Flight of Fear Block Brake

I don't understand why the Flight of Fear Block Brake at PKI has been turned up so much that the ride now comes to a complete stop there. This really kills the pacing and seems not necessary. Especially if you consider that its first few seasons it received the new labpars, it ran without any problems with the block brake barely on. Now it crawls through the rides second half and results in a less than thrilling conclusion to what would be a top 10 steel coaster. I think it is even worse this year than the past, where you now not just slow down hard, you are completely stopped. Virtually what would happen if the ride would setup there.

On another note, in october the ride has been much darker, which is good. The first half the ride is really good and better now since it is darker. Any reason for why they decided about 2 years ago to trim you to a stop on the block brake.

It's totally unnessary and only done for maintence reasons. Two coasters of this exact type don't even have the brake there.

Parks also don't seem to understand, Running slower than they should also makes for a more uncofortable ride. The forces pin you in your seat and when taken slower, You shift around more.

Chuck

If it's done for maintenance reasons then wouldn't that make it have some necessity? :p

I don't know if Poltergeist has that trim but I remember after the first three inversions it never seemed to pick back up speed. If Poltergeist didn't have a trim when I rode it and it was that slow, then I pray for FOF! *** Edited 10/19/2006 1:12:35 AM UTC by mudinthevayne***

maintenance reasons, meaning it saves the life of the final brakes, Wheel wear. Stuff they can save money on. Just like Beast saves tracking by braking.

The only necessity of it is saving money while most people wouldn't know any better, It irks us some as we know it' capable and built to give a better ride than the parks are providing?

Would you say WOW if Raven had a stop on it's fifth drop?

I know I sound like a broken record but many big parks rides don't operate as designed where as a smaller park will run em like they should and perfom the necessary maintence to keep it running that way. Their one or two great rides are much more their bread and butter than one of fifteen with the latest getting all the attention.

Chuck

Jinx/Poltergist have no trims, depending on the weather conditions and their launch settings for the day they go through the rings at diferent speeds. I've seen Jinx barley clear the top some days while others days/or during hot launches it flys through. *** Edited 10/19/2006 4:24:49 AM UTC by wheels00000***

But Chuck, wouldn't using the block brake cause *more* maintenence not less? Now you have to worry about all the moving parts associated with the block brake, wear from friction, time for inspections, yada, yada, yada. Since they never run more than two trains anymore anyway, the block has come extraneous. So one can argue that they are actually doing *more* work by using the block than by letting it run free.

I dont really know *why* the trim so hard other than perhaps they believe that such trimming *increases* rider comfort (though I'd disagree).
lata, jeremy

^ Some parks believe that the maintenance increase by allowing the train to run 5-10mph faster more than offsets any increased maintenance needs for the brake itself....

No word on whether there's any reliable information on customer satsfaction vs. braking.... ;)

I never had the MCBR on when I have gone in the past. However, I experienced it this year and it completely sucks. Maybe we should go in after closing and snip some wires? ;)

I agree with the rocket scientist. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. People used to give the same reason for Raptor (never bought it), and it doesn't trim at the mid-course at all now.

I think probably even a bigger reason than maintenance is the general public can only handle the tamer ride. I think alot of times this is the case, especially with the park appealing to more families. Although making it darker would also make it less agreeable to families and not a tamer ride. However that could be something they do for Fear Fest. But I don't understand why they would operate it without the block brake trimming for 2 or 3 seasons with the lapbars and all of a sudden decide to brake it hard.

My general feeling that there were enough complaints about a rough ride or something along those lines. The only way to make the ride less intense I guess would be to trim the ride there. You can't really vary the launch to much, because of the high turn after the first 3 inversions where it could valley. I remember when the Beast received its new magnetic brakes and didn't have a brake on its first drop, some guest used to complain to me that they received airtime on its dip after the first drop. I really feel that the general public can't handle an intense ride anymore, and the larger parks are forced to design a tamer ride

I amagine the maintenance guys have their own secretive reasons to boot.

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Beast Fan said:
I think probably even a bigger reason than maintenance is the general public can only handle the tamer ride. I think alot of times this is the case, especially with the park appealing to more families. Although making it darker would also make it less agreeable to families and not a tamer ride. However that could be something they do for Fear Fest. But I don't understand why they would operate it without the block brake trimming for 2 or 3 seasons with the lapbars and all of a sudden decide to brake it hard.

My general feeling that there were enough complaints about a rough ride or something along those lines. The only way to make the ride less intense I guess would be to trim the ride there. You can't really vary the launch to much, because of the high turn after the first 3 inversions where it could valley. I remember when the Beast received its new magnetic brakes and didn't have a brake on its first drop, some guest used to complain to me that they received airtime on its dip after the first drop. I really feel that the general public can't handle an intense ride anymore, and the larger parks are forced to design a tamer ride

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This is complete B.S. IMHO.

The only problem witht he ride in those respects are people board thinking Space mountain and get a full blown holy S*(T ride.

The problem is, They are going to get whipped around more before the block brake than after BRAKED OR UNBRAKED.

Not trying to ride you but why are other EXTREME rides like Drop Zone ect so popular?

Perhaps if they gave the SOB speech of its a high speed ride with lots of changes of directions and forces. Less wimps would get on.

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Beast Fan said:
I really feel that the general public can't handle an intense ride anymore, and the larger parks are forced to design a tamer ride

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What does the size of the park have to do with it? Holiday World (which I would argue is really a pretty "large" park anyway) has three of the most intense coasters in the world, and people of all ages enjoy them.

Drop zone is visually an intimidating ride, but physically is very easy to ride. All it has is negative g's in one direction, and is very short. A roller coaster is a much more physically demanding ride. No one can really explain why it operated a few seasons when it got lapbars with it off. My hunch was after it got rid of the shoulder restraints they figured the ride was much more rideable and thus didn't need to be trimmed. So the block brake was turned off. After complaints of ride discomfort, they decided to use the block brake to trim.

The size of the park does matter. Larger parks are much larger tarkets for litigation and law suits it seems. And in general has more guest and more riders.

There is no down side dollar-wise in trimming the ride, and it saves money, and some bean counter points that out, and the right person listens...

I wouldn't say people of all ages enjoy them. I highly doubt everyone who rides all three coasters enjoy it. I completely disagree.

Why? No coaster in the HW stable is necessaraly more intense than the other, You do get longer periods of intensity from Raven, to Legend and then Voyage.

And yes, I've seen anyone from a five year old to a 70 year old enjoy all three. I've seen others that thought Voyage was a little too much. Keep in mind, Voyage is a full two minute longer ride than Flight of Fear

The only ride that I've been on where I felt trimming was necessary is Space Mountain at DLP. There is a block brake after the first inversion where you lose a bit of speed... That means the turns and corkscrew that follows are taken at the designed speed. I had a few rides where, for some reason, the ride computers didn't trim the train... thank God I wasn't wearing earrings or else the corkscrew and following turns would have ripped my ears to shred! The train was going too fast and shaked badly around that beated up track.

Voyage "is" "too long" for some people. I'm not saying your wrong, but it must be said that there are lots of people on this coaster site that do not like rough rides.

Ive taken alot of body checks in hockey throughout the years, so a rough coaster ride is nothing to "me".

I really respect the guys/girls that fight the bumpy rides. It would suck big time if I loved voyage so much but the shaking kept me away. Also, I can't say I love predator's first drop at SFDL very much. It slams so hard at the bottom of the first drop my spine almost snaps, and I'm a big guy.

Trust me, Voyage at it's worst wasn't near Predator rough. In fact, Voyage isn't rough at all.

The old confuse forces with rought applys here