Two random photos that I came across in my camera roll.
Flight of Fear
- Thread starter Ludwig II
- Start date
I want to know the story as to why that corkscrew and some other segments of the track are yellow.
Kings Island's FoF doesn't have this feature.
Kings Island's FoF doesn't have this feature.
I imagine for low clearance? It's just weird that they painted multiple parts of the track in that color.
I always thought it was to warn people that the ride is about to get rough. However, I just realized if that were the case, the whole ride would probably be yellow.
Smoother than Anaconda or the woodies...
Compared with the ride experience between the murderous bars of the mid-90s gen-1 shoulder restraint, before they added the extra padding -- the current experience is like riding a puffy white cloud across a field of warm, dryer-fresh microfiber shammy, covered 4 feet deep with down pillows.
The old Premier OTSRs sent tons of people to first aid at the parks for bloody ears.
They used to have signs demanding all riders remove their earrings and piercings.
They used to have signs demanding all riders remove their earrings and piercings.
Steel Phantom had those earring signs, too. People otherwise would occasionally get off the ride with tiny red marks in the sides of their heads from their earring posts...
Premier/Paramount’s incremental solution on the FoF rides was to load the shoulder bars with so much padding, they would sandwich your head and start folding your ears down as they lowered. I guess kids or the tiny-headed were somewhat immune (at least while the train was stationary ?).
There was a lot of vocal "what-if" resistance to the concept of new lap bar loopers in the 90s, with Schwarzkopf's track record serving as a bit of a mixed bag due to the 80s-era Mindbender accident. The then-contemporary Demon incident (see below) did nothing to tamp down ride suppliers' and parks' concerns about removing shoulder bars. Not sure how insurers felt because I never talked directly with them. But strictly IMO, I think the number of incidents occurring with the FoF shoulder bars set both Paramount and Premier on a more aggressive search for engineered solutions than they otherwise would have tolerated, opening them up to collectively decide lap bars were an acceptable alternative.
Premier/Paramount’s incremental solution on the FoF rides was to load the shoulder bars with so much padding, they would sandwich your head and start folding your ears down as they lowered. I guess kids or the tiny-headed were somewhat immune (at least while the train was stationary ?).
There was a lot of vocal "what-if" resistance to the concept of new lap bar loopers in the 90s, with Schwarzkopf's track record serving as a bit of a mixed bag due to the 80s-era Mindbender accident. The then-contemporary Demon incident (see below) did nothing to tamp down ride suppliers' and parks' concerns about removing shoulder bars. Not sure how insurers felt because I never talked directly with them. But strictly IMO, I think the number of incidents occurring with the FoF shoulder bars set both Paramount and Premier on a more aggressive search for engineered solutions than they otherwise would have tolerated, opening them up to collectively decide lap bars were an acceptable alternative.
I rode I305 about a week after it opened, aka hard OSTR's and no Trim. Honestly, I think Maverick was the worse ride for those OSTR's over I305. Then again, I don't really remember much of the I305 ride after the first drop...
Same here for when I first rode i305, the OTSR design was weird since it didn't even touch my shoulders but were basically large flat blades to smash my head against. However, I only remember the lap bars for FoF and I can say I'd much prefer those to any OTSR outside of maybe the seat belt loops used on bumper cars.
Head? How about neck. That's where they always hit me... Anyways, that's how Intamin did their OSTR's at the time. KD had them replace the hard OSTR's with the padded ones on I305, then CP did that with Maverick, Hershey added them to Storm Runner and Fahrenheit a few years back too.
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I did ride Storm Runner with the old restraints and I remember not liking that twist on the ascent because of them. So much better with the i305 type restraints.
Note: Premier won an industry excellence award for getting rid of the OTSRs on their original LIM Launchers.
The non-OTSRs on this are pretty weird though. I always have to struggle a bit to get in the car and my feet are a tad smushed by it. Of course I would never ever go back to the old restraints, but the current ones could be better.
I don’t know many details right now, but there is some sort of track/support renovation/replacement happening on Flight of Fear this offseason. I’m unsure of the full extent of the project, but it apparently involves slicing through track spine with a giant saw.
When all is said and done, the changes will probably be completely invisible to park guests, but given the invasive nature of the project, it seemed worth reporting.
When all is said and done, the changes will probably be completely invisible to park guests, but given the invasive nature of the project, it seemed worth reporting.
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True, I was figuring it'd be cheaper and easier to take from a previously standing ride than to fit a new piece from the manufacturer, though then again I don't remember seeing there were many spaghetti bowl rides so...
It would be cheaper but this isn't likely Premier coming into fix it. More likely that it's from KDs side and they ordered a new piece from Premier.