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Is Windseeker running yet?


stky6
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I think we saw water dummies on the ride last Wednesday(?) My wife asked some employees on our way out of BLSC at closing time if they knew when it was going to open, and they didn't know. A security guard tried to explain that there was some kind of interference or bottleneck caused by the WS line and the entry/exit to DA3D, but I doubt that's the reason for its downtime.

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As of yesterday, they had the water riders on the inside seats and what looked like sandbags on the outer seats. Looking up the poles that hold the seats on, there is now a pipe with a shock absorber in the middle running from seat pole to seat pole about 10 to 15 feet down from where they connect at the top. (I hope that made sense) Basically there's a ring of pipes with shocks connecting all the seat poles.

Not analyzing, just reporting.

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^ Yes. It doesn't walk anywhere. I'm so bummed.

From a mechanical standpoint, the new arm-to-arm dampers make sense, as they'll act more strongly when the chairs near each other. It prevents things like that video of Cedar Point's WindSeeker where the chairs were bumping into one another much better than the original design, as the force keeping the chairs apart is now determined by the position of the chairs relative to one another rather than how far each chair swings relative to the carriage. In other words, this update to the models is more than likely allowing the WindSeekers to operate in higher wind speeds. Such is the sort of thing that happens with prototypes, I guess.

The only thing I find curious about this situation is that it wasn't started earlier in the year/is taking this long into the season to implement the new dampers, but there's probably more to it than meets the eye. I don't think any park would be too excited about their new-ish ride being down a month and a half into each season.

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^

The only thing I find curious about this situation is that it wasn't started earlier in the year/is taking this long into the season to implement the new dampers, but there's probably more to it than meets the eye. I don't think any park would be too excited about their new-ish ride being down a month and a half into each season.

and that's what my original post to the topic was about. Not trying to be naive, but to the average person it seems that they had 6 months to do this- and now they're 6 weeks into the operating season with a year old ride that hasn't taken a rider up yet. I know there's more to it than this simple explanation.

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So?

Only a select group knows why the modifications were scheduled the way they were.

Honestly, daily operations for both parks practically started at the same time. If CP had more outings reserved, why not modify their WS first?

Not everything has to be a conspiracy against KI. :)

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Yipes, I got to see the WindSeeker modifications firsthand and I was surprised. Shocked, even. :) Looking at glass half full, 98% of the ride works great (the lights, the music, restraints, it lifts, it doesn't fall over, etc) but that last 2% must be all the seats crashing. CF should have some heads on a platter for this thing.

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The new modification would seem to limit the centrifugal force that made the seats swing out when at full speed. Sitting on the inside seat and looking straight down was about the only intense element of the ride to me. It's possible losing that swing out effect will just make it a tall merry-go-round. We'll see.

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^^^ Nah, I doubt they'll noticeably limit how far the seats swing (unless they're a LOT stronger than the old ones, but I could be wrong.)

In general, the amount of force dampers exert is a function of speed. It's like the damper on a screen door- as the spring pulls the door shut, it accelerates. Then, as the door reaches higher speeds as it nears the doorframe, the damper force increases (which is what causes that hissing noise your screen door might make if you open it wide and then let it shut.) The door slows and reverses repeatedly, and eventually it oscillates until it approaches the doorframe and a slow enough speed that the damper doesn't exert enough force to reverse the direction, and the door shuts.

The way WindSeeker's dampers likely work, assuming there isn't something unique about them: the speed is determined by how quickly one chair approaches another. If the chairs are moving too quickly towards one another, the dampers will kick in, thus avoiding collisions like the Cedar Point video. If they change the dampers, it may affect how long it takes for the chairs to fully extend, as the dampers will be more sensitive to speed, but they'll get to the regular angle at some point during the ride cycle... If that makes sense? It's a little hard to explain unless you guys have taken a Differential Equations or Mechanical Vibrations college course.

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One other note on the dampers and the swing angle of WS.

I assume the dampers are designed to avoid seat contact when under compression - meaning that the as the space between seats gets shorter (compressed) the pressure in the damper gets higher and limits the motion.

This doesn't have to impact the ability of the system to extend which is what happens when the seats swing out at an angle. The change in that direction is likely minimal if designed right.

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My wife and I went to Cedar Point on Tuesday and rode WindSeeker. It was our first time riding it at Cedar Point and we had only ridden it once prior at Kings Island. But to me, it didn't seem like the seats came as close together as they did on my previous ride.

Hopefully Kings Island's WindSeeker will be open soon...

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^ Did the seats come close/ danger of hitting each other like last year?

No, I'm a tall guy and I extended my legs out in front of me and wasn't even close to touching the seat in front of me where last year I touched them. Yes I know it says not to extend, but wanted to see the difference.

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They were testing it yesterday, full cycle, with music, no water dummies. I asked the greeter that was there if it was going to open that day (Wednesday) he said no, they still have some more testing to do, but they're hoping to have it open this weekend. That had been my guess, is having it open in time for Memorial Day weekend, as that's when they're going to see their biggest crowd so far this season, esp with the temps creeping up into mid or upper 90s!

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