Ka Major Breakdown....again!

Six Flags gave an official statement saying that a bolt that held the lining came loose and cause the lining to collide with the train, or something like that. If you watch Megastructures, it says that at the end.

BG Nut, I don't know if its funny or sad. Intamin must have some great salesman... :)

bgnut actually you just did. Stop ranking on the park. TTD has had its problems too. SO by what your saying cedar point doesnt maintain ttd either then right?

For all we know this could be a flaw in the design and that it could be a flaw in ttd too.

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majortom1981 said:
Stop ranking on the park.

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Ok, I'm not being a jerk here but the word "ranking" here almost sounds correct but I don't think that's the one you were going for.

Somebody help me, what's the word supposed to be here? *** Edited 5/8/2006 7:48:55 PM UTC by matt.***

"ragging" ?

Yeah, thanks.

Sorry I don't keep up with the slang lol

A freind of mine was there yesterday and asked a worker how long KK was going to be down and was told 4 to 5 weeks.

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janfrederick said:
But Shane, wouldn't those forces be not too far off the mark from when the train hits the final brakes? Remember the whole thing in physics where a ball thrown up will have the same (or pretty darn close) velicity when it comes back down?

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Yeah, I'm picking up what you're putting down with the return trip and final brakes. But here's the difference; if the train were to LAUNCH across raised fins, there is a HUGE motor trying to overcome those brakes and overpowering them. In the case of the return trip, or a regular rollback for that matter, there is no supercharged 50,000 horsepower motor with a double dry shot of NOS (again, whatever the spec is) trying to overcome those braking forces. With only inertia to overcome, the brakes slow the train smoothly and easily. Why do you think the brake fins retract on the launch run before they fire off the train? If they would go one way easily but not the other, wouldn't it be easier to leave them stationary?

Here's a reverse of the situation... Say you're on an Impulse, and some evil genius put a concrete wall where the front rider's knees should be... The LIMs fire, does the train go anywhere? No, the train stays put, and all that energy has to go somewhere... Guess where? Sparks, heat, and all the smoke comes out of the motors! And I know someone will say it, but I know Kingda Ka doesn't run on LIMS, but the magnetic principles are similar.

To quote Vince McMahon, "The irresistable force meets the immovable object!"

I thought he meant ranting.

I thought that line was Gorilla Monsoon's?

See, I thought "ranking" was a touch on the olde-skool side, but certainly appropriate jargon for the context...

*Ranking* is the name given to the "Yo mama" jokes...now I feel old again... :(

Back in 99/2000 didn't someone lose a cell phone on superman at SFDL as the train was entering the brakes? From what I recall reading on this very site back then the cell phone fell out of the guy's pocket & was destroyed by the brake on impact which had attracted the metallic parts of the phone.

^^^My bad, SnakeEyes... It was indeed Gorilla Monsoon! Couldn't remember for sure, Saturday morning wrestling was a long time ago in a living room far, far away...

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ShaneDenmark said:

Why do you think the brake fins retract on the launch run before they fire off the train? If they would go one way easily but not the other, wouldn't it be easier to leave them stationary?

Here's a reverse of the situation... Say you're on an Impulse, and some evil genius put a concrete wall where the front rider's knees should be... The LIMs fire, does the train go anywhere? No, the train stays put, and all that energy has to go somewhere... Guess where? Sparks, heat, and all the smoke comes out of the motors! And I know someone will say it, but I know Kingda Ka doesn't run on LIMS, but the magnetic principles are similar.

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No, what you are saying is wrong. First of all, the rocket coasters can go over launch brakes that are up with no problem. They go down, of course, to make the launch require less force. But, no harm will come if the brakes are up. When the train goes over the brakes the energy is changed to heat. Not sparks or smoke.

Also, a cell phone would not damage or bend brake fins. A catch car problem is the most logical explanation that I have heard.

Just to reiterate what Pete has said: Having some fins in the up position will not cause damage. It happens alot more often than you might think. The rocket I observed left a pair of fins up 3 times in a row and the ride did not break down nor stop operating.

the cell phone, from my understanding, triggered a proxy sensor. which is why the one train 'crawled' into the station and is why they did a ghost launch w/ no train. as to what the damage is, what cause the sparks.

You're right about the break fins, and the breakfins default postion is actually in the up position. So unless there is something holding the down, they'll be up

Sure, a cell phone could trigger a prox sensor and cause an E-Stop. But damage would not occur to the ride.

I'm not so sure about the ghost launch. On TTD, the operator triggers the automatic launch sequence. I'm assuming KK works the same way. Even if a cell phone would trigger the proper prox sensor to tell the computer a train was ready (highly unlikely), why would the operator initiate launch when there is clearly no train ready for launch? Also, when the train is launched, it needs to roll back a bit so that the dog engages the catch car. I'm assuming their is another sensor to detect proper train position just before launch, to make sure the catch car is engaged. This would not have occured if there was a "ghost train".

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rollergator said:

*Ranking* is the name given to the "Yo mama" jokes...now I feel old again...

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Well, at least you didn say, "Playing the Dozens". ;)

aka: Joanin', dissin', crackin',
lata, jeremy

-How many emcees must get dissed, before they learn not to F' with Kris?

^ ROFL...remember "The Wheel of Dozens"?

I miss In Living Color...back when the Wayans kids were still kids...'cept for Keenan, he's my age... ;)

Never do I remember the term "Joanin'"...but now that I've actually MET Joan, I can see where that's a good name for it... :)