Atlantic City flume runs without water, tosses rider

hmmm could just be me but not having water on a flume ride......seems kinda stupid....why run it without the water anyways.

I hope the family is okay and that the pier is ready for a good old law suit.

I'll be real interested to see more about this story. The picture on the report looks much like a flume I saw at Virginia Beach A.P. last summer. If so, it holds a good amount of water, and I cannot see how:

1. It ran in the troth up top of the ride, (it needs water to float through the ride)

and

2. How it could've possibly emptied so quickly, (or if it was filled enough to run)

...I would think, unless the park was very low on attendance that day, that other people would've rode it within a few minutes of this family. It happened at 2:30pm according to the story, so it wouldn't have been first rides of the day.

I know I'm reading into this way too much, but for some reason this is intriguing me.*** This post was edited by Floorless Fan 6/19/2005 10:10:23 PM ***

Here is what the ride looks like.

http://www.italintl.com/lt/

On that model flume post-lift boats roll to and down the drop and only float on the lower portions of the ride.

Hmm... this ride doesn't appear to have any lift out conveyors, or any sort of blocking device at the top of the drops. I know on the local Hopkins flume, there are sensors that will shut down the liftout conveyors, AND close a physical gate at the top of the drop if the water level is too low. Sounds like this ride wasn't equipped similarly.

I used to work for an amusement park an Arrow log flume ride. On that particular flume, there were two pumps that moved water from the lagoon to the top of the lift (conveyor). The chutes wound around to what we called, the "spillway drop". A rideop sat up there, and if needed, would physically hold boats back, or push a button to allow the water brake to lift, and hold the boats. We were instructed to do this if the power went out, accident, evacuation etc. Also in the same position was a dam door, that could be activated at the push of a button to lift and lock. Its also used to build water pressure and volume when starting the ride, as the next segment of the ride was a drop down and back up again.

Once past that drop, the boats would travel along to the tall lift (conveyor, well 2 belts). The water in the chute would go under the hill and come out in the main spillway. A small amount of water was pumped to the top of the hill to add a waterfall effect/illusion to guests watching.

We have had a few times where the boats were too heavy, and the conveyor motors could not handle the weight, thus turning off and shutting down the ride. Even if there was a boat teetering on the top, that did come down the hill, there would still be enough water in the chute to slow the boat. However after about 3-5 minutes, the water is mostly drained and would not be a wise idea to send a boat down..

I don't know why I notice stuff like this, but did anyone else notice the picture of the little kid standing up and leaning over the front of the boat on the Mini-Flume screen?*** This post was edited by Floorless Fan 6/20/2005 4:13:36 PM ***

Is the same model they have at Celebration City?

JRS... assuming the L&T link that crazy horse provided is an accurate depiction, then yes, I'd say that's *virtually the same* as Celebration City's.

Interesting publicity photo of the kid standing up in the boat leaning over the front! I've seen these portable log flumes at a couple of fairs and seem really basic. I didn't really pay much attention to the safety system and was mostly just amused that I was on a log flume at a fair. Also on these there's no water that I remember in the upper troughs just in the lower run out. Also remeber the boats didn't stop in loading area and was awkard with having to move fast and ride ops constantly telling people to hurry up to load and unload.

I worked at an Arrow flume and remember there was a float switch device in the run out that was part of the safetly system. It would just the lifts off if run out got too low.