Why No More Flight of Fears?

Looks just like riding a crotch rocket to me...Best friend has one that looks like the seat they show, and he's had it WAY faster than this thing will go.

Um, I don't even know how to respond to the "Captain Badass" commnet, the thing only goes 45 miles an hour, and the average speed on the interstate here in WV is 70, so....

Have you never ridden a bike where you have to lean forward? Its contoured so as not to hurt your package, dude:).

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TeknoScorpion said:
well, another company did do it, 2 times, I think? Vekoma has a couple of indoor spagetti bowl type launched coasters(maybe 3, can't remember).

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Four.

-Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Disney Studios Paris
-Superman: The Ride, Six Flags Holland
-Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Disney Studios Florida
-Space Mountain, Disneyland Paris

The crotch rocket coaster looks pretty awsome, I just wonder how those restraints will work with the larger people of the world. You have to be pretty doggone big to not fit into some coasters, but I wonder why the size limitations would be on something like this.

FOF rough? Man are we getting wimpy these days.

Chuck, who has ridden several mine trains rougher than FOF.

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rentzy17 said:
IMO, Flight of Fear was NOT a good experience. I rode last week at PKI with lap bars and I STILL got head banging.

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Did you have your head in your riding partner's lap? There's nothing to hit your head on.

That said, the PKI ride is extremely physical and kicks your ass in a good way. Can't wait for those ERT laps at BeastBuzz!

I would like to see more indoor launched coasters pop up in other parks. I think PKI's FOF is way better than when it opened. Jeff, I like the concept of riding with my head in my partner's lap, so long as it's female. :) I have to agree with you Nungester that I think that some mine coasters are rougher. And, I wouldn't say launched coasters aren't totally proven. I don't think that a majority of them are having that many problems other than S:UE at SFMM. The unproven ones would be the hydraulic launch. And, that will soon fade away. *** Edited 4/30/2004 1:58:45 PM UTC by Dragster Freak***

Maybe Paramount hasn't decided how to theme another indoor version. Outer Limits didn't last as long as Wayne's World. The "in the dark' effect is pretty cool when it's actually dark. Maybe the next Borg coaster could be indoors. Put the spaghetti bowl inside the Borg sphere. Then the sphere might be more in scale with the size it should be unlike the Yugo sized version at Carowinds.

So far, it seems that PKI's FoF is smoother than it was at BeastBuzz last year.

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Chernabog said:
Four.
-Superman: The Ride, Six Flags Holland

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The park formerly known as Six Flags Holland's ride is an outdoor coaster, not an indoor like the others. I'm sure you knew that, but I'm just pointing that out since that's what he was referring to (indoor spaghetti bowl-type coasters).

-Nate

FoF can be a great ride if you brace yourself and you know what's coming (which is kinda hard cuz of the darkness and all). The turns are just so tight and quick that you get a little whiplash, hence the perceived "headbanging". ADVICE: Don't ride FoF and SoB back to back...you'll turn green like the peeps in RCT. At least that's what happened to me.

There are only 2 headsnapping points on Flight of Fear. The first is the cobra roll, which in my opinion is a bad inversion because it reverses direction quickly and violtently snaps your neck one way then the other. The 2nd is the direction change midway on the decension after the break run. This one isn't as violent as the cobra roll though.

As far as other manufacturers go, i would not sing the praises of Intamin too highly. They seem to have safety issues and problems with prototypes as of the last couple of seasons.

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rentzy17 said:

I don't think it's a "whiny enthusiast cmplaint" either. My friends really didn't like this ride because it was rough. It was SO uncomfortable.

Then again, I've ridden the Chiller and that is really a smooth ride (except for the roll). However, PKI's is not. When we got off Adventure Express at PKI my friends all clapped. They were happy we just rode a "smooth" ride. That should tell you something.

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I rode both last week. I cannot say AE was "smooth" even in comparison with FoF. I think FoF is smoother than Vortex, Magnum, or Anaconda. BTW, Magnum is my favorite ride.

Replacing OTSR with lap bars won't make a ride smoother. All it does is prevent your head from being bashed in by a thick piece of plastic. I would not consider FoF rough by any means. And the direction changes on FoF are not any worse then on AE.

Maybe it's just a difference in maintenance (cause I know the strength of the MCBR is a LOT different as I remember it) but PKD's FoF is quite smooth. The only turn that I would even consider rough is the one right before the MCBR. I actually rode in the back multiple times on my last visit because the little bit of extra roughness made it more thrilling in my opinion. I can see how it would be torture with OTSRs, but with lapbars, it's a very enjoyable ride.

I recall PKD's FOF as using a lot more mid-course brake than PKI's. That make the train a bit slower and smoother in the second half of the course.

When I hit PKI last year at BeastBuzz, there was no braking at the midcourse. That's why the ride kicks your ass (in a good way)!

RCDB says that the FOF at PKD has 5 car trains, while all the other Mad Cobras have 6 car trains. Is this true, and if so, why?

PKI's have five car trains.

Im with Jeff on the second half of PKI's kicking your ass in a good way. Once they realized they would never go back to three train ops they disconnected it and left it that way. THANK YOU PKI!

Chuck

I'd just like to say that the idea that spaghetti bowls need to be designed by B&M or Intamin to be successful is completely and entirely flawed. Look at it this way, Premier has proven that, with lapbars, their Mad Cobra track layout (their name for all their spaghetti bowl layouts thus far) is a mad fun ride. It draws lines at parks & is eaten up by the GP, not to mention most enthusiasts. Why haven't more been built? Parks haven't asked. It's that simple. I have a feeling that in saying B&M or Intamin needs to build a spaghetti bowl, people are really asking for a new layout. If B&M or Intamin did try to enter the spaghetti bowl market with a fresh layout, it would be no different than Premier coming up with another layout different from their Mad Cobra. B&M's or Intamin's wouldn't necessarily be better or smoother just because they're B&M & Intamin, and Premier's totally capable of coming up with new track designs (see the Mummies, the Chiller, Freeze, & their spaghetti bowls), they just haven't been asked. As for smoothness... Stengel's responsible for that for all three companies, so you'd see almost no difference in smoothness between any layout produced by any of the three companies. If anything I'd prefer Premier, for the sole reason that their restraints are only lapbars... which I love... and you should too :P

-BB

[edit] btw rentzy... I have a feeling the reason you say AE negotiates its transitions and the track better than FoF is because FoFs are taken much faster, and because in many places (suchas the turn series after the mcbr), the rolling transition between turns is coupled with decent positive Gs. Could be wrong, but from my observations, I think that's it. *** Edited 5/1/2004 7:59:15 PM UTC by BBSpeed26***