Elysburg, Pennsylvania – Friday, July 13th, 2012
First helix and second lift hill.
Continuing up the final curve.
Peeking through at the earlier trough section.
Coming up on the brakes.
Another new feature, these guide rails to transition from the free-flying through into the brakes.
As you can see they tried to trace the oscillatory path the cars will take as they come into this section. I'm not sure if this was the best solution to the problem, but regardless it looks cool. Physics-not-in-motion!
Looking back at the rest of the layout from the brake run.
Still in the adjustment period.
More talks that I couldn't quite hear from back here.
Another look
Reverse point-of-view of a hypothetical vehicle.
Some people starting back up the other side of the layout.
Staying for a bit more Q&A at the brake run.
Clear shot of the guide rails.
Rest of the Turns from the brake run.
Brake and transfer area.
Closer look. I love that Knoebel's still uses old-fashioned skid brakes on even their modern wooden coaster re-creations. I suppose that with the bobsled design they're the most effective system for slowing the train down.
Trekking up the main tower of track.
More one-on-one Q&A. I'm sorry I forgot this guy's name, he answered a lot of my questions about the ride.
The fast transitions between curves will make this much more thrilling than any of the steel bobsled rides built by Intamin or Mack. From the way it was described, early tests could be more harrowing than just thrilling.
One day this shot will be possible through centrifugal force alone.
Wooden structure holding up the trough, already weathered from five years of exposure even though the ride has yet to open.
Climbing the trough.
Part of the reason for the delay of the Flying Turns is because, when the cars take these turns, the natural path of the vehicles has to match perfectly with the trough. It would be easy for the cars to enter this turn with too much force and swing all the way up to the top side of the wall, or start to roll back down too early and then hit the sharp curvature sitting flat on the bottom of the track.
I think there was a story behind this detail shot, but I can't remember what it was anymore.
Swooping in.
Nearing the top of the layout, looking back down in reverse.
Looking down one of the main towers.
This sounds like such a fantastic event. So many parks feel they need to hide the guts of a ride due to keeping the theme alive or just plain hiding secrets from other companies, so Knoebel’s openness is just awe-inspiring. As well as seeing a group of highly motivated and passionate people come together to learn a bit about the art of amusement. Perhaps, (fingers crossed) we can see something like that happen out here in SoCal someday.
Btw, you’ve mentioned it a couple times, and it bugs me. The term is “centripetal force.” “Centrifugal force” is an imaginary force. That is all.
The windsock seems to be both functional and aesthetic; Flags have been used on roller coasters to provide a visual indicator of wind speed and direction. Excessive wind can be a precursor to an inclement weather shut down. Even if there isn’t an electrical storm, the wind alone could be an issue for some rides; I’ve heard a story that Raptor once valleyed due to high winds.
I don’t get it… They are building a Flying Turns, which is the where steel bobsled coaster originated from, but they aren’t building the bobsled coasters. As a matter of fact, they torn down Disaster Transport at Cedar Point. One of the four steel bobsled coasters left in the world. But, now there is only three… But correct me if I am wrong. I don’t remember if Disaster Transport was the third or fourth.
The Flying Turns rides were always reputed to be more thrilling than the steel coasters that came after. Dick Knoebel is the sort of crazy guy who thinks making ride purchase decisions based on hearsay of that sort is a solid move, so he asked John Fetterman (his in house engineer) to build him a Flying Turns. Fetterman got the blueprints for the one in Coney Island and the Euclid Beach one and went from there. I heard about this potentially starting, no joke, 10 years ago. Here we are now, with it finally coming close to opening.
There’s a lot of back story here that’s not clear to everyone now that it has been so long since this started. Back when the plans for the Flying Turns were first announced, part of it was that the forces would be tuned down a bit (and ergo, the wildness) for this, the prototype. In the future, perhaps they would turn the wick up in future designs. At this point, it is hard to imagine there being future designs of the ride at Knoebels or anywhere else on earth, for that matter.
Finally, re: the steel bobsled coasters. Intamin and Mack both produced them, going in different directions on design. Mack’s design clearly, CLEARLY comes closer to matching what the old Flying Turns rides did, how they sat riders, and so on. And actually, they’re all pretty good rides. Avalanche is secret awesomeness at Kings Dominion, the bobsled in Blackpool is quite forceful, and the rides at Heide Park and Parc Asterix I think are really quite good too. Intamin’s rides, with their single car design, are pretty craptacular. All of them. There just isn’t a huge market for them, but Mack built one at Parc Asterix within living memory, so it comes down to market forces more than anything.
Wait, my bad there are only eight bobsled coasters still operating in the world. (They’re all steel too!) But, when Flying Turns opens there will be nine!! 😀