Schmoofy Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 Well today was a great day, except for the crowds. I can't tell you how many times I've been to Knoebel's and not seen it this crowded, and for a ticket day even! We didn't ride a lot earlier during the day, but later on we rode some rides with little wait. Flying Turns is looking extremely good, better than what the webcams show. All of my Flying Turns pictures will be included in my second post. Psyclone wasn't running today though. Flying Turns photos next post! Never before seen shot of the back of Knoebel's sign. And that's the last of them. I put my camera away at this point to avoid getting it wet. We wandered over to the Log Flume, and I managed to get some shots while on the ride. Enjoy! So, it's possible to get a picture of Fandango making it look like it's almost not attached to anything, awesome! Lookin' good! We went to Fandango next, I snapped a few more pictures while in line for it. The top of Phoenix's lift hill: THROUGH THE TREES. It looks so peaceful. The Pheonix is here too, running really smooth as well as two trains. Looper has a new entrance of sorts, it's no longer all of (now retired) Whirlwind's old entrance. As I stated in a previous report: I'm still a chicken to ride this. More stream pictures. There's also swans in the stream. There were four there today, but in May there were five, hmm.. The stream flowing through the middle of the park is really nice. Looking up at the track! Also my last picture of the Twister because of all the pain it causes to people. This picture and.. There's that pain machine! Oh look, squirrels! Wait, where's Twister? And another.. Another. So I decided to snap some shots of Twister while riding, since it goes right underneath the structure. The first ride of the day was the long train, over a mile long. We parked in C, D? Uhm...
Schmoofy Posted July 23, 2007 Author Posted July 23, 2007 Flying Turns. What can I say about this construction? It's come a long way so far, but the opening date keeps getting pushed back. I was told tonight that they are hoping to have it open for PPP, so all of you going might be in luck! Anyway, on to the pictures. And I'll leave you with this picture of the new Knoebel's map. Flying Turns has been added to it since May, which is probably good news. For those of you who have been following the webcams, this is one of them. I'll be walking up this soon! The brake run through the structure. The final turn looks so out of place. Final brakes before hitting the station. Top of the main lift hill. It's slanted towards the first lift hill. I asked to stand on the rails of Looper for a bit between ride systems and was allowed. Enjoy these pictures of the station, so far. Atmospheric lighting. Round two: It connects the first lift to the first helix. I'm pretty sure most of you would go to the Flyers before Flying Turns. Yay for troughs. Reminds me of Jaws.. These must be important. Let's play a rousing game of "What's Missing?" First round: It's before the main lift hill and after the first helix. Flying Turns: Through the trees! These were laying around near the back of Flying Turns. More weird devices under the brake run. It looks really neat. Another shot of the trains, because you know you want more. Second to last turn heading into the last lift hill. "There's more wood here than at a gentlemen's club!" Final turn before going into the station. More queue walkway. If you want to build your own Flying Turns, you need these! There will be a building here sometime in the near future. Final brakes before hitting the station. This is where happy people will exit the ride. The unhappy people will be forced to ride Twister until their back is numb. (Should only take one ride) Hmm.. More of these weird breaking devices near the not-yet-built station. Coming soon: Flying Turns' entrance! The final lift hill is completed, back in May it was just being started. It's pretty tall. Looks the same as last time. Really incredibly ungodly amazing and awesome. They have cars on the track!!! Holy shi- All of you who signed that board last year at PPP will be happy to know that it will soon be catching grease from under the brake run. More brake run goodness. This weird device is under the brake run. I've never seen something like this before. Looks really smooth.. Trough leading into the brake run. Coasters need nuts and bolts to be built, Flying Turns is no exception. Lift hill looks sexy. Looks the same as it did in May. I really don't feel like captioning all of the photos, but I'll do my best.
yankees15 Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 Great update! I will be heading out to Knoebel's in a few weeks so this update really got me excited! Flying Turns looks like its come along very nicely, but it looks like I won't be riding it until next year.
CoasterEricHP Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 Thanks for the Flying Turns update! It looks awesome. I was trying to hold off heading up there this year until it's done but it looks like it might be pretty late into the season if at all this year. If the weather is anything like it normally is for PPP, Flying Turns will be better suited for a water slide! The cars look weird! Is it going to be like any other bobsled type coaster where its sort of "log flume" style? It still looks wayyy bigger than I thought it was going to be and the logo is so cool looking! Too bad Pysclone wasn't running when you were there.. I heard its pretty good! Maybe if you're lucky it'll be relocated right next to Twister!
Vffreak07 Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 How exactly does it go along the track with the wheels and all?
Schmoofy Posted July 23, 2007 Author Posted July 23, 2007 Great update! I will be heading out to Knoebel's in a few weeks so this update really got me excited! Flying Turns looks like its come along very nicely, but it looks like I won't be riding it until next year. Heh, who knows! It's coming along really fast now and will probably open soon, but I don't have my hopes up. Thanks for the Flying Turns update! It looks awesome. I was trying to hold off heading up there this year until it's done but it looks like it might be pretty late into the season if at all this year. If the weather is anything like it normally is for PPP, Flying Turns will be better suited for a water slide! The cars look weird! Is it going to be like any other bobsled type coaster where its sort of "log flume" style? It still looks wayyy bigger than I thought it was going to be and the logo is so cool looking! Too bad Pysclone wasn't running when you were there.. I heard its pretty good! Maybe if you're lucky it'll be relocated right next to Twister! You're right about the water slide part. It's going to be a bobsled coaster from what it seems, the cars only seat one person though, and two are going to be put together it seems. Someone said something. How exactly does it go along the track with the wheels and all? I really couldn't tell you yet, but it's probably going to work the same way a matchbox car would if you let it roll down a few pipes.
Kingda Ka 456 Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 Flying Turns could be the very thing what I am hoping to ride on. It looks like just kind of a replica of wooden bobsled, but I really want to feel the smooth ramble of wood.
Xtremecoaster Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 I just wonder one thing,Is Knobel`s owned by Kennywood or Hershey?The Knobel`s map have many similarites to Hersheypark`s and Kennywood`s map!
CoasterEricHP Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 Knoebels is owned by the Knoebels family! At least I think. I dont think there's any corporate involvement. There must be a company that a lot of the regional parks use for making their maps. A lot of the smaller parks in the state have the same style. I never liked those maps though. Too much clutter and they just arent much fun to look at.
coastercrazed49 Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 ^^Most of the Maps for amusement parks including the ones you listed are all made by the same company. I think they are called Amusement Media Inc.
RCoasterny Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 Re: "weird braking hardware": It looks like Knoebels is using the same skid brake design as the Twister. The Phoenix uses a slightly different design, but both work similar. The wheels you see are actually attached to the brake rails. What has yet to be installed is a cam system attached to a pneumatic actuator. It looks like one of the photos actually shows the cam lever, without the actuator. The cam rides on the wheels and makes the brake rails rise up and down. Phoenix uses a sliding rail with wedges mounted on the rail and on the brake rails. One end of the rail is mounted to the pneumatic actuator. As for the cars, If you go to knoebel's website that shows the picture of a 2 car train testing, you can see one of the car has a prototype seating built on the lead car. It shows that there will be two individual seats, tandem style. Only one person will sit in each seat.
Jim S. Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 I'm still confused as to how two seats are going to fit on each chassis -- they look too short to have any leg-room. But yes, it will definitely be individual seats, no sitting between someone's legs because with only 10 seats per train they want to be able to use all the seats. I think I read that there are going to be six wheels per car. At least some of them are going to be casters: Yes, they've installed stops to keep the casters from reversing themselves, after trying it without them. That out-of-place-looking bit of curved trough before the station is because they were afraid the cars wouldn't negotiate a 90-degree turn on an ordinary track. On another board someone said that lift testing is supposed to take place August 1st. That means they've only got a week to get three chains and two motors (one is in place) hooked up. I still don't know when the track is going to be finished. The storage track switches at the top and bottom of the helix are waiting on the final car design so they get the curvature right. I'm hoping it opens before PPP so I can get a ride before the crowd gets ridiculous. It would be ideal if it would open in August so I could go on a weekday, but I don't know if they can pull that off. Finally, am I the only one who doesn't think Twister is too rough? The only spot that really bothers me is the turn into the helix. The turn out of the helix didn't used to be great either, but they rebuilt it last winter and it seems OK now. I'm not sure whether there's enough room to reprofile the entrance turn though.
kennywood!007 Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 Flying Turns looks so awesome! The cars look really odd.
Schmoofy Posted August 1, 2007 Author Posted August 1, 2007 Instead of making a new thread, I thought I would bump this with pictures from yesterday. I didn't take pictures of the park as much as I did Flying Turns, so this will only include Flying Turns pictures. Excuse the blurriness, it was getting dark and my camera wasn't working properly. Enjoy! Oh, and here's a wallpaper for those of you looking for a nice, larger, Flying Turns picture. http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/2798/knoebels035wx1.jpg And to finish this off, the Knoebels sign, from the back, at night. The brake run: at night. Extreme-Blur! The lights look pretty neat. Mega-Blur! Also note that the lift hill lights are blue. Flyers and Flying Turns. Some of them are installed, others, like these, are laying around still. Main lift. Lift hill wheels. The supplies keep dwindling down, which is good! I don't have this shot yet. Hmm... Brake run. Is this a prototype? Cars haven't moved at all in the past few weeks. It's an impressive structure. And this is Flying Turns in rave mode. Reminds me of kielbasa. They're starting to board up underneath the station. The lamp post is a nice touch to the area. >:[ The helix off of the first lift and before the main lift is separate form the rest of the track. Flyers and Flying Turns in the same picture. Maybe they should name this section "Fly Away"? Looks pretty nice. Hard at work. Trough pieces that probably won't be used. eBay, anyone? You can't really tell from this picture, but this truck is really run down. It was parked here when construction first started, heh. Well maybe only had it on.. Pepsi cup lights, I love it! I was extremely tempted to put it on and walk into the construction zone, but didn't. The queue line goes under the main lift. Excuse the blur. These weren't installed a few weeks ago. I can't wait to walk underneath this. But there are handrails starting to go up! You can't get near the entrance now, they have tape blocking it off. New device underneath the station platform. Sunset Flying Turns
IwantRevenge Posted August 1, 2007 Posted August 1, 2007 Flying turns looks like a blast i hope it ages ewll and stays smooth. The Trains though looks hideous and uncomfortable.
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