Strickers Grove 10-15-06 Guest apreciation day

I debated on writing this TR as I feel the rath of enthusiast might come down on me.

First off Sunday was a work day for me, So I didn't really think it was possible to visit Strickers for this date. But after about 5hrs of work and us being a little on the slow side, The boss asked if I wanna go home no penalty, no pay. I said heck yeah. This was 1pm and the park opened at one.

Originally I had thought that Id just go home and watch the bengals game but doing my closeout paperwork I remembered Strickers was open and my brother said he was going.

Im outta there at 1:30 and reach the park at 2:15, Get my 9 dollar all day pass and proceed back to the flying scooters.

I don't know what happened, Probably the fact that PPP was the prior weekend and he had a lot of practice but my brother is snapping this 8 tub model as hard as I've seen anywhere. Well we ride, I have always been able to get some snaps and good altitude on Strickers Flyers, We got the trees trimmed back now and were still hitting higher limbs.

About 3pm a older guy (Nazi) relieves our teen ride op. We get a killer ride and upon exiting theres a cop telling us not to hit the trees. I say, OK, we won't aim for them but you can't blame us for doing what the ride can do and we will occationally get that high.

Old op leaves and everythings fine.

Break from 4-5pm which we get the corn on the cob and go chat with other enthuisast.

5pm rides reopen, Meet up with a cool cat named Joe (Won't give any background on him for his buisness reasons) Joe, My brother and I and a handfull of other old PKI flyer junkies take a few rides on the flyers, Ride Tornado and Teddy Bear and the train, Tip top and a couple other rides and come back to the flyers about 7pm. Well the Nazi is running the Tilt a whirl which is just across from the scooters and my brother runs off another incredible ride from start to stop. That Negative-G guy was there :)

Well we know what happened the last time and leave the flyers, go get drinks and talk a bit and come back at 745 for a couple last rides on the flyers.

We get our tubs, buckle in and a sherrif deputy enters the ride area and says to me, my brother and Joe that our time on this ride is done for the night.

I later talked with the deputy who said he thought it was cool the rides we were getting, Ralph strickers daughter(Who's over 50 herself) thought it was cool. The deputy said that that guys got issues but he was working for the park detail and was just doing what he was asked by him to do. (Nobody at the park told us to stop, The ride op thought is was cool.

Many other people got great snaps on the ride that day, Some I didn't even know. Others I did.

Im just worried this will hurt other people getting great rides on them. I previously thought that getting that good of ride wasn't possible. In fact out of the 15 or so rides I got, Only a couple were very good in snapping terms.

We are going to bypass Strickers next year and let things calm. They didn't seem mad at us. Just the NAZI was having issues with it. In fact on family day in Aug they asked if we were comming back on Guest apreciation day to ride the scooters and gave us flyers and cupons?

Oh well, Had a great time anyhow, Was great to meet you and spend time with you Joe and others. It definately was a first and maybe one of a kind experience being escorted from THE FLYERS BY THE COPS.

Chuck

I find it frustrating that people are prevented from doing something that the ride is capable of doing naturally. It is not like you were half hanging out of the tubs or took off your seat belts or something like that. You were simply maximizing what the ride can naturally do. I strongly feel they should either allow people to snap or simply remove the ride. Is there some kind of experience or study that shows that snapping the cables or going really high is dangerous? Has their been a history of accidents with this ride? I would think if that were true they would not have it. So I am frustrated to hear they did this to you. It is most unfortunate.

Funny. I was at that park earlier this summer myself and I couldn't get those Flyers to snap to save my life! In fact, it felt more like I was working out than anything!

I came off that thing, after about 3 tries, and felt as if I'd bench-pressed about 300 pounds. . .

Still, those little woodies out there are so cool, sitting in the middle of a corn field like that. . .

Now THAT is a Mom and Pop homespun little park!!

Barry J.

So is Carowinds the only place you can still snap lke crazy and not get in trouble for it?

^ Knoebels...mostly.... ;)

:-x

Knoebels is usually which operator is on it at the time.

Still, On a regular day, Every operator asked us to tone it down.

Chuck, still trying to get that umbrella :)

I was also able to snap without warning at Fun Spot, probably a little better than knoebels even.

Chuck

^Stricker's, Fun Spot's, and PKI's were kickass, but nothing can hold a candle to the Knoebels flyers. ;)

Matt, Camden Park will let you "snap" as well, but their flyers take a little more effort. Still, from my experience the ride ops love it and encourage it!

Lake Compounce's flyers looked like they were on valium. I didn't even bother. ;)

-Tina

*** Edited 10/28/2006 4:16:10 PM UTC by coasterqueenTRN***

LC's are RUN poorly....Cypress's (weird-looking possessive), they were built badly...

I'd bet the price of admission that no one could get them to snap...LOL! ;)

There are Flyers at Cypress Gardens? EENteresting. ;)

^"Flyers"....only if the term is applied VERY loosely...

Closer to a ground-level Chance Aviator in terms of design and *snappability*... :(

PGA, Hershey, Camden, Cypress, and IB all have the Larson model. IF run with any speed, I know they are snappable. My brother had the hardest snap I've ever seen on hersheys.

If IB would allow it, I would have no trouble snapping Air Crow. It's hard to keep it from snapping. :)

Whats funny about the IB thing is that Someone took Tom Spackmans daughter to Knoebels. She loved the Flyer so much that Tom Bought one.

I wonder if she's allowed to snap? Because thats what knoebels is famous for and probably why she fell in love with it.

Chuck, not saying there isn't a reason for it. Just wondering why?

I'd sure like to know why myself. Flying out over the water is a blast. It's painful having to hold back the snappage. :(