Knoebels Discussion Thread

[David H]

Here's a few more pictures. Sorry if they're not great, but I left my camera at home on this trip, and my phone takes crappy pictures of moving coaster trains! (And crappy night shots, which is why I didn't bother last night.)

 

The queue for FT ran out of the actual queue area and nearly halfway around the ride for most of the day and night. I rode it 3 times on Friday night's preview, and didn't want to wait in the 1-1.5 hour wait all day for it again, especially since Phoenix was running SO well this weekend! But I took some pics for you guys.

 

PPP was awesome, as always, and Friday night's preview night was even more awesome (and free!) But what else would you expect from Knoebels!

 

I thought FT was really fun, but not super intense. Others, however, did find it more intense, particularly in the front seat, mostly from the stronger directional changes as you go from troughs on one side to the other.

 

For those wondering, here's how they handle the loading:

 

-- First they ask who's riding with whom, and line them up in preliminary queues at the entrance of the station for each of the three seats. 1 or 2 people can ride in each of the 2 seats, but their combined weight cannot exceed 400 pounds. The first ride op will try to arrange the three cars so that the heaviest will be in the front to the lightest in the back, guessing from the looks of the people.

 

-- Then once the queues move forward, you move on to the scales, in front of the final queue area for each car. There, you'll be weighed. (They make a point to tell you that your eight will NOT be displayed.) The ride op sitting behind you in the station is sitting in front of a series of colored lights that tell him if each car's person or people are within the 400 pound limit and if they are in the proper sequential order form heaviest to lightest. If not, he'll tell the people if they have to switch.

 

-- Once that's done, you move into the final queuing gates. where you wait for the train to arrive and empty.

 

-- And then you board. Dump your personal items in the bins. The cars only have a single seat belt across the one or both riders. Now, ride!

I wasn't waiting in this queue! Especially not after getting three rides with minimal waits (30-15 minutes, over time) Friday night!

Note that this is near the end of the queue this afternoon, but the actually entrance to the queue area is actually on the other side of the ride, past the left side of this picture and around all of this track!

They have this area cut away into the track area so that you can take good pictures of the actual inside areas of the troughs. This is one of the only areas you can actually see the coaster inside those troughs from outside the ride.

Some Knoebels Halloween goodness!

Yes, it's REALLY running -- at long last!

[simon8899]

After - finally - reviving this classic who is for it that Knoebels builds a wooden Shoot-The-Chute next?

[Garet]

After - finally - reviving this classic who is for it that Knoebels builds a wooden Shoot-The-Chute next?

 

I still hold out hope for a virginia reel to be re-made one day or that wooden reverser roller-coaster from RCT which i'm told was actually a real ride long ago.

[downunder]

I'm glad Knoebels persevered with this project, now if only Scenic World would get Orphan Rocker going, but judging from previous posts, unlikely.

 

A fantastic park got even better.

[thomas2]

After - finally - reviving this classic who is for it that Knoebels builds a wooden Shoot-The-Chute next?

 

I still hold out hope for a virginia reel to be re-made one day or that wooden reverser roller-coaster from RCT which i'm told was actually a real ride long ago.

 

It was a real ride, let's hope that this one gets revived too!

 

[A.J.]

I wonder how long it will take it to valley? Only a matter of time with the huge emphasis on the weight limit...

Can it even valley though? It's all downhill except for the little bump before the second lift.

 

It sounds like Knoebels just opened a super-unique, kick-butt family coaster. I think that that's awesome - especially considering the inline seating. Parents can ride with their children.

[coasterbill]

(Reportedly, they announced that they had no intentions of running it in the rain.)

 

The weather was nice all day yesterday but at 10:00 the sky opened up and it rained really hard. They were running the ride with riders for at least 30-45 minutes in a hard rain to run out the line.

[cfc]

After - finally - reviving this classic who is for it that Knoebels builds a wooden Shoot-The-Chute next?

 

I still hold out hope for a virginia reel to be re-made one day or that wooden reverser roller-coaster from RCT which i'm told was actually a real ride long ago.

 

As I recall, Busch Gardens Williamsburg annouced plans for a "Virginia Reel" like ride, and concept art was even published in the local paper. But that was many years ago, and nothing ever came of it. Anybody else recall this, or is my old memory playing tricks on me? I think it was planned for Oktoberfest.

[Jim S.]

That's cool that they decided to try FT in the rain. I was getting my last Phoenix ride in the rain, right at 10:00. Oddly enough, they didn't make everyone (who were obviously in the first and last seat queues only) fill out the trains, so the last few trains went out with only a few riders. On the other hand, I don't think they gave double rides like they usually do.

 

When I was in the FT queue from about 5:15 to 6:30, Dick was hanging out watching everything constantly, either at the bottom of the second lift or in the electronics shack. One of the maintenance guys was there with him, and there was also another person, I think in a rides uniform instead of maintenance, sitting in the shack watching the monitors.

[milst1]

Looks like we're headed back to Knoebel's for another visit this month!

[robbalvey]

(Reportedly, they announced that they had no intentions of running it in the rain.)

 

The weather was nice all day yesterday but at 10:00 the sky opened up and it rained really hard. They were running the ride with riders for at least 30-45 minutes in a hard rain to run out the line.

Did they still do the bon fire at PPP? I haven't been since 2003 so I have no idea if that's a tradition that has held up over the years.

[djcoastermark]

This looks like a lotta fun. I can vaguely remember riding the Flying Turns as a very young child at Euclid Beach. So looking forward to riding this one, alas, not until next summer though. Just curious, what does the ride sound like? I love the sound that woodies have. There's been a lot of pictures these past few days, but no comments on the sounds this beauty makes. The only thing I can imagine is something akin to a bowling alley as the balls go down the alley. (minus the striking pins of course). Any comments as to how it sounds ?

[Jim S.]

It's surprisingly quiet.

 

And yes, there is still a bonfire at the end of PPP.

Edited October 6, 2013 by robbalvey

[robbalvey]

Just curious, what does the ride sound like? I love the sound that woodies have. There's been a lot of pictures these past few days, but no comments on the sounds this beauty makes.

We posted a video a few pages back that actually has pretty good audio:

[Jim S.]

Yeah that's basically it -- it's even quieter off-ride though, you can barely hear it sometimes over the noise of the crowd and whatnot. The only thing that's not as depicted is that with three trains running, often lift chain #3 isn't running when you come up on it, so the train goes halfway up the lift and then rolls back and catches it with a mighty thud. I'm not sure whether that's something that can be eliminated as they gain experience or not, because the dispatches were already going at a reasonable pace.

[djcoastermark]

Ok, thanks. I'm surprised its that quiet. Still sounds good though.

[Josh Linn]

After - finally - reviving this classic who is for it that Knoebels builds a wooden Shoot-The-Chute next?

 

I'm hoping their next coaster is on the bigger side. I'm holding out hope for a Boulder Dash type ride on the side of the mountain by the skyway.

[knowit]

Yeah, the ride is very quiet and surprisingly smooth. Entering the final brake run (where it returns to the track), the transition works great.

[Hercules]

It is definitely a very good little ride. I was very impressed.

[Hercules]

When I was in the FT queue from about 5:15 to 6:30, Dick was hanging out watching everything constantly, either at the bottom of the second lift or in the electronics shack. One of the maintenance guys was there with him, and there was also another person, I think in a rides uniform instead of maintenance, sitting in the shack watching the monitors.

 

That was Mike Boodley who was there watching over everything.

[805Andrew]

I'm glad Flying Turns has finally opened. I guess Flying Turns isn't a Urban Legend after all. And they opened before Undertow.

[alilstronger]

I went Saturday just for Flying Turns and it was so worth it! Love the coaster a lot. I was surprised the line was only 1.5 hours when I got on mid day at 3 PM.

[805Andrew]

^ That's not bad at all for a ride that has been highly anticipated for several years with low capacity. I can only imagine how long the line would be if this had just opened up at SFMM. I think it opening in October instead of during Summer also helped significantly.

[David H]

I imagine that the event the night before helped cut down the lines quite a bit. I rode it three times the night before. (I'd have ridden more, but Phoenix had literally NO wait, not even for the front and back seats, and you could just sit on it!) As such, I didn't want to wait 1-1.5 hours on Saturday. I know a lot of other people who didn't ride it on Saturday, keeping the line shorter for the rest of you!

 

According to Dick, they had over 700 people at the event the night before, and over 1500 at PPP. So, if you figure that nearly half of the people at the park had already ridden it the night before, mostly multiple times, that seriously cut down the queue on Saturday. Even those who did ride it both nights, mostly stuck with their one free ride on Saturday. And many of those remaining people on Saturday were local non-enthusiasts who would only wait once for it, if at all.

[SigilX]

Looking at the Hall-o-Fun map on Knoebel's Facebook, the Flying Turns is not listed as an open ride (all other coasters except Kosmo's Kurves are). I wonder if they'll keep it open for the next weekends of Hall-o-Fun. It would be a shame having that not open when every ride around it seems to be still open for the event.