Kings Island's Firehawk comes down in a non-gentle way

This is the first time I have ever read about Firehawk being iconic.

Pieces and parts trucked to Dorney or Michigan's Adventure?

The lifthill & first drop, horseshoe turn, and inline twists were sent to Dorney Park to be reimagined into a new flying coaster called ChickenHAWK. The loop was sent to Michigan’s Adventure. They will use that structure to create an in-house version of the Larson Loop, called Ring of FIRE.

Best X-Flight/Firehawk video ever.

I understand the general superiority of B&M flyers, but I never hated the Vekoma rides. Yes, they have reliability issues and capacity is atrocious; however, ridership has been low on them for almost a decade. I found their quirks made for an usual and unique ride experience and never found the ride from start to finish to be outright bad or painful.

That said, all signs point to KI replacing it with something much bigger and better. I’ll accept the sac-fly.

Couldn't happen to a better coaster.

With the exception of Manta, I preferred the Vekoma flyers. I know they had issues with reliability and getting the seats to recline properly, etc, but as far as the actual ride goes, Vekoma seems to have gotten this one right.

Apart from getting stuck on the lift hill for an hour and a half, I thought that Firehawk was a very cool coaster. (That's what I get for having FastLane; the FastLane queue led to the yellow train and that's the one that got stuck.) I too appreciate the fact that the Vekoma flyers provide an unusual and unique ride experience. As to "general superiority of B&M flyers," I wouldn't have agreed a week ago; Superman at my home park (SFGADv ) is mediocre IMHO, not worth the long walk from the queue entrance to the loading station. Glad that kpjb mentioned Manta, which I got to ride for the 1st time last Sunday. Now that one is high-calibre. However, there's something very special about going up the lift backward in a supine position so I hope that they can use the parts to rejuvenate Nighthawk, which was downright painful in August.

Bobbie1951 said:

Apart from getting stuck on the lift hill for an hour and a half...

You have the most "eventful" park and coaster experiences of anyone I know.

How about Timber-Rider who always seems to have eventful parks visits? My park trips are very boring. A ride or two may break down while in line and we go to another one. In 45+ years of park attendance, I cannot recall getting stuck on a ride (I may just not remember) and definitely not for an hour+. Sometimes it rains. Zzzzzz.

I didn't care for the ride even when I had to park mid-X-Flight at Geauga Lake.

Funny about that- I absolutely hated the ride at Geauga. Then when it moved to KI I reluctantly got on it again and actually didn’t mind it. Maybe the sight of grass instead of concrete below was comforting. I’ve also been on the other ones and didn’t mind them either.

The opposite for me. I remember being blown away by the ride in 2001 at Worlds of Adventure. I still think the "lie to fly" at the top of the lift is a great element and much more dramatic than B&M flyers. Great memories at Worlds of Adventure of riding X Flight. Then, when it went to Kings Island it just became more *meh* to me. Maybe because the dreadful capacity was more noticable there? And especially in more recent years, the overall coaster lineup made the uniqueness of the flyer a bit outdated.

It's the only coaster I was scared of when I rode it. It made me realize how people who don't like coasters must feel when they are on a coaster. The ride seemed so long, but it's really not that long of a ride.

I don't remember feeling that way about it when it was at GL. Maybe it's because I'm older.

My fear of the ride probably stems from an old story about when it was at GL, and the ride vehicles somehow fell out of the flying position while traveling the track. It's a faint memory, but an image that has stuck with me. Also, those harnesses freaked me out. My entire body was relying on the harness. I knew that it was highly unlikely that they would fail, but thinking about it still scared me.

I'm not sad to see it go. I didn't ride it every time I was at the park. I can see the appeal it had on other people though.

I can't wait to see what the park does to that area in the future.

Rode the Carowinds version once, and other than the ride-to-fly transition, didn't care for it. Capacity and reliability prevented multiple attempts at KI. That said, I'm not a huge fan of the B&M's either, although Tatsu makes great use of its placement and unique layout.

I am always sad to see a coaster go (well, SoB not withstanding) but if we finally get the long dreamed of "coaster to the river" at KI I'll be happy.

(and yes I know it won't go to the river)

Travis- Holy CRAP I never would’ve thought about the seats un-reclining mid-ride! Can you imagine going through the “fly” portions of the ride upside down and backwards?!? I’m kinda surprised Six Flags didn’t try to pull that stunt during Fright Fest!

🤪😜

RCMAC said:

Maybe the sight of grass instead of concrete below was comforting. I’ve also been on the other ones and didn’t mind them either.

I remember X-Flight having grass under it?

One of my first coaster trips was a trip to Six Flags Worlds of Adventure to ride X-Flight, which was pretty iconic at the time being one of the only flying coasters around.I rode it again at Kings Island as well, and always liked the ride itself. It's such a shame the loading and unloading process took so long. Glad B&M has perfected that part, but I really liked the flip over at the top of the lift hill.

mmmm... maybe...

All I remember is acres of parking lot and not much fluffy scenery for protection in the event I went splat to the ground. At least at KI it had trees on a couple of sides.

The grass grew in after the first year or two and it looked a little better. Coming off the lift in the Worlds of Adventure years it looked like you could fall onto cars in the parking lot. In the Cedar Fair years it looked like you could fall onto empty parking spaces.