Flying Turns Update

They just did a story on Knoebels a couple of days ago and they didn't mention the Flying Turns at all, just Kosmo's Kurves. That's a real disappointment if it takes them all winter again. I was hoping it would at least be done for Phunfest this year.

So, Is the flying turns open or not? I think this has to be the longest construction process I have ever heard of. But, it kind of reminds me of Adventure falls at Michigan's Adventure. The ride was in the parks flyer, but it was not at the park that year, in fact, the ground hadn't even been broken yet. The same with Be-bop-boulevard, which took 2 years to finish, maybe longer.

But, I think the stalling on Be-bop had more to do with the sale of the park to Cedar Fair than anything else. But, I am kind of sad the flying turns thing. I'm not sure, but I noticed that Disney no longer has log flume like seating on Space Mountain. Individual riders with lap bars. I thought that was kind of weird. Last time I rode it, It had seat belts and was more like the Whizzer at Great America.

I only mentioned the space mountain trains, because I'm guessing that is what they are attempting to do with FT.
I hope it opens eventually. I'll probably never get the chance to ride it, but, somebody should after all the work they have put into it.

no

I don't think that any of KG's rides are open right now, seeing that it's off season.

And I'll say it again, Dick Knoebel stated at the beginning of this project that the ride may be delayed for years while they try to get it working. It's an experiment. I'm not even going to anticipate the ride until it is announced that it is going to open.

And when it does open, Flying Turns will, to me, be a must ride attraction. I think that this gamble will be worth it, because when it does finally open, it might be the kind of thing that gets a lot of people to visit the park who normally wouldn't. Not only will it be something to attract more coaster and park enthusiasts, but also more history enthusiasts too.

Timber-Rider said:
I think this has to be the longest construction process I have ever heard of.

I think the folks at Scenic World would disagree.

Simple opinion survey among Coasterbuzzers: Yes or No answer, please. No ifs, ands, buts, or qualifiers.

Will Flying Turns ever open to the public?

I say Yes.

possibly, maybe, someday, in years to come, or not at all. who knows, I don't. Do you? TYVM

I hate it when people strip me of my right to qualifiers! All right then, since you insist and have a virtual gun held to my forehead, I'll give my answer.

No.

But I don't think it's breaking the rules to say that's a soft 'no'....

Probably not ever.

Ensign Smith said:
I hate it when people strip me of my right to qualifiers! All right then, since you insist and have a virtual gun held to my forehead, I'll give my answer.

No.

But I don't think it's breaking the rules to say that's a soft 'no'....

Hey, the rules have already been broken. See Chuck's answer :)

Just saying "Yes" or "No" does not make an interesting conversation.

It will definitely open if enough time and effort is put into it. If KG gives up at some point, it will not. How are we to guess the outcome of the ride if we are directly involved with the project or if we haven't heard or read anything from any who is involved with the project?

Mike: yeah, Chuck completely disregarded your ground rules. ;)

Travis: well, there is a little bit of information out there from which to make a (barely) informed opinion. We know that a coaster of this type hasn't been attempted in many decades. We know that KG itself isn't working with a complete data set from previously existing rides, and is forced to reverse-engineer some of the details. We know that the ride is already years behind schedule. We know that the park had to switch train designs because of unforeseen problems. We know that since that switchout additional time has passed. We know that no new opening date has been set.

That's enough to make some slightly less than random guesses, at any rate.

Given the hopefulness I heard this past PPP regarding the trains' most recent "in-car-nation"....I'll say yes. Forever is a long time, though. ;)

Also, remember the issue is not that they haven't been able to get it to run at all. They haven't been able to get it to run the way they want it to. It's not like they haven't able to complete the structure.

I'd venture to say that, despite the uniqueness of designing and building a wooden slat trough track, the structure was the easy part.

Nevertheless, despite my 'no', I remain hopeful.

It works most of the time and people have ridden it. To paraphrase a quote from Dick Knoebels at PPP this year: "It works flawlessly about five out of six times".

They are just trying to perfect it to consistently operate within their expectations. The originals did not meet today's safety standards and were never perfected to minimize wear and tear the way Knoebels is striving for. Again to paraphrase what DK said at PPP (and he was quoting Mike Boodley) "We're still in the R&D phase".

I believe it will open to the public in the near future. The progress they have made since the initial test runs (what, THREE years ago now?) is very encouraging. I can't wait to ride it myself and see the look on Riverview Mike's face after he gets his first ride.

Ensign Smith said:
I'd venture to say that, despite the uniqueness of designing and building a wooden slat trough track, the structure was the easy part.

Nevertheless, despite my 'no', I remain hopeful.

When I hear either (a) enthusiasts who have never been or haven't been to the park lately, or (b) locals or park goers who aren't enthusiasts, talk about the Turns, their comment is something to the effect of "Aren't they done building it yet?" Just seems that their impression is that there's some major structural or mechanical feature not in place yet.

Now that's being truly and completely uninformed. Which of course doesn't rid such folks of the right (or preference) to go around braying their completely ignorant opinions.*

*If you were to suspect I'm also thinking of other, non-coaster matters as other examples of this model of behavior, you would be right.

They need to cut their losses and cancel the freakin' thing and just build another woodie on the mountain. This whole process has been a joke. This whole process has been an epic failure, and they've kept EVERYBODY in the dark for years. Are you that lazy to not provide any updates for 3 years? It's really unprofessional and has ruined my once extremely positive opinion concerning the park. I'm ashamed to call Knoebel's my home park because of this fiasco.

Not you again...

They haven't kept us in the dark. Dick spoke about it quite a bit at PPP this year. Just because you choose to continue to complain doesn't mean the rest of us are in the dark.

And to be honest, at this point, I don't care one way or the other. They're adding a new coaster, and they have Phoenix. That's good enough for me.