to an ape attack showing that they have gained intelligence and the ability to defend themselves (I know that sounds Planet of the Apes like - I just watched the movie last night) and that's what's happening in the thicket of the jungle. I would do some theme elements in the tunnels to make it really think jungle tree themed and bring back the splash at the end to be crossing a river to get back to base camp.