Ride from hell!

15 minutes on a Grav-a-tron, makes me wanna hurl just thinking about it!

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11095997&BRD=1579&PAG=461&dept_id=181233&rfi=6

My Lord. I'm not a huge fan of gravitrons in general, just because of the nausea factor, but 15 minutes? Holy dry-heaves.

I believe this problem has actually happened on Gravitrons before, I recall hearing about a similar incident a few years back.

I like the ride, just can't imagine how horrible it would be spending 15min. on one.

I went to Space Camp when I was younger and they have a gravitron type ride that's around that length, and I was ready to get off.

Personally if that would have happened when I was in it, I would have gone to sleep. I remember the last time I rode on at our county fair and we got like a 6-7 minute ride and it was pretty relaxing. It's hard as hell to move, but it's pretty comfortable.

The older ones have a habit of the control contactors freezing up. The result is that the operator, who is inside with the riders can't stop the ride. The immediate solution for this problem is to just cut the power to the ride. It's just that somebody out side has to be paying enough attention to realize that somethings wrong. That's usually the problem, as the carns have a tendency of giving overly long rides on these things. And yes this one's at the top of least favorite ride list.

Actually, that sounds kind of fun! I love Gravitrons. :)

OMG! I can't even imagine 15 minutes. The operator at LeSourdsville Lake/Americana left us on the "Electric Rainbow", (I believe that is it's name!), for 5-6 minutes while he took a smoke break and while we were all physically ok, I never did recover that night from the nausea. That was an awful feeling.

I got left on a scrambler for about 15 minutes while the ride op finished an entire pizza.

For some reason, a scrambler doesn't me sick but give me over a minute on a paratrooper and you better have a barf bag handy

---

Willh51 said:
I went to Space Camp when I was younger and they have a gravitron type ride that's around that length, and I was ready to get off.

---

The Space Camp gravitron didn't bother me for some reason, even with it's long cycle. What really got me was the MAT (which, in theory, doesn't cause motion sickness... riiight). My group leader figured "John will enjoy a 5 minute cycle on it, while the rest of the team gets 2." Yeah, thanks. Real class.

OMG that is SICK!

But for some insane reason that sounds like fun to me also. I have a very high tolerance for those but 15 minutes that would be pushing it....hmmm.

-Tina

*** Edited 3/12/2004 4:10:20 AM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

Up at the Washington State fair about ten years ago there was a carny who had figured out how to walk around while the Gravitron was in motion. It was pretty cool to watch. I asked him how often he fell while he was learning to keep his balance under the extra Gs and he said "Often enough that I learned quickly." :-D

-Escher

I think Dutchman has sussed it. I don't think the Gravitron even has a motor controller...just a fluid clutch and an ON/OFF contactor. A contactor is essentially a big relay. A small current comes through the go switch to energize a small magnet coil, which pulls in a metal bar to complete the high-current circuit that feeds the drive motor. Remove the coil current, and a spring pulls the contactor open. Trouble is, because there is a large load on the load side of the contactor when the circuit is open, there is a tendency for a spark to jump across the contactor terminals as the contactor opens and closes. Especially if the contactor gets old and dirty. That spark can actually spot-weld the contacts closed, making it so the motor won't stop. Oops.

What I wonder about is, how come this particular Gravitron doesn't have an electrical disconnecting means (other than the contactor) within 6' of the operator as required by the National Electric Code Sec. 525........

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I've seen Gravitrons operated here in CA where besides the inside man, there is another one by the loading ramp. I assume that this man is supposed to be the "safety", although I can't confirm it. It may be required, but I've seen no references to it in the permanent ride regs, and I'm not sure about the portable regs. All but one of the Gravitrons I've encountered have been with shows. There was one at Castle Park in Riverside the last time I was there. From what I could tell it was a tricked out portable.

---

Chadley said:OMG! I can't even imagine 15 minutes. The operator at LeSourdsville Lake/Americana left us on the "Electric Rainbow", (I believe that is it's name!), for 5-6 minutes while he took a smoke break and while we were all physically ok, I never did recover that night from the nausea. That was an awful feeling.

---

The *exact* same thing happened to me, only it was about 10 minutes. And half the time, the ride was in the lowered position. That was my last ride of the day...

WOW Sign me Up!!!! I would love to be on there that long. While i was down at Morey's Pier in Wildwood N.J. the Op "walked the rail" while I was thinking awsome i alson thought should he be showing this to the 3, 9 yos on there too? I also once got on one of those 3 axis spining ring things after getting nicely buzzed and told the guy to spin me till I puked. $30 and 30 minutes later nuthing. was actually walking straight. It's a wonder people ever reach old age with all the stupid things we do!