Kings Island is owned by Sandusky, Ohio-based Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. “The guests benefit from the newer ride technology for sure.” The tracks are smoother, they’re more in control of the train,” he said. “I do think that the goal of any ride manufacturer nowadays is to have the ride as safe as possible. “I’m not saying that the old technology wasn’t safe by any means,” he said. New materials and technologies mean better safety and a better experience for riders, he said. “There’s no contact, there’s nothing that touches, and it will take an object down to a certain speed.” They create a magnetic field that slows the train to a given speed,” Dillingham said. “These magnetic brakes don’t touch the train. Now many new coasters have magnetic brakes. Some coasters have caliper brakes that work similar to a vehicle, clamping down on the wheel’s rotor. Old wooden coasters were stopped on a skid break - coming to an abrupt stop. New technologies allow manufacturers to bend steel pipe in different ways. For example, most new rides have hydraulic restraints instead of ratchet-and-tooth type restraint bars. Newer coasters are more high tech, Dillingham said. Maintenance staff will ride it first before park visitors, he said.Ĭoaster technology has changed the last 40 years since Kings Island first opened in Warren County. So you make sure that all that is within the limits it’s allowed to be,” Dillingham said.Īs a new ride installation, Banshee will run as many as 2,000 cycles before the first person takes the trip. “In theory, if g-forces are too high you can pass out, you can hurt yourself basically.
Also accelerometer tests will be performed on Banshee, the same as the other existing coasters. Water dummies simulate how the ride performs with weight on it. “There’s dummies put into the seats and they’re filled up with water to represent a person’s weight.” “When that ride is ready to run, it will not be ridden by people, it will be ridden with water dummies in it,” Dillingham said. It will be the park’s 15th coaster.īut Banshee’s first rider won’t be human. New to Kings Island in 2014 is the $24 million roller coaster ride Banshee, being promoted as the world’s longest inverted coaster.
Top gun roller coaster g force license#
Things change over time,” he said.īefore Kings Island opens for the season in April, Ohio ride inspectors will have to license every ride for operation. “The challenge is making sure that we stay up with everything that needs to be done.
“So they learn a lot from us and we in turn learn from them.” They don’t live with them on a daily basis. The manufacturer doesn’t run these rides every day. “If you really think about it, to a degree, we’re the expert on these rides. The maintenance staff’s daily regimen during the season includes a checklist of inspections to do beginning at 5 a.m. Wooden coasters require more maintenance than steel ones because wood changes - plies of wood might flex or shrink from moisture or lack of, Dillingham, the maintenance manager, said. We may do that two to three times during the 200 cycles we talked about,” he said
“We may run it 10 cycles and pull that train off to do a complete inspection on it again. Brakes will be checked and computer operating systems tested. This test ensures the ride is compliant with G-forces or the forces of acceleration, which can cause motion sickness, he said.Īll coasters will run train cars on the tracks from 50 to 200 times with no passengers before the park opens, he said.
Top gun roller coaster g force crack#
“If you were not to inspect, a crack would actually propagate or travel.”Īccelerometer testing measuring the forces of motion on a body is performed on wooden coasters every year and steel coasters at least every three years by an outside company. “What you’re looking for is any type of indications of cracks, movement, the footer movement, things like that,” Dillingham said. Using a torque wrench, staff checks that bolts are as tight as they should be. Meanwhile, staff will also walk the wooden and steel tracks.
Parts needing replaced are ordered from throughout the United States and overseas.
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