Knoebels hinting at 2006

Well, there is some interesting information out there:

http://www.riverviewparkchicago.com/newspr.html

Knoebel's Grove Amusement Park in Elysburg, Pennsylvania announced during their annual Phoenix Phall Phunfest that they will be rebuilding a classic Flying Turns ride made of wood. Now that the secrets out of the bag, we at Sharpshooters Productions can share a few more details with you.

The ride will be based on Riverview Park's Flying Turns, with some modifications and additions. Our own Ralph Lopez provided them with the blueprints to Riverview's ride, as well as shared his knowledge of the rides construction, maintenance, and operation. The National Amusement Park Historical Association (NAPHA) also contributed Flying Turns blueprints from their archives.

A photo of the Riverview turns can be found HERE.

It looks to be a pretty tight ride.

At PPP I was talking with Len Adams, and he was saying they have the wood, which is indeed the cypress wood, ready to go, but right now the real sticking point is the trains. He said they had to be modified to meet modern safety standards, they didn't at the time have a builder (they may now though), and they were expected to be very expensive. One thing we do know, DK doesn't do anything that he doesn't think he is going to get a return on (how much you want to bet the Looper pays for itself by the end of the '06 season?), so he must figure he can do it cheaply enough to bring a return.

Also, a local has told me that the footersfor the Whirlwind are now completely gone, though when he last was there they had not started anything new.

MagnunBarrel-

RCDB lists 5 rides named Flying Turns- Euclid Beach, Rocky Point, Riverview, Forest Park Highlands, and Steeplechase. For some reason it omits the first Turns ever constructed at Lakeside Park in Dayton. Then there was the notorious Lake Placid Bobsled at Palisades.

Cyclonic-

Thanks for the info. I think Riverview's ride is a good one to base a design on- it's snappy with all the right action, but not too large or tall. (thinking of cost, here) I believe that ride was moved to Riverview from a Chicago World's Fair.

Where on Earth did they recover the forgotten technology to build this ride....I thought all documentation on previous Flying Turns was lost when fire consumed the library at Alexandria...(aka, the Internet v 1.0).

Maybe the technology was hidden at the North Pole and was delivered by a certain large man in a red suit?

What makes the Flying Turns different from a Bobsled, aside from the wood/steel.

If youve been reading so far im sure you would have found the answers in a few posts above such as...

"The turns themselves were tight and close, much more so than the Intamin or Mack versions found today. The Mack coaches are the closest thing I've seen to the original, perhaps they are small and flexible enough to be used on Knoebel's all wood ride. The wheels actually have to touch the wood chute, though, no metal rails existed on the original rides. I remember a wide stripe of paint on the track that followed the path of the train, perhaps it was to increase the durability of the wood. The original tracks were constructed out of cypress wood, I don't know how expensive that would be these days."

"The track is troughs The structure is used in some cases three times durring the ride. Meaning there isn't a ton of Bents per sey."

..and so on, or you could just go to some linked sites as well. *** Edited 12/5/2005 6:31:05 PM UTC by P18***

From what I've read, SFGAdv, the turns are supposed to recreate the experience of free flying in a plane as opposed to riding along a bobsled course.

As exciting as this sounds, take it with a grain of salt. Knoebels will get the ride done when it's done. They want to do it right and I can't fault them for that, even if it takes another year or two.

It is great that a non-corporate (or chain)park
is installing a classic ride. But as Rob Ascough states, they will get done when they will get done. BUT... if it is good, and it should be, it won't be gone in a few years, it will be there forever. Great job Knoebels!

I'll be one of the first to be there in line when it's done. Like with Twister I'll be taking pictures at least once a week once "actual" construction has been started, as long as i'm not in Finland or Kentucky. ;)

^ Wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you live 10 minutes from the park, eh? Lucky.

I have no doubt he'll be at the front of the line. We've all heard about his antics on the bumper cars. Would you stand in his way?

Not unless I was "wearing" a bumper car of my own :)

Just hunt me down early in the season when I'm still rusty from the off season!

You mean you don't practice on the streets of Shamokin during the off season?

Nah, I'm usually the one getting my car hit here. Out of 3 vehicles 2 of them got hit in durring snow storms, both times they were parked and I was in my house! I guess thats why i'm so aggressive on the bumper cars!

Not sure if anyone is still reading this thread or not, but I found in my collection an Amusement PArk Journal (Volume 6, Number 4) completely devoted to "World's Latest Ride Sensation: Flying Turns - The New Aviation Ride". It indicates Flying zzturns were built in Cleveland, Chicago, Coney Island (NY), St. Louis, Paris (France), Vienna, Berlin, and Palisades, NJ.

Anybody know what became of the European ones? I know there was that little distraction called WWII over there. But I'm assuming they would have been built in the late 20s and early 30s when the American ones were. I wonder how popular they were in Europe-- did they catch on or not-- or did people P&M about American influences back then?

cpunk, I think you need to find a new parking place.

Ubnfortunately, there isn't any information about what became of the European rides in the booklet. Being that Vienna and Berlin were practically leveled during WWII, I could esily suspect that they may have been destroyed during the war.

It could be open next year, but it may not open right at the beginning of the season. Dick Knoebel has proven that he'll do things differently than the rest of the industry already. From transplanting two good coasters, and making them awesome, down to the way he runs admission/pricing, and the unique ride selection he has there.

Were heading for PA next summer, and I've already been toiling about which parks to hit, and Knoebels has been at the top from day one, along with HP & DP. If this coaster becomes reality it would just make it sweeter, (no Hershey pun intended).