Flight of Fear
- Thread starter Ludwig II
- Start date
KD Golden Years posted this vintage FOF commercial I’ve never seen before, complete with a look at the old OTSRs and even some long-gone station theming (look at the preserved “guests” inside the clear tubes).
You also have to laugh at the fact the commercial says “Only at Paramount’s Kings Island” despite the fact KD’s clone opened on literally the same day as KI’s.
You also have to laugh at the fact the commercial says “Only at Paramount’s Kings Island” despite the fact KD’s clone opened on literally the same day as KI’s.
Because I can't sleep I went looking for an explanation or images of the exact track layout - I know it shoots you straight into a cobra roll left to right and there's a corkscrew after a helix before the final brake run, but in between the two I'm more or less in the dark so to speak except the MCBR.
And I'm not that great at reading blueprints.
Any help?
And I'm not that great at reading blueprints.
Any help?
Brambo
Cyberdyne Systems Software Engineer
The easiest way to figure the exact layout I think might be to go and watch on ride footage of it's outdoor clones. From my understanding the only difference is that the outdoor ones have no MCBR.
Isn't the train longer on the outdoor ones as well? At least on Joker's Jinx (SFA) I believe it is, right? They seem to have identical layouts to me, but it's a little hard to be sure by just riding them. I don't understand why KD FoF needs to come to that screeching halt in the middle. It seems completely unnecessary given how JJ rides.
You can tell the layout is the same from how differently they ride. Jinx launches slow to control the speed through the ride and lacks the extreme disorienting insanity of FoF's higher speed and darkness during the first half, and Jinx's second half gets no hangtime in the corkscrew and instead a sharp jerk which will leave you in pain if you're used to the other version and have your hands up for it. However the midcourse brake itself would be a big buzzkill without the dark and space sounds so I can see why they changed it. It was also probably supposed to be a block to increase throughput but they found that was too optimistic.
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I don't remember FoF being any faster of a launch, but admittedly it's not like I rode them close together, so it may well be true. I do find the launch of JJ a lot of fun, though. So if it is slower, it's not a big problem. Of course it's not in the dark, so it'll never have that aspect.
Just finally got a chance to watch both Angelo's FoF lights on walkthrough (really shaky camera and what seemed to be an odd focus on the load station and inbound run to the unload station) and the JJ PoV.
Maybe it's the atmosphere on FoF because JJ looks kinda lame. Launch, inversion, second inversion, then an almost endless amount of helixes later until the final corkscrew before the brakes and unload platform.
Indoors in low/no lighting it works for FoF, there's a lot of mystery into where you're headed and if you're upside down and seems overall more thrilling... JJ just severely lacks that aspect.
However, having never ridden JJ and knowing it's fairly close to FoF minus a MCBR, I'm sure it's actually a fun ride.
Maybe it's the atmosphere on FoF because JJ looks kinda lame. Launch, inversion, second inversion, then an almost endless amount of helixes later until the final corkscrew before the brakes and unload platform.
Indoors in low/no lighting it works for FoF, there's a lot of mystery into where you're headed and if you're upside down and seems overall more thrilling... JJ just severely lacks that aspect.
However, having never ridden JJ and knowing it's fairly close to FoF minus a MCBR, I'm sure it's actually a fun ride.
Joker's Jinx is a lot of fun. I still find it disorienting even, because of the way it's constantly turning and flipping. I like it with one big exception. Really two big exceptions. When the train is in the station there's a loud beeping warning sound that repeats over and over. And the recorded bit that gets played in the station is pretty aggravating after a while. It's best ridden when there's almost no line so you minimize your time in the station.
Fortunately when I go to SFA, there's generally hardly any line at all.I also have to say that Joker's Jinx is a lot nicer to look at than the giant building that is the outside of FoF. I like seeing the spaghetti. Plus they repainted it this offseason so it should look better this year.
No midcourse brake run on Mad Cobra. Extraordinarily similar to Joker's Jinx and Poltergeist, though it preceded both by a year or so.
The layouts are identical except for unloading stations and MCBRs. The main reason why the FoFs have an MCBR compared to the outdoor models is because the FoFs were built to operate with 3 trains whereas the outdoor models were only intended to run 2 tops.
Amazed no one has brought up how this ride sat on its ass doing nothing most of 2006 and could have potentially been relocated if KD didn't figure out their electrical grid issues when they added Backlot.
Edit: 2006, not 2007.
Amazed no one has brought up how this ride sat on its ass doing nothing most of 2006 and could have potentially been relocated if KD didn't figure out their electrical grid issues when they added Backlot.
Edit: 2006, not 2007.
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Basically when the Backlot stunt coasters were added Kings Dominion's electrical grid could not handle the three launch coasters running at the same time. If Volcano and FoF launched too close to one another the park would experience partial brown outs.
They decided to only run FoF when Volcano was unavailable for the day, and the popular talk was that alongside the discussion about updating the park's infrastructure FoF was potentially going to be relocated to another park.
They decided to only run FoF when Volcano was unavailable for the day, and the popular talk was that alongside the discussion about updating the park's infrastructure FoF was potentially going to be relocated to another park.
This is very true. If I am correct; the ride was closed for the 2006 season; wasn't it? Once Cedar Fair acquired all the Paramount's properties; the plans to relocate got canceled. It worked out well, because the park got to keep an attraction. In the present time; I just hope Cedar Fair doesn't remove it. It seems like they've been on a trend of removing older attractions with low ridership/high maintenance. I don't think KD's FoF has high budget. They recently did track work to it, this past off season if I am correct? However, the ride could use some decent theme to enhance the whole alien experience. It has been suggested many times, that they take down the maze wall or incorporate the maze queue as line queue theme. Not to mention; the desperate cry for pitch black rides? But, lately the word has been that the insurance company and corporate lawyers don't agree with the liability concerns of operating FoF in the pitch black; despite the RARE 2009 season Pitch Black ride experience.
FoF's performance has remained consistent over the years. I read the earlier comments about it toppling Joker's Jinx performance. For years; I thought I was the only one who realized this. Not sure why SFA's maintenance never enhanced the speed; but I am sure glad that KD was able to keep a competitive speed over the years. The experience never gets old. Being launched down a dark tunnel is not a common experience that riders can find in the United States anymore. Most launch rides are outdoors.