Windseeker

Just saw on the news that around 20 riders are stuck at the top of Windseeker at Knott's Berry Farm. They have been there for over 2 hours. I'm sure they are enjoying the view but that's a while to be stuck up there. Wasn't it back in June that people got stuck at the top of Cedar Point's Windseeker? Have any of the other Windseeker's had similar problems this season?

Apparently they are still stuck up in the air. A local news station has a live video (as of 10:15PM EST) of the ride as crews are working on it:

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Knotts-Berry-Farm-Wind-Seek...34216.html

I wonder what the problem was this time. When CP's was stuck, it was (apparently) because the wind blew the cable bunch out of the channel that runs up the side of the tower.

If it was an issue of just manually cranking it down, I wonder if there was something preventing them from doing it sooner.

^^ The article states that the ride was also stuck on Sept. 7th for three hours. Interesting.

Eek. I rode that thing twice on the 8th. Guess I lucked out.

This has happened several times. At Cedar Point they had an actual failure, where the cable carrier got blown out of its track. But everything I have read so far seems to indicate that other than that, these have been control issues. A failure is detected and the ride shuts down, when in fact nothing actually failed. Park spokespeople have pinned the blame on various unspecified sensors but never said what. My suspicion is that a failure is detected, the ride shuts down, and a mechanic then has to climb the tower to verify the lack of actual failure before manually bringing the ride down. That's mere speculation on my part, but it's the only way I can justify the very long delays in bringing riders down.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I was riding Windseeker at Knott's last Tuesday and the ride stopped each time on it's descent about 40 feet from the ground. I never had an issue at Cedar Point on it.

I'd hate to be stuck up there for that long, especially at CP. It gets cold up there, even in the middle of summer.

Looks like they were up there for about 4 hours.

So two times in a month it stops and they can't get people down for over 3 hours. Besides the cables being physically stuck, I can't imagine what could take so long to get them down.

Yeah, this would test my mental abilities. It's not the height as much as the boredom and restraint that would get to me.

What's a better idea than installing one enormous, untested prototype ride? How about buying 4 at once!

I mean look at it. Straight steel arms instead of flimsy chain links. Safer. Better.

/s

It would be one thing if this were an occasional occurrence, but it ain't.

Curse of the WindStucker.

On my last trip to Cedar Point on the last week of August, this ride was making a VERY loud clicking sound as it went up and down the tower. I definitely was something not right. I wondered why they were even running the ride that day instead of fixing whatever was wrong.

I rode the one a CP and did not like it at all. Rode one once, never have to ride it again. This (and all the other times one has got stuck) just gives me more reason not to ride it again.

Jeff said:

It's not the height as much as the boredom and restraint that would get to me.

Or maybe the need to take a bathroom break..... Ill make sure I hit the rest room before I jump on Windseeker again.

Whenever something like this happens I always think of the person who is scared to death to ride and finally talks themselves into it by saying, "Hey, I can do anything for just 3 minutes." This would suck for that person.

super7: Windseeker's loud clicking and banging as the gondola goes up and down is normal for that ride. Much of it is the guides that restrain the cables from getting tangled up when the gondola is down.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Ensign Smith said:

Curse of the WindStucker.

To quote the band Kansas (get off my lawn): "All we are is stuck in the Wind.."

Carry on, wayward gator.

They have reached The Point of Know Return. Hopefully they will not become Dust in the Wind