Associated parks:
None
State Fair this year, my main reason for posting this is for the
demented flatrides while several members have interest in. Mods - Fire
at will if this isn't appropriate.
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"You must be this masochistic to ride this ride"
After spending the morning at Wyandot Lake, see my other TR, the Daring
Duo of Rideman and myself took in the Ohio State Fair. This is purely
academic now, since the fair ended on August 19, 2001.
We arrived at the fairgrounds around 1:00 and were pleasantly surpised
to be shown to the paved parking area. (Parking $5). We hoped on a
waiting parking tram and continued to wait until the tram filled, and
then were taken to the fair via a very out-of-the-way routing. I had
already purchased an advance sale package through Krogers with rides
included for $17. ($5 for grounds, $12 for rides). Today happend to be
half price admission day, but I still got a good deal when you consider
the midway rides discount.
- FAST FORWARD FROM TICKET PLAZA TO RIDES MIDWAY -
After looking at a model train layour which included a very nice
amusement park tableau, and backing away from the counter which had
model amusement rides for sale. (It's no fun looking when you have no
way to get them home). We continued down the main drag until we turned
at the Skyscraper. A Gravity Works Skycraper, $25, we declined it. We
entered the Thrill Zone, a pay-extra area with such attraction asthe
Trampoline Thing, Skycraper, Batcopter Rides, and various inflatable
games. Soon we arrived at the midway where I quickly redeemed my ride
voucher for a wristband. After acquiring some nice aqua Tyvek jewlery
for the day, we walked to: Our First Ride.
* Fireball - a KMG Afterburner
Fireball looked sort of like what you get when you cross a Huss Frisbee
with a KMG Spin Out. (And a Huss Frisbee is sort of what you get when
you combine a spin ride with a swinging ship ride) Forget the nice
floor you find on a Frisbee, on the Fireball you have the same giant
'claw' tub you find on the Spin Out, yes with OTSR. Passengers
boarded, bars down, and the Pit opens up. The Pit allows for your legs
tohave sufficent clearance for the Pendulum. "Pit and the Pendulum:The
Ride" It was interesting to gave into the pit and see all the stuff
fair goers USED to own before riding the Fireball. Then the clw starts
spinning, then the pendulum effect starts. Mild at first, but soon it
swings high, I'd say at least 135 degrees, all the while the seats are
spinning, spinning slowly at first then speeding up, then slowing down,
then reversing the direction of rotation, then speeding back up. A
very fine start to our fair experience.
We then walked next 'door' and came accorss
* Avalance - Pinfari Zyklon
According to my host, this particular Zyklon once belonged to Holiday
World where it ran as the Firecracker. There have been a few changes
since then: a new marquee, a new paint job, new control system, and the
lapbars were ripped out and replaced with seatbelts. The Zyklon
offered a predictable ride, the block brake before the final turnaround
was on hard, but it was moving riders through at a fast pace due to the
efficient operation of using the entire station to preload the cars,
insuring interval is met.
After the rollercoaster we moved on to another one of the new
headliners on the midway,
* Magnum - Molina Shake
The sign said you must be 53" to ride, they should have added another
one "You must be this masochistic to ride". As usual for the state
fair, no waiting was neccessary and we were soon directed to pick a tub
in the blue section of the ride. While waiting to board we had
coreographed boarding the tub so as to best protect electronic
equipment. The concept was that I would sit on the right, and sit down
first.
Uhm, the person sitting on the left must get in first. Rideman boards
the tub and does not sit down. The tub pithces forward under his
weight. I board the tub, I get my first foot in, and put my weight on
it to swing my other foot into the tub, the tub pitches SEVERELY
forward. We hear laughter. The tub entrance is no where near the step
when I got to put my other foot in requiring some unusual bode flexing
but soon we are in the tub, standing. then we sit down as we
rehearsed. Except that when putting our weight on the seatback, the
car did NOT pitch backawards to an upright position. This may be
becuase the seats were tippes so far forward, we had to sort of stand
and lean back against them. At this point an operator decided he had
laughed hard enough, and came to rigt our tub so that we could sit down
and the retraints could lower. He said "Next time you try getting in
one at a time" Thanks for telling us now, bud. The OTSR's come down.
The Shake is what you get when you cross a Chaos and a BreakDance.
More specifically when you put Chaos cars on a Breakdance. The ride
started spinning, and at first we were merely spun mericlessly, then
the ride cranked up to crusing speed. "So that's what this does" All
of a sudden in addition to spinning our tub egan doing flips.
Interesting visuals as you are spinning and flipping at the same time.
After two eternities of flipping and spinning we realized our shoulders
were starting to ache, and this really wasn't as much fun as it looked
from the midway. Ah, am I glad THAT's over with.
* Remix - KMG Oribter-inspired ride
We next headed over to Remix, yet another of the new headliners. Remix
is what you get when you put inverted style seats on a Tivoli Oribter.
Whiel this ride was fast and fun, I wonder if we could do it without
OTSR. As with the Orbiter the ride forces press you into your seat
anyway, so lets put lapbars on this thing.
* Tornado - Wisdom Tornado
I didn't learn my lesson on the King Frolic. Tornado is a larger 4
'player' version of the King Frolic. This one has 4 chairs, 4 lapbars,
and a wheel in the center of each tub. Take your seats, lower the
lapbars and spin your way into oblivion. Unlike the Frolic, the
Tornado takes quite a lot more strength to get a good spin on the tub.
We started out spinning and reversing just like the Frolic. Here's
where my stomach started a revolt. I soon selected another riding
strategy. Sitting back in the chair staring intensely at the wheel but
not the surroundings. I felt like I was on the Remix for awhile as the
motion seemed quite simliar. As expected it soon wore down Rideman's
strangth and we made it to a safe landing.
We looked at the Banzai, which is like a Zamperla Hawk or Vekoma Air
Jumper in that it is a looping ship ride with no floor and inverted
style seating. I just wasn't that interested in it. I'm really
starting to dislike being held upside down, and yeah that stomach
revolt is trying to tell me something. Instead we headed for
* Cliffhanger (Dartron)
Cliffhanger is a Paratrooper with prone riding 'berths'. I very much
liked it when it came to the town carnival by my house, and it would be
a nice tame ride. We boarded cralwed up into our berths and were
secured by the restraint system. I still like the Cliffhanger as itis
a gentle yet unusual fun ride. It took a while to unload at the end of
the ride due to the design of the restraints.
We noted the Swiss bobs were closed and headed towards the kiddieland.
Kiddieland is just a name to tell it apart from the main midway. It is
true also that almost all the kiddie rides are located on the Kidway.
Recently though several rides have posted signs "This ride for children
AND adults" We took pause at the Zamperla Kiteflyer (like a Dartron
Cliffhanger but with 2 accross rather than 3 accross berths). What
caught our eye was the sign "Ride Face Up or Face Down, Your Choice"
Although I wanted to try it Face Up, my host gently suggested that I
look up at the sky. Bright sunshine, not what you want to be forced to
stare up at for the whole ride. I decided to let Rideman ride it at
night after the sun went down and report back to me. He did, ,
reporting that its not an experience he wanted to repeat. What did
bring us to Kiddieland was the Allan Hershell Skywheel.
Skywheel - Allen Herschell
This gem debuted in 1967 as a solution to the Ferris Wheel Problem. The
Ferris Wheel Problem is rooted in the fact that you can't load a lot of
cars each time you stop the wheel, and loading is time consuming. So
you spend a lot of time and effort loading the wheel, then running the
ride. This is why on a lot of Giant Wheels the actual ride is only 1
or two revolutions. On some bigger wheels the ride merely loads and
unloads all the time with no crusing revolutions. On several earlier
Ferris Wheels, only 1 seat could be loaded at a time. the Sky Wheel
was invented of the philosophy of "What if we could combine constant
loading with being able to give people a long ride?" At its heart a
Skywheel consists of two ferris wheels, one at each end of a long boom.
In concept you rotate the large boom so that one wheel is at the bottom
being loaded, while the other sits at the top merrily spinning away
giving its passengers a gentle pleasant ride. It sort of gives you the
effect of having two Ferris Wheels in the same footprint as one.
Idealy, as was the case at the Stafe Fair, they also included a
'cruising cycle'. What is interesting here is that the large boom
containing both wheels starts to rotate so that the two wheels are
rotating around the center of the ride, while the cars on each wheel
are rotating about the center of their respective subwheel. In fact
the timing is such that the main wheel (consisting of the two
subwheels) rotates at the exact same RPM as the subwheels. Which means
that when the subwheel goes from its top position to the bottom
position, the topmost seat on that subwheel is now on the bottom.
gives the illusion of riding a much wider diameter wheel than you
actually are. Its a wonderful idea, and a historical footnote to our
ride session.
We took a look at the newest in kiddie rides, which started a session
of "Why didn't they have these when WE were kids" I took a look at the
Whacky Worm, didn't ride itm but now wish I did. I can't fault Rideman
who asked me point blank "Do you want to ride the Whacky Worm?" Next
to the Whacky Worm a new ride dropped in that wasn't there at the start
of the fair. And I do think Dropped in is an appropriate term since it
was a Moser Junior Drop Tower. Unfortunately it dropped in so recently
that it did not have its required operating permit yet. We took a
look at the permanent Giant Slide, and I remarked at the unuaul arches
above the slide. I learned that they have the slide miked so that the
sounds of the riders come over speakers mounted at the base of the
slide.
We then headed back towards the main midway after a cold refreshments
stop. Really this visit to Kiddway did a lot for my revolting stomach.
Upon return to the Main Midway, we looked at the Inverter. I don't
particualarly care for the Inverter so skipped it. I was interested in
the Zipper, but they were cleaning up after an inferior ride enthusiast
who could not control their stomach revolt.
Then out of the corner of our eyes, we saw the Swiss Bob running.
Swiss Bob is Anton's version of the Byern Kurve. Becasue it's an
awesome ride, and for a tribute to Anton we took a spin on the Swiss
Bob. After the Swiss Bob, I suggested the Musik Express. Dear stomach
forgive me. There were in fact a number of Music Express/Flying Bobs
(Doniker) rides at the fair, and I think I selected the fastest of the
fastest ones offered. This model had ratcheting lapbars, and an
operator who decided to staple us in. Hey the ride does go backwards,
and for those that have been following Himalayah incidents, its good to
have the riders very secured if you are going to run backwards. This
design also featured two seperate lap bar locks, which must be operated
at the same time to release the lapbar. (One for each rider) . The
operator who was not on cosole was taking the Music Express theme
overboard as he was playing his air guitar and funking out as the ride
was spinning. I beleive the ride program was 25%forwards,
75%backwards. Some more walking this time to a rather deserted area of
the midway, not much back there but some dark rides, walk throughs, and
a Flying Doniker. After the music express, I was not ready for the
Flying Doniker (Bobs)
We startedto head back towards the front of the midway,making a stop at
the Ring of Fire. "May I show you to your cage?" I don't quite
remember those little cages being THIS confining. I hear they are now
offering an open air version, but it has OTSR. I'll stick to the
traditional Ring of Fire. You may recall from earlier I reported that
I disliked being held upside down. Let me clarify that, I dislike
being held upside down with OTSR's, held upside down with a nice
thickly padded lapbar is A-OK. After our Ring of Fire ride I got a
schooling by my host on better riding tips.
I then took a look at the Larson High Roller, even walked over to it.
Then I had a painful flashback from 1993. (The last time I was
intrigues by a Larson High Roller). Suffice to say I did not ride the
Larson High Roller. "That looks pretty uncomfortable".
We came back to the head of the midway, where we took another ride on
the KMG Afterburner. It was a fine ride, and I still love the
Afterburner, but I could not wait to get off. Right after the midride
tub rotation reversal I started feeling REALLY bad. By the time the
ride stopped I was quite close to getting sick. Rideman may have
ntoiced how I gingerly got out of my seat, and ever so slowly made my
wayto the exit stairs, and held on as I decended the stairs.
"I have just hit my spin ride limit"
Just as well, it looks like I have to leave in a little under an hour
anyway. We made our way to the first fully plumbed doniker we came
accross. (No not to give offerings to the Porcelin God), then we went
inside the air-conditioned Bricker building to find a nice park bench
to sit on for the next 15 minutes or so. Behind said benches was
something that should make Six Flags, Cedar Fair, and Paramount all
sit up and take notice. I spotted a row of Pepsi machines. You say,
whats the big deal about that, almost all major parks have soft drink
vending machines now. I was thirsty, needed fluids replaced, and
walked over to one. I looked at the price. $1.00! "Bet it's a can" I
insrted a $1.00 bill, made my selection, and out popped a 20 oz.
plastic bottle of Dr. Pepper. When Six Flags, Cedar Fair, or Paramount
start selling bottled soft drinks (to guests) in their parks for $1.00
each, it will be a miracle.
We won't even talk about the High Tech exhibit that featured such high
tech things as: EMPTY BOOTHS, dot coms doing a BAD job promoting their
website. What happend to all the high thech electronic goodies I was
expecting to see?
We then left the fair so that I could catch my transportation home. All
in all it was good that we stopped riding when we did, because we
arrived a the terminal with impecable timing.
David "Awaiting the email that says "This isn't StateFairMidwayBuzz,
take this post elsewhere" Bowers
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