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Today. Was. Awesome!
By Jonathan | August 23, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Today was awesome. While riding on Kings Island’s The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear this afternoon, we got stuck. Yes, I’m sure most people would get a little freaked out by something like that, but then again, I’m not most people. This was 12 whole minutes that I won’t soon forget.
Flight of Fear (or “FoF,” as we have nicknamed it) is an enclosed roller coaster. 100% of the ride is indoors and in the dark, which adds to the experience and excitement of this ride. The majority of the ride takes place basically inside a huge cube, so track is twisting and turning and placed in the most ridiculous locations that you could possibly imagine. Since the ride is mostly dark, people generally don’t get a chance to fully enjoy the beauty of the design and implementation of this ride. That is of course unless you get stuck inside!!! (or you pay a few bucks for the ‘behind the scenes tour,’ I’ll post the link when I find what I’m looking for)
We started the ride like normal, accelerating from 0-60mph in about 4 seconds, and then flipping upside down a couple times, twisting and turning through the steel track. About halfway through the ride the track goes level and applies some brakes before the grande finale. Usually the brakes slow the train down enough to let riders catch their breath before a few more twists, turns, and inversions. However, this time the brakes stopped us completely.
We sat their for a moment of two, feeling the track shakng back and forth beneath us. Another moment or two go by, and I wonder if something could be wrong…will the brakes let go?
And this is the point when I start to get really excited. Seriously, right now I’m hoping that the ride has broken down and that we’ll have get off the train and walk down those metal stairs that you see on nearly every ride. We wait another minute or so until a KI employee shows up on the platform. “Um, we’re having some technical difficulties right now, and we’re doing our best to resolve the situation. The mechanics are on their way over here right now.”
That was when I took out my trusty iPhone to start documenting the whole thing. I took some pictures, I took some video, I even called Kevin because I knew that he would completely appreciate our current situation. I tried to update Twitter, but there was some stupid problem with the API at the time. Stupid Twitter.
About 12-15 minutes later the brakes on the track released and we got to finish our ride. At the unloading platform there were ten or so KI employees and 2-3 mechanics, waiting to make sure everyone was alright. We were…but some people were more “agitated” than others. I was thrilled. I wanted to do it again.
For years I have always wanted to get stuck on a roller coaster and have to climb down to safety. It has never happened, and I can always hope that someday it will…but I sure got to take home a great story today!
Topics: cincinnati, current events, news, roller coasters | 3 Comments »
August 24th, 2009 at 6:53 am
Nice, only would have been better if you were live blogging. The photos inside do look cool.
August 25th, 2009 at 6:03 am
I want to roll backwards on top thrill
October 14th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Bloggers blog, nerds nerddle. It’s obvious what side of the fence you exist on.