What to do with Holiday Worlds Roundhouse site...

Darn You Paula!

Gotta wait till tomorrow.
Gotta wait till tomorrow.
Gotta wait till tomorrow.

Flight Commander makes a comeback! I knew it! I knew Holiday World would be the park to bring such a classic ride back!

;)

What was Flight Commander?

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Rob Ascough said:
What was Flight Commander?

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A flat ride that was at Kings Island.

And Knotts. And PGA.

And it did....?

Killed someone at PKI.

Looked at me weird.

+Danny

Lemme see if I can explain this...

From the center tower, arms extended outward. At the end of each arm was a 2-person open-top capsule. Inside each capsule were two levers: one raised and lowered the arm, the other rotated the capsule in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction.

When the ride would start to spin all arms would be lifted off the ground about 20 feet. From there it was up to each controller to further raise and lower the arm and/or rotate the capsule.

The gist of the ride is that you could rise and dive whilst the capsule was in any position: upright, sideways, upside-down, or continuously spinning...hence the name "Flight Commander."

For those familiar with Disney's Rockets or the Jets at Knoebels, imaging the same up-and-down motion with the added ability to spin the capsule laterally. Hope that helps!

I tried to find pics but couldn't find anything online.

mOOSH

*** Edited 10/5/2004 10:59:57 PM UTC by Mamoosh***

I was thinking back to the early 90's when Dorney had some kind of flat ride near Hercules, although I think there was some kind of "simulated midair dogfighting" aspect to it that scored the riders based on the targets that they hit. I'm sure this is ride at PKI is something else.

I was thinking back to the early 90's when Dorney had some kind of flat ride near Hercules, although I think there was some kind of "simulated midair dogfighting" aspect to it that scored the riders based on the targets that they hit. I'm sure this is ride at PKI is something else.

Rob, check here....

http://www.pkicentral.com/Parkinfo/parkhistory/misc.htm

Flight Commander was the only ride I rode twice the first time I went to PKI. I didn't even get a Beast ride all day, but I got flight commander!

I wish Intamin(?) would have fixed the ride to be less dangerous so that we could still see one of those somewhere. It was my favorite flat ride, ever.

Tekno, Intamin did fix it and it operated after being down for a season and a half for another season or two, None the less, The rides popularity was gone.

PKD kept theirs untill a couple years ago. I know it was there at PKD untill at least 96 when I visited.

Chuck,

Homey G- Thanks! That is definitely NOT the Dorney ride I was thinking of.

That thing looks sick... kinda like a Huss Apollo 2000 except the cars rotate like those on an Eyerly Roll-O-Plane. Really interesting!

Rob, The ride was ok but it's movements were very slow, It rolled slow and raised and lowered slow. It was advertised that you could dive bomb by dropping and rolling at the same time. The effect was not very great and painful on the shoulders.

I can imagine. Probably one of those rides that looks a lot better from the ground. Still, I'd love to have been able to try it at least once, just to be able to talk about it now ;)