The physics of snapping the flyers

I was just thinking randomly about this the other day and had a little insight:

When your tub is at a constant radius from the hub, you travel at a constant linear velocity and constant angular velocity.

When you change your radius from the hub (by moving the sail) on each pass you keep a constant linear velocity but since your radius changes you can change your angular velocity. Hence, when you pull in closer to the hub you pull ahead of the cables and when you pull away from the hub, you lag behind the cables. (See Coriolis effect)

I always wondered where the front/back motion came from and now I know.

So what does this mean in practice? I dunno. Maybe trying to spend the most time at the extremes of the swing will result in good snaps? *** Edited 1/16/2007 10:15:51 PM UTC by ApolloAndy***

Well, I was taught by the king of snappage (he was able to get kicked of Hershey's flyers for extreme snapping! Had I not witnessed it myself I wouldn't have believed it) that it's actually not about turning the sail fast... just consistently at the same time.

Matt... do you want to chime in with your much-better-and-very-accurate description that you gave me in Dec.?

Yup, My brother also got us kicked of Hersheys Bounced from bottom to top and back again several times before it was e stopped.

Of course Tina is the queen of snappage :)

Chuck

I might sound retarded but what is snappage?

What is snappage?

When you change your radius from the hub (by moving the sail) on each pass you keep a constant linear velocity but since your radius changes you can change your angular velocity. Hence, when you pull in closer to the hub you pull ahead of the cables and when you pull away from the hub, you lag behind the cables. (See Coriolis affect)

LOL. I am proud of my recent found skeelz, but I'm definitely not the king of snappage. But thanks for the compliment, Tim. :)

But I think Andy's analysis fits in with my strategy. By swinging out and in you accelerate the tub. However, my technique is to not go to the extreme radii, but to use that acceleration to quickly change direction at about the middle of the two extremes, and then using that pull to get a really powerful stall as the tub is heading back toward the hub. It's really hard to put into words, but not too dificult to explain in person, using hand gestures. And thanks to Kyle/recess for teaching me the art. :)

If you really want to snap, get away from the big parks. I was at Seabreeze last summer, and I was snapping like crazy on their flyers. Nobody batted an eye.

Seabreeze has flyers? I had no idea. Sweeeeeeeet.;)

The best set of flyers I rode is the set at Parc Safari. Its a drive through safari/zoo with some old spinning rides. Its 45 minutes south of Montreal, a few miles from the US border. The flyers they own is a 10 tubs set and they don't care about snapping!

Yes, they sure do, Matt. :) They are ok.

Personally I learned by watching all the "masters" over the last few years. I just go with flow. Wind can be your best friend! ;)

-Tina

I'm glad someone finally explained what "snappage" refers to. I've been reading Tina's sig, and you can imagine where my mind was wandering.... I'm so ashamed of myself. ;)

How can you snap the flyers @ Seabreeze? When I rode them, they had those "stops" which limit movement of the sail.

Not that it really matters to me as I *still* dont get the fascination by enthusiasts with flyers.
jeremy

Have you ever snapped them really hard? Also, it's just the concept of you get to control to a great degree what the ride does instead of simply being at the mercy of the ride. As long as the stoppers still let you turn the sail by about 45 degrees, I can snap fine unless the ride is slow. Also I believe Chuck has sid you can get some snaps in eventually just by holding the sail to the inside a little bit for the whole ride.

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2Hostyl said:Not that it really matters to me as I *still* dont get the fascination by enthusiasts with flyers.

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It's the closest we can come to playing brakeman on a scenic railway.... ;)

What is a flyer anyways???

I tried down at Cypress Gardens but since I have no idea on what to do, I probably didn't do it at all.

Is there a video on the web that shows how to do this? I tried youtube but everything I typed in that would refer to this didn't reference a thing.

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dannerman said:
Well, I was taught by the king of snappage (he was able to get kicked of Hershey's flyers for extreme snapping! Had I not witnessed it myself I wouldn't have believed it)

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Not doubting that... but...

Don't be TOO proud of that fact. Depending on the operator... even minor snapping... (or even "swining" with no snapping) can get some overly cautious operators to stop the ride and invite someone to get off (and then they will run the ride empty for a cycle or two "to make sure no damage was done.")

A thread dedicated to the breaking of park rules!

RideMan has one of the best videos around. This should answer any Q's.

http://capital2.capital.edu/admin-staff/dalthoff/adventures/pilots.html

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SixFlagsKingdaKa said:
A thread dedicated to the breaking of park rules!

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Ah... depending on the park.

At PKD the op was yelling at people for "bouncing the birds"

At Hersheypark, as said above, they will kick people off of the ride and then run the ride empty for a cycle or two to check for "damage"

But at Knoebels, I have never seen anyone get kicked off. The only "warning" they have is "do not whip the sails". I always took this as quickly "whipping" the sail (rudder?) back and forth... has nothing to do with snapping. As a matter of fact, on Knoebels flyers, the smoother you are with moving the sail, the more snap you can sometimes get.