120 mph and bumblebees of death

Hi there,

it may sound like a strange consideration but with more and more rides reaching high speeds in open trains, I wonder why it is that we never heard of accidents or injuries of people sitting in the first row being smacked in the face by air suspended objects like insects or birds (beside the known cable-snapping incident and the one collision with a duck on one of the B&M hypers)

I presume even behing hit by a moskito travelling at 128 mph could cause at least some pain.

What makes these rides able to dispense with windshields, at least in the first row, that all other vehicles travelling even at fractions of these velocities have ?

Curious,

jo

*** Edited 3/4/2005 6:04:17 AM UTC by superman***

Guessing you've never been to Cedar Point.

I can tell you that rain at 93 mph hurts like hell, so I'd imagine bugs would be the same.

i know many times while ridding MF that you get nailed with bugs. i had a white shirt on one time sitting in the front row and when i got off i had black dots all over my shirt and face. my girlfriend has to pick them off of me. and trust me it hurts when your tryin to put your hands up and your getting hit in the face with bugs. TTD isn't quite as bad because it doesn't actually go over the lagoon like MF does, which is why i think you get hit with more bugs on MF then TTD.

Even goign that fast though when you get hit by a bug it seems unpleaent, but its not anything that is life threatening (spelling). I suppose if the bug is big enough it might leave a little welt, like getting hit with a paintball from 50' away. It stings a little bit but nothing that can't be shaken off.

Yes so it seems that he has never been to CP i would agree with that statement 100%. *** Edited 3/4/2005 5:58:59 AM UTC by MForce Aholic***

How often do things hit car windsheilds when you're driving fast? Not that often, and that's because in order for the car to move into that space the air that previously occupied it must move. The moving air is strong enough to move most insects and even birds out of the way of the approaching object. However heavier items (Rocks, BIG bugs etc.) cannot move out of the vehicles way fast enough and thus hit your windshield, but higher up on it, and that varies depending upon how aerodynamic a vehicle is.

Most Roller Coaster Trains are designed aerodynamically for that same reasons. The "windsheild" on some coasters are designed to help push the air out faster so that bugs do not become an issue.

Size is also an issue. Cars are signfigantly larger then roller coaster trains.

Me: Hey look at that cloud ahead of us. Oh no, that is no cloud....

10 min later, you're still picking the muffleheads off your shirt. superman, to help answer your question, its not that bad, the only thing you have to make sure to do is not have your mouth open, or you get instant protein...

*** Edited 3/4/2005 6:11:23 AM UTC by Chris the Coaster Freak***

Yes, I have never been to Cedar Point, that is correct. :)

But I'm curious anyway.

apparently you don't do much long distant highway driving, because everytime i drive from ohio to myrtle beach or new york, when i stop to get gas i have to clean my windshield as well. i have a dodge stratus too, so it is stream line. i have way more bugs hit my glass then rocks and stones.

Apparently you've never seen bugs or birds go over your car either... Can you imagine what it would be like if ALL of those bugs hit your car?

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RamblinWreck said:
I can tell you that rain at 93 mph hurts like hell

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And you havent lived until youve experienced it, hard to understand why that painful stimulus does it but my best rides on MF have been in the rain.

Yes, people do get hit by bugs (my sister seems to once every coaster trip where it really hurts like her eye) but Ive never heard of someone getting hit by a bumble bee before but I attriubute that to the intellegence of the bee which unlike certain other insects realizes that the space above a coaster track is a killing zone.

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*** Edited 3/4/2005 7:15:47 AM UTC by Touchdown***

My only front seat ride on Millie was during a downpour.

O-U-C-frickin-H!

One of mine was in the second row, and yea, it was like getting pelted with golf-ball hail, but I got a big kick out of it 'cause it made it a more intense experience for what is normally a coaster lacking tremendous forces.

I think i was actually stung by a bee on Timber Terror. it must've been flying in the same direction as the train.

< stung by a bee when SFGAm Demon's OSTRs were lowered and blocked my hand from reaching my other shoulder, where the bee had landed. LOL!

I was stung by a bee as well at SF Great Am, while sitting on a bench. Yeouch! I think the year before last the bees seemed to have been a problem, at least that is what an employee said.

I don't remember getting *bugged* to death at Cedar Point (I always wear sunglasses to protect my eyes at least, especially on MF and Dragster) but I have been hailed and rained on while riding MF and Raptor.

Can someone say PAIN?!?!?!?!

-Tina

At Pointbuzz a little while ago, someone was saying they were wondering if CP had some PETA can't know about this way of keeping the birds out of the way of TTD and MF. ;)

There was the Apollo's Chariot incident with Fabio and a bird... But that's just really damn funny. I feel sorry for the bird though... Death by Fabio's face.

That really was funny. Of all people a bird could have collided with, it happened to Fabio. Is that what Superman was talking about with the duck, or was there another incident involving a bird?

Wearing glasses makes a big difference....I wear them, never had a problem in 100-odd visits to CP (well, other than the rain on MF, but it was worth it :) ).

On the other hand, my glass-less brother spent only 4 days at CP during his visit from South Africa last year, and had two spectacular bug-in-the-eye incidents, both on Raptor.

I did once eat a moth half-way through the zero-G roll on Raptor, at night in the front row. Keep your mouth shut.

Magnum XL-200 is slow compared to Magnum or TTD, but it has a much larger car design. See this image: http://rcdb.com/ig11.htm?picture=8. When I had the chance to ride front row, the windshield was totally splattered by bugs, and this was just after the seasonal clean-up, a week before Memorial day. I can only imagine what MF and TTD are like, where there is more human flesh exposed to the critters than fiberglass and steel. ;)