FOF's affect on other parks

I have noticed a great great reaction after PKI took the otsr's off FLight of Fear, and i wonder what other parks will make of this . Like for Shock Wave at SFGAm, all it needs is better restraints, then the ride would be genius. But when you concentrate on your head and not the ride you don't notice it's qualities. Anyway, since FOF is such an awesome ride now i wonder if other parks with head banging coasters will catch the train and follow in PKI's footsteps, i sure hope so. What do you think.

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RCman4

Drachen Fire...

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-Glitchey
Who was at BGW on April 28th.

Praise to Paramount for proving that a corkscrew, cobra roll, and a sidewinder are 100% safe without OTSRs. This is in addition to probably 20 or 30 vertical loopers without OTSRs already, some which go backwards! I can't think of a traditional looping coaster that wouldn't be better and not 100% safe without OTSRs. (I bet Rideman will agree on that one!)
I can only hope that other parks do the same. First on my list to retrofit would be every other Premeir coaster. Mr Freeze and Chiller would be awsome sans OTSRs, and it would probably increase ridership. I can't count the number of people I heard say something like "Ouch, I'm not going on that one again" as they passed by Chiller and went for less brutal rides.

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- Peabody *** This post was edited by Peabody on 5/11/2001. ***

It all comes down to physics vs piece of mind. Ive never ridden FOF but I do know it is covered. This may allay some fear of the general public not wanting to get on a looping coaster without better restriants. Of course we all know that every ride would be 100% as safe without OTSR 's as with. Nobody ever complains about sore shoulders from these rides I notice. Yes I hope this is a trend that extends to all coasters in or outdoors, but a better educated GP would help the situation immensly. Personally I think that OTSR's are the worst thing that ever happend to the coaster industry, and are only an un-needed relic left over from the 70s when corkscrew coasters were first introduced, mainly as insurancce for the piece of mind of the rider. Technology has improved greatly since then. I'm very surprized that we can make coasters 300 feet tall, go 100 mph, contort us in every maniachal inversion possible, all very safely, yet we can't seem to eliminate this issue of the OTSH. Any ride that you need to "learn how to ride" so you dont get your brains scrambled, is not a true rollercoaster. Of course tne encouragement of companies that know how to build a OTSH system that intrudes on the rider as much as a pair of silky boxers such as B&M, will help the industry away from producing painfull rides, and induce more competition to develope "smoother" more rider-friendly coasters.

That would be totally awesome if they took the otsr's off of Mr. Freeze. But Mr. Freeze has a "Top Hat" inversion, which it goes through relatively slowly. Could that make lap bars out of the question? Just a thought...

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For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not die but have eternal life.
John 3:16

No, if a coaster can get stuck upside down (see Walibi shuttle loop) with just lap bars and not have any injury or death, then pretty much anything including a top hat would be safe! Check out previous discussion on this topic.

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- Peabody

Ok, lets think here. Can anyone come up with a SINGLE reason that OTSR's are safer than lap bars? If it's to more safely secure the rider, then I DARE you to think why B&M's need horsecollars, while rides like SROS do not. If Mr. Freeze goes through the top hat slowly, well then the riders experience hang time. What about hard negative G such as the third and fourth hills on SFNE's Superman? If you weren't properly restrained, those hills would have you out of the train in no time.

Zero G Rolls don't even throw you around nearly as much as the "non-inverting corkscrew camelback" on SFDL/SFA's superman. In fact, if horsecollars are to keep the riders from falling out, Ghostrider ought to have them.

Horsecollars are kind of needed on flying coasters, or standups, but I mean even on inverted coasters their only purpouse is to look like a looping coaster train.

I sure hope FOF starts a trend, I can think of 100s of loopers that would be mind-bogglingly fantastic without horsecollar restraints. Think about Kumba, or Dragon Khan, or Monte Makaya and Atlantis? What about California Screamin'? I hope parks catch on...

You got it, Ed. There was an inverted coaster car on display on IAAPHA that just had a lap bar, and there is no way to get out of it, it is just as secure if not more that any OTSR. As you said, the only real place they are seemingly necessary is on standups or flying coasters.
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- Peabody

I work at BGW and told some of the head people at the park about what the Paramount Parks did to the Flight Of Fear coaster. They told me that the lap bars were going to be concerted.The one thing i know for sure is that there will be something done to the ride before or during the 2002 season

I think that ostrs are kind of nesacary on B&M stuff like inverted rides, like montu for example. that is the best inverted in the world. anyway, the support you miss at the chest area. amd shoulders if there were lap bars, i really could see people's bodies flying around in the seat. because the g's are so high, and on stuff like the boomerang at the end of the track, i could really see there being big problems with the lap bars. i think that the ostr, all is does is keep your body strait, and on coasters like montu, maybe the freedom that your body would have could be dangerous. maybe i am wrong, but i just vision montu with lap bars, and i can see how one would like break thier back, or injure thier neck, because montu is so intense, and awesome :) Not that i have ever hit my head or had any problems what so ever on that ride, because again it is so smooth. but on those fast corckscrews your body could be twisted in a wierd way. and with the ostr's right now Montu is one of the best coasters i think on the planet. :) on traditional loopers i would very much like to see lap bars.

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RCman4 *** This post was edited by Neil H. on 5/12/2001. ***

I think Cedar Point should put a FOF clone inside the Disaster Crapport building, that ride is a waste of space.