Six Flags Fiesta Texas (SFFT) Discussion Thread

[Ducky dude]

^ Yeah, which makes me wonder why they would let someone with no limbs ride a HYPER COASTER!!!

I'm sorry, but, to me its just common sense.

[boardwalkbullet91507]

I don't see why they wouldn't continue to use Gerstlauer. They use the same or similar restraint system on a lot of their rides both in and out of the Six Flags chain. The victim's body proportions were so unique that it allowed her to fall out. It could have happened on any coaster, and fate chose NTAG. Had she have been on the Iron Shark in Galveston, or really any Eurofighter and she most likely would have fallen out too. Six Flags will continue with the Iron Horse conversions and Gerstlauer is the go to company for the trains. Gerstlauer is maintaining the parks older Schwarzkopf, Shock Wave, and is quite a prominent manufacturer in the Six Flags chain. Gerstlauer isn't going anywhere.

[donkeyman18]

Worlds tallest kettle corn stand.

[Wes]

I don't see why they wouldn't continue to use Gerstlauer. They use the same or similar restraint system on a lot of their rides both in and out of the Six Flags chain. The victim's body proportions were so unique that it allowed her to fall out. It could have happened on any coaster, and fate chose NTAG. Had she have been on the Iron Shark in Galveston, or really any Eurofighter and she most likely would have fallen out too. Six Flags will continue with the Iron Horse conversions and Gerstlauer is the go to company for the trains. Gerstlauer is maintaining the parks older Schwarzkopf, Shock Wave, and is quite a prominent manufacturer in the Six Flags chain. Gerstlauer isn't going anywhere.

 

RMC makes their own trains now though, so theoretically Six Flags could just go direct through RMC for everything. Makes more sense now, especially since the trains seem to work fine on Outlaw.

[boardwalkbullet91507]

^That's a very good point. Perhaps Gerstlauer was sort of an 'interim manufacturer' while RMC developed their trains. I never thought of the possibility of a 100% RMC Iron Horse track & train conversion until now. Definitely a possibility. It will be interesting to see what trains New Iron Medusa II will use; Gerstlauer again, or new RMC trains.

[Sportsdude360]

"Iron Medusa"!!!!!

[SFFTfan]

The day before school starts is a good day to go. 1 or 2 train wait for Iron rattler and I got 15 rides in in a couple hours.

 

Wonder if a Maverick size coaster fit in the boardwalk section if Pandemonium was moved?

[SFFTfan]

A comment on a Fiesta Texas photo on facebook, from whoever runs their facebook page says Iron Rattler will remain open through Holiday in the Park.

Iron rattler will remain open through HiP

[goatdan]

The victim's body proportions were so unique that it allowed her to fall out. It could have happened on any coaster, and fate chose NTAG.

 

No, no and no. I snipped some of the qualifying statements you made at the end, but... no.

 

If the restraints fail to restrain a rider when everything about the restraint says that it is a go, something wrong happened. I've said it before, and it's true - it's about as blameless of an accident as you can get. The train was designed to keep people in, and there is no way a designer would want to design a train where people could fall out, the system was made so the train couldn't dispatch unless the harness was in the correct location, and the ops made sure that it was. Ultimately, the court system will place blame somewhere, but you can't make the argument that if you have the same body proportions as this person, you'd fall out of any ride, which is what it sounds like.

 

If any park is using a ride that has the same harnesses, they absolutely should be looking at the data from this accident and doing their best to ensure that their ride does not have the same accident happen on it, because there was clearly some sort of flaw in the system or someone wouldn't have fallen out.

 

To be clear, I am NOT saying that this could have been anticipated, but it happened, and no sensible park is going to continue to run a ride using the exact same harnessing situation without doing their best to increase the safety in some way... if they do and god forbid someone else falls out, then the park is most definitely negligent and the party to blame... Along these lines with an older post:

 

On another note, I'm afraid of the GP. In the sense that they will force manufacturers to make coasters with stapling OTSRs and/or seatbelts. Imagine if the GP somehow end up forcing ride manufacturers shipping to America to install seatbelts (say goodbye to B&M hyper restraints as we know them) and restricting the intensity of coasters. I'm already angry at the GP's loopy-loop obsession that has meant that parks are forced to choose the SLC over the Mega-Lite. Now, I'm worried that they'll force more restrictive restraints. I really think that the GP they should understand that coasters are one of the safest forms of recreation and you are more likely to be killed driving to the park (this is actually one of the first facts I go to talking to people that are afraid of coasters.)

 

B&M Hypers (and for that matter, Flyers) are not about to get more restrictive restraints. Adding more restrictive restraints in this case was due to an issue that was found, and these more restrictive restraints are there to ensure like I said above that it doesn't happen again.

 

If B&M Hypers start having people fall out of them, I wouldn't expect to see a change. The fact is that Six Flags didn't put these seat belts on the ride to give people the "illusion" of safety, but because they feel like it will prevent another case like what happened on the Giant from happening again. If the seat belts do not work and god forbid someone else is ejected and it comes out in court that they knew the seat belts wouldn't make it any safer, but they thought it would be fine, again - the damages that they will receive in court as well as from the general public will VASTLY outweigh the short term benefit of re-opening the ride.

 

Six Flags is an amazingly safety conscious company, and I do trust them quite a bit on this stuff.

 

Also, let me say one more thing related to park safety. While you have an extremely tiny chance of being killed on a coaster, I would say the chances of being ejected due to a failing restraint make the chance of being killed in some other way on a coaster look huge. These restraints are designed (correct me if any technicalities are wrong here) with seatbelts (either the lap belt or the shoulder bar backup belt), backup locking mechanisms, and so on. And while the seat belts decrease the already tiny chance of ejection, the restraints - seatbelt or not - will not release and are perfectly fine as long as they are used properly.

 

Sort of. The restraints don't release randomly ever unless about ten things have catastrophically gone wrong first. Everything has multiple redundant safety systems to ensure that you stay where you are supposed to stay.

 

Again, having said that, technically according to everything, the restraint on the Giant *was* being used properly. In NO way should the lady riding be blamed for the issue. And, that actually makes this one of the rarest types of amusement park accidents, the one where the guest is really *not* to blame. Those are the ones that get magnified, because the moron that defeats the safety system and falls out because they are taking a picture of them with their feet up in the air, or the idiot that runs into the ride area after being told not to and gets hit with a train while trying to retrieve a hat, or whatever... THOSE people are idiots, and no matter what the news system, Markey, or whatever anyone else wants to say about that situation, no normal person is going to have a ton of compassion for the dude that figured out a way to unlock his own harness and stand up or whatever.

 

Oh, and to whomever said that the seat belts will kill the air time, I rode Voyage recently and always, *always* try to not be an idiot and ride with the harnesses in any way loose. I synched my seat belt down, locked my lap bar as close to me as possible, and had the most amazing "airtime" feeling that I have ever had on a coaster ever. If you're purposely trying to defeat the safety systems to get a bigger thrill out of "almost" falling out of your seat, I'd suggest stopping and thinking about what you're doing before you actually do fall out someday. Coasters are JUST as thrilling with the harnesses properly restraining you, and saying anything to the contrary makes you sound like a 2000s era ACEr.

 

Anyone that read this far deserves a cookie.

[Ducky dude]

^ I Take a sugar cookie please, well, a half, because I only read half.

[ajfelice]

Oh, and to whomever said that the seat belts will kill the air time, I rode Voyage recently and always, *always* try to not be an idiot and ride with the harnesses in any way loose. I synched my seat belt down, locked my lap bar as close to me as possible, and had the most amazing "airtime" feeling that I have ever had on a coaster ever. If you're purposely trying to defeat the safety systems to get a bigger thrill out of "almost" falling out of your seat, I'd suggest stopping and thinking about what you're doing before you actually do fall out someday. Coasters are JUST as thrilling with the harnesses properly restraining you...

 

Agree wholeheartedly. Building beyond just the safety point, I have my two cents of insight. There was a time where I thought leaving gaps was a fun idea to get more airtime and comfort. However, in my opinion the contrary is quite true. Leaving a gap that doesn't get sealed off by operators usually results in a nasty first drop experience when the restraint really has momentum to slam down the extra couple notches resulting in more pain than pleasure. In regards to airtime, I have been crunched down into countless coaster seats from several manufacturers thinking there is no likelihood of airtime, but more often than not I have been pleasantly surprised. Even on a thigh crusher like Skyrush, I'd rather start tight than have the experience of a lap bar with little resistance slam down on me as the rest of my body is being raised up with amazing airtime.

[GayCoasterGuy]

Coasters are JUST as thrilling with the harnesses properly restraining you, and saying anything to the contrary makes you sound like a 2000s era ACEr.

 

Come on Dan, that isn't a fair thing to say about the many ACE members who do NOT do that - even in 2000, or 1990... We've talked about this. I've seen members of several coaster/park groups (including this one) do wrong and illegal things. But I know better than to group them all together by poor actions... there will *always* be bad apples.

 

I'm glad the coaster groups don't take crap anymore and ban them... that's an appropriate action.

 

Anyone that read this far deserves a cookie.

I'm waiting

[Ducky dude]

You should send us E-cookies! lol

[3Mutts]

In my opinion , it depends on the coaster. On Modern coasters it doesn't really matter what the restraint is (execpt for OTSR ) as the all will clamp down on you during the ride so adding seat belts doesn't really hurt any value in the coaster. However if you put seat belts on a old coaster (like the Phoenix at Knoebles) it can end up ruining the ride (no more of that "I'm going to fly out" airtime).

[FreeFaller]

They just posted another photo on Facebook!

eXtreme 2014

[Linders]

^^ I saw that. Jumped over this thread expecting to see a string of posts about it, only to find a string of posts about the NTAG accident at SFOT. SFOT has been VERY quiet on their FB page since the accident. And little to say about a "big announcement" coming tomorrow, unlike SFFT. Thinking SFFT is going to give me theme park envy next year. Good thing it's only a 4 1/2-5 hour drive from Dallas.

 

And by the way, chocolate chunk, please.

[chickenbowl]

They just posted another photo on Facebook!

 

I still think this is for a water slide complex of some sort!

[Hriscay]

They just posted another photo on Facebook!

 

Drop#1... Hmm, Any thoughts on a multi-drop water coaster? That fence in the back is the only fence in the entire park that is wooden. Its located Behind the Texas Wave Pool. This, without a doubt, will be a new ride for the water park. IMO

[ArizonaGuy]

^^

Good catch. And there is a chain link fence going up hill as well in the area that you pointed out.

 

There is however some wooden fence on the right side of the Scooby Doo Ghost Blasters building but I'm thinking it's still going to be water park related. (Bonzai Pipeline complex) Unless there's going to be 2 additions which is highly doubtful.

Edited August 28, 2013 by ArizonaGuy

[TexasThrillSeekers]

^ Yes I agree, I think it's a new water ride complex.

[Hriscay]

^^

Good catch. And there is a chain link fence going up hill as well in the area that you pointed out.

 

There is however some wooden fence on the right side of the Scooby Doo Ghost Blasters building but I'm thinking it's still going to be water park related. (Bonzai Pipeline complex) Unless there's going to be 2 additions which is highly doubtful.

 

The reason why I didn't think about near Scooby Doo was I assumed you would see the cliffs from that view. Those pictures show hills and no cliffs.

[ArizonaGuy]

^^

Exactly. That's what I had noticed as well.

 

Oh well....as long as they keep on adding to the park, I'm happy. They need to work on infrastructure as well. There are things here and there that need a little sprucing up.

 

If it is a Bonzai Pipeline water slide complex I've noticed that the SFStL one has 2 chutes (I think) and the SFA and SFNE have 6 chutes so hopefully it's the one with more chutes.

[cal1br3tto]

^I was thinking the "coasters" tease could be about something that isn't a roller coaster or credit, such as a water coaster. Or they could just be playing around with us enthusiasts. I do think a water ride is the most likely possibility.

[Blind Idiot God]

^ Yeah, which makes me wonder why they would let someone with no limbs ride a HYPER COASTER!!!

I'm sorry, but, to me its just common sense.

 

He was a veteran, which made it a "damned if you do, damned if you don't"-type PR situation. Let the dude on, and, well... the worst-case scenario occurred. Follow protocol and deny him access, and there's a very high chance that either he or his family will get pissed and go to the press about it, which leads to such wonderful things as "Disabled Veteran Denied Ride On Roller Coaster", which is probably an even worse PR issue and leads to such wonderful things as large-scale boycotts, lawsuits, and a general trail of horrible PR.

[boardwalkbullet91507]

^^ I'm still thinking about that 'to the B WALK, oops! Said to much!' tweet . . . so it could be the Scooby Doo fence (since it's at the 'B WALK'). I don't know . . . the pictures and the tweets/teasers don't seem to match up! Any chance the pictures were taken off location where the ride will NOT be built? For example, and this is just a suggestion so take this with a grain of salt, they took the pictures behind the waterpark as it is more spacious and will not give away the real location of the ride, which is by the boardwalk? If you take a picture from the boardwalk, it's kind of obvious; where else is there room next to the quarry wall? To us, it's obvious the picture was most likely not taken at the boardwalk, but the GP might not even be able to tell. Perhaps they didn't want to give away too much . . .