MOA Ride Traps Riders Upside Down

From the Kare11 website...

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=77072 *** Edited 3/22/2005 5:08:04 PM UTC by Chitown***

how can a ride that has everyone seated in the same direction have 5 people out of 30 stuck upside down?

Probably because in 1998, there were only 5 riders on the ride at the time.

The seating is stadium-like but a little different than a Top Spin. You could arguably say the folks in the front row were tilted at a better than 90-degree angle as opposed to the folks in middle and back. For headline purposes, that's upside down.

And to think CF only had 10 days of management contract left...

-'Playa

NOTE: Severe fecal impaction may render the above words highly debatable.

DawgByte, Zamperla RotoShakes, as Mighty Axe at MOA is, reguire something like 15 people on them before the ride op is supposed to start the ride. At least that's the way the one at SFA is run. Something about balencing the ride. Possibly the incident in 1998 was the catylist for this new procedure, otherwise I'd guess there were more than 5 people aboard.

If you can't stand the heights, get out of the line.

It's safe to say it's been run with less than 15.

It's also safe to say there was more than 15 aboard during the incident. It's spring break for a lot of the local school districts.

-'Playa

NOTE: Severe fecal impaction may render the above words highly debatable.

Just two weeks ago I rode the ride being the only person on it...

MPLS, Richfield, and Bloomington don't have spring break for two weeks...

HAZZOOLAH!

Hmmm, well, I guess SFA runs things by a different book, they have a VERY specific way in which the ride is loaded and run, yet it still seems to be down pretty often. Makes you think Zamperla should just recall the ride from all the parks...

If you can't stand the heights, get out of the line.

^Yeah it sounds like a drive motor failure to me,same thing has happened on SFA's ride & it's what led to KBF's being removed &I've seen it get stuck with people on it before....at least not in mid-air but at the start of the cycle during the initial gondola rotation.

From what I heard at SFA they can only run the ride with a minimum of 17 people(seated in the middle row) to balance out the weight...there've been plenty of times I've been on the ride waiting forever for people to join the queue so they could fully load the ride & start it up even having to resort to shouting at peeps going by the ride to come & join in.

I kinda agree with having zamperla recall the ride because they've had similar problems it seems with all 3 of their US installations & to be honest I think this will be the eagle's last season at the park...despite a motor replacement last season it was still down more than it was running.

At Camp Snoopy, there are no apparent balance issues, and the operator is permited to run the ride with anywhere between 1 rider, and a full load. It sounds like our ride has fared much better than the other two models. Probably because the lack of rain and other destructive natural elements. Even though the ride isn't very good, ours sounds much better than SFA's.

(Finally, a reason to register!)

When I was working at KBF, their RotoShake (HammerHead) managed to strand a full load of people upside down. I think they were up there for 20 minutes at the most.

It wasn't a mechanical problem, but rather a huge power outage that sent a good deal of the west coast offline for a few moments. (The ride's brakes will clamp down and stop the ride if there is a loss of power.)

I don't remember having a minimum number of riders before we cycled the ride. Nor was I aware of any mechanical problems that stranded anyone in the air. We did get a lot of gear noise that shut the ride down for a few months, if memory serves.

The biggest issue we had at first was that the large arm would not park in the right place at the end of its cycle (and we couldn't lower the ramps for people to disembark). I happened to be working it when an actor from Baywatch (and Knight Rider) was stranded on the crooked platform. Our only recourse in that situation was to start a new cycle and then end it after 1/2 a rotation and cross our fingers that it would park straight.

DawgByte II said:
Probably because in 1998, there were only 5 riders on the ride at the time.

oops read this wrong

More than 24 people were briefly stuck on an amusement park ride at Mall of America's Camp Snoopy on Monday afternoon, police said.
Bloomington police said at about 2 p.m., nearly 30 people became trapped on the Mighty Axe. Some were upside down for a nearly an hour. Police described others as stuck in an "astronaut position."

Still, how can "some" be upside down, while others were in an "astronaut position"? everyone is sitting at the same angle on this ride ALL the seats face the same way at the same position.

Once again, the media making a situation sound worse than it really is.

I say it's bad luck because they ended the contract with Cedar Fair.

Judging by the pic of the riders stuck in their seats in the "astronaut" position I'd say the ride was stopped in mid cycle so as to change the rotational direction of the arm & it failed to restart.

SFA's ride follows a similar cycle...after restraints are checked the gondola is raised & does one forward rotation followed by a backward rotation that continues as the arm starts rotating counterclockwise.

After a number of rotations are completed the arm will stop at the top of it's arc with the gondola in the astronaut position,it will then start rotating backwards while the arm rotates clockwise...after a few more rotations the arm will once again stop at the top of the arc(with the gondola upside down) & will slowly rotate down to the bottom of the arc where the gondola lowers,restraints are released & riders exit.

Sam: Media hype? I'm not so sure.

Sit me in a harness for 20 minutes at 91 - 95 degrees and I might swear I was upside-down, too.

-'Playa

NOTE: Severe fecal impaction may render the above words highly debatable.

^Those restraints are anything but comfortable...especially on the legs.

They keep the heat turned up that high at MOA? ;)

- R.A

Actually, incandescent bulbs and visitors' collective bad breath heat it...

NOTE: Severe fecal impaction may render the above words highly debatable.

True....though I noticed this winter that it seemed a little cold, not much though....

HAZZOOLAH!

At least they turn Mighty axe's decorative lighting on...the last few seasons SFA hasn't turned on either the Iron Eagle sign or the SF logo signs on theirs after dark.

They only turn on the lights needed to run the ride safely after dark,but with the problems it's been having lately it doesn't even manage to stay operational til then on an average day.