Has age taken a toll on 1st generation freefalls?

I was watching a tv special on coaster that I recorded off the History channel, and it showed a 1st genaration freefall ride going up the tower really fast, so fast that the people inside where coming off their seats when it stoped at the top. (the footage was like very erlie 80's, so erlie in the 80's the people where still dressing kinda 70's), anyway I remember the Stuntmans Freefall at Sixflags GreatAdventure being like that, but in recent years it kinda drags up the tower, and slows down when it gets to the top. Now is it me or can anyone agree with me that the one at SFGAdv or any other they may have rode has changed over the years?

The reliability has decreased on the FreeFall at SFOG. But everything still functions at the same speed it did when it opened.

LOTS of moving parts will do that to a ride.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

There is a reason we call ours freefallapart =)

Ha ha ha, PxPx... forgive me for asking, which one are you familiar with (name and park)?

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

CP's Demon Drop moves along just fine, and unlike some of its cousins, is actually running 98% of the time.

The only change I know of to that particular ride is the subtraction of one car, and the next car is not moved back into the shaft until the one above has dropped.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"Climbing as we fall, we dare to hold on to our fate, and steal away our destiny to catch ourselves with quiet grace" - The Stairs, INXS

Jeff said:

The only change I know of to that particular ride is the subtraction of one car, and the next car is not moved back into the shaft until the one above has dropped.

Could that be because the accident on "The Edge" at Six Flags Great America? I still get a laugh when people talk about that accident and tell their friends people died in that accident which most of us here now that no one died in that accident. What is even funnier yet is that ride is now at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure. To my knowledge there has never been another accident like the one at Six Flags Great America on any of the other 1st generation freefalls.

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My website - Zero G Thrills www.crosswinds.net/~zerogthrills/

I assume that's why the change was made, sure. I think Rideman mentioned somewhere that similar changes were made to all of those rides. Of course, why they can't keep the one at SFWoA running regularly (the one that actually had the accident) is beyond me.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"Climbing as we fall, we dare to hold on to our fate, and steal away our destiny to catch ourselves with quiet grace" - The Stairs, INXS

I always wondered about the one at SFWOA. I have been there 5 or 6 times since it opened and have never seen it run.

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- Peabody

Jeff, they can't keep it operating for the same reason they have so many other problems. They cut corners.

The lift chain on their "Snake River" type ride broke. They had bought a chain (cheaper) that wasn't intended for use in water. Go figure.

Oh, the stories I could tell.

You need not tell those stories. I have a friend who was there last summer, and in fact had to deal with that chain break. ;) Fun stories.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"Climbing as we fall, we dare to hold on to our fate, and steal away our destiny to catch ourselves with quiet grace" - The Stairs, INXS

Regarding modifications made to all 1st Gen after the Edge accident...

I believe the design of anti-rollbacks was modified and the number present was doubled. Most of the accident can be attributed to the original anti-rollbacks failing and allowed the car the fall onto the one waiting to lift.

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James Draeger
-Captain Sarcasm

The fact is there were *no* anti-rollbacks on any of the 1st gens before that incident. Afterward of course Intamin and the parks installed them. This is also when the controller was changed which necessitated the removal of one car.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

You still get a bit of airtime at the top of the lift tower on SFoT's first gen... I hate doing safety rides that evil, evil ride.

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.:| Brandon Rodriguez |:.
http://www.coasters2k.com

I personally find it hard to believe that CP's Demon Drop has 98% uptime. Granted, I know CP has much better preventive maintenance than a lot of parks, etc. I'm not doubting that at all. What I am saying, based upon observation, all of these dinosaurs have a lot that can go wrong with them, in many different ways. They're still more complex than many new rides built today.

The reason I say I have trouble with the figure is that Cedar Point, like every other park, compiles data on all their rides' reliability. I am imagining that they categorize the reason for breakdowns and shutdowns--mechanical, weather, operator error, and so on. It's also a goal of each park to boast the most uptime it can.

With these two statements in mind, it would be easy--and I am not saying this is done, but it very well could be--to ignore some of the shutodwns/breakdowns in the final figure to boost it. It sounds like they didn't inclue weather shutdowns to me, as our FreeFall is basically the first ride to go down for weather (brake effeciency). Does anyone think this is possible?

Another note: our park doesn't release its downtime data. I have only observations to go on.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

i agree with Jeff, while i have only been to CP twice, Demon Drop was running consistently throughtout both of those days. kinda funny to admit, but my first ride on one of these was actually THIS summer, on FreeFall at SFOG. i gotta say, i love these things....get a nice pop of airtime going up the lift, and i just love that drop, and then sliding onto your back. i dont know...its like me and Enterprises (for those of you who know me well)..they just get to me:)

might i add, just a minor CP bash, out of the four 1st Gen freefalls i have ridden, Demon Drop has, by far, the most painful stop...ouch!!:(

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Holiday World; Knoebel's-today's cures for today's common theme park :-D

Legend...who would have thought that a tree could be turned into such madness :-D

General Public said:

It sounds like they didn't inclue weather shutdowns to me, as our FreeFall is basically the first ride to go down for weather (brake effeciency).

Does yours shut down for the lightest of rain too? It can barely be misting and SFoT's will close.

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.:| Brandon Rodriguez |:.
http://www.coasters2k.com

*** This post was edited by BrandonR on 11/13/2002. ***

Yup, that's exactly what I am talking about.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

One thing abotu Demon Drop is how rough it is at the bottom of the drop unlike all the other first gens I have been on. It just slams you into your seat at the bottom. A bad track joint there or something.

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PPP Quote of the Year:
"I got a B and M shirt"

Let's go ride The Fonicks

Another thing about those brakes... I think they're the loudest, most annoying thing about the ride. Could it be possible to remove the 'traditional' brakes, and install magnetic brakes instead?

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Tommy Penner
Cedar Point FanBoy since 2001.
"God help us, we're in the hands of engineers." -- Jeff Goldblum, Jurassic Park

I like 'em. In fact, I almost like 'em more than S&S towers. I will admit, S&S towers were more thrilling the first time i rode them, but I've ridden them so many times, I don't get scared or hardly even thrilled at all.

I think it's just my taste for rides though - i love old, clunky looking things that look like they could actually hurt you. =) Those old Intamin towers just have the look and feel of an elevator gone haywire, and i think being enclosed adds to the "i'm going to die cause this thing isn't safe" scariness factor, whereas the S&S and more modern Intamin towers are more about the "flying in the open" scariness factor.

Again, just my silly opinion.

~me

PS - oh, and wahoo, i was there when the chain at SFWoA broke. People were so pissed that one guy just got out of the boat and walked up the lift hill. I know the person that was running it at the time, and he said the maintenence was incredibly slow to respond (although, he didn't say why, so if you're on the maintenence crew don't take it personally).

*** This post was edited by nelson324 on 11/13/2002. ***