Canada's Wonderland riders stuck upside down for twenty minutes on a flat ride

Didn't feel this was necessarily news worthy, but usually ride malfunctions of this sort don't leave riders inverted.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/...-1.6575480

It's a Zamperla Hawk model, themed as axes. I know the thrill of the carnival scale salt n pepper shakers (erm, loop-o-plane is the actual name I guess) is the idea of being stuck upside down, but I can only imagine the novelty wearing out prettttty quickly.

That would be awful. Even when the ride is functional, it feels like one is going to fall out of it since there’s nothing to brace feet against.

Same thing happened to Kennywood’s Aero 360. It’s been closed all season and apparently waiting for a part and opening next season.

Not as bad but for about 15 min this past week I was stuck on the tilting track on Gringots, in the down position. We would be raised back to the startinv position only to, less than 10 min later, be retilted and dropped with no video. The rest of the ride occurred as normal except the work lights were on. Interesting tidbits I learned from that:

1. The track remains a good 10-15ft above the floor throughout.
2. In the final room, the door that opens isn’t a simple garage door roll up, it’s attached to a kuka arm and is pulled up and to the left.

Neat, I didn't know about the robot arm, though that seems like a really expensive way to do it. I've looked over the edge of the car on that ride a ton, and most of it is remarkably uninteresting and, to your point, just flat track above ground.

Some additional info here, including the fun detail that the ride had to complete the cycle before they unloaded.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/can...-1.6976989

This happened at Kennywood last year, but thankfully the maintenance person who takes care of the ride was present and knew of the "quick release" way to get the ride down so the riders were off in about 5 minutes. This seems to be an issue with these rides as they age.

Because Zamperla.
I’ll be nice and refer to them as a reputable company, and disclaimer: I have no direct experience with them, and am collecting the evidence anecdotally, but Zamperla flats seem to be trouble makers. Over the years so many have broken down and been removed when (in my opinion) they should still be in service. I’m thinking of Roto Shake, AXS, all removed, and a slew of Power Surge rides that have lost at least one of their components. Knoebels just scrapped their Power Surge and I believe it was their second one. Operators have told me they’d never seen a ride more difficult than the Air Race. Disk-O’s have seen their share of trouble. And it’s a shame because Zamperla flats are fun and interesting rides.
And if an operator has to sit without a ride for the better part or remainder of the season then that seems inexcusable. I’d expect for my money to pick up the phone and receive immediate support or a replacement. I don’t believe Hawk rides are out of production, so what gives?

Troublemakers compared to whom? So few companies are making large scale flat rides these days that it isn't useful to generalize about Zamperla unless you can compare to someone else. Furthermore, who said they don't get support for their rides?

Well, Kennywood is waiting until next season. I guess I have a hard time calling that support. I mean, I feel in my (admitted) anecdotal remarks I’ve cited enough examples of Zamperla rides that have consistent trouble. And I’ve talked to operators, especially outdoor showmen, that have said they can’t get a call back. So that’s what I know, and it comes from enough different sources that I’m fairly certain I’m not imagining it.
As for the compared to whom? Well, I’m not sure. Huss has also been guilty of leaving rides like maXair sit with no riders while waiting for parts. I saw that Huss has released reimagined classics and I hope they have success with them.
So, I guess just never mind.

Maybe it's not the ride manufacturer. Maybe it's the parks. Maybe some parks don't budget for unexpected ride malfunctions. Just a thought.

Lately I don't think it's a lack of support from the manufacturer, but a shortage of parts and the ridiculous lead time for delivery.

Kennywood can’t keep Black Widow running either. Every time they announce it’s running again it breaks down. It’s been bad PR for them.

And that's a bummer... Black Widow has been down the half dozen times I've been to the park since it opened, unfortunately. It looks a little less barfy than the similar Huss rides at KI and CP.

Zamperla was bad before the supply chain crisis, now it's twice as bad. Yes, it takes a while to ship parts overseas, but considering that a big percentage (if not most) of their sales are in the US, they should have parts readily available at their US warehouse. That never seems to be the case.

Kennywood's Black Widow is also a Zamperla ride. I don't think that it's a pure mechanical problem. It's more than likely a controls problem. When you use operating systems that don't have any kind of support in the country that you are selling these rides in this is all but guaranteed to be a major issue.

The rides blow gearboxes and motors like nobody's business. I don't know if that's a control problem. I know that the Huss frisbees had this problem at one point but they seem to have resolved that whereas it seems to be a monthly problem for the Zamperla versions.