SOB/Gun Steve-O

I own one of the last ones. But its in the trunk of Drew's car.

Top Gun. We're bring back the jumpsuits, yo!

Look I like Jeremy as much as everyone else, he was good to everyone when he was on SOB/Gun, but I sure don't see him as compassionate. I vote Sarah. She's pretty nice, and she looks good.

Definately when my sup in parking dropped his radio into the porta-potty out by the toll booths. And it still worked!

Well, I hate to go back to the airliner analogy, but what the heck. Thousands upon thousands of aircraft take off and land in this country every day without incident. But when one does not, the whole freaking world knows about it. People want to know about stuff thats out of the ordinary. I could be wrong about this, but I think the last major airliner incident to occur in the US was in 2001 - and this was an actual plane crash here, I'm not talking about 9/11. Took days for the news folk to get off of it. Whenever an incident happens, things get blows out of proportion about who saw or did what when (this is one of the main reasons for the employee "gag order," as I have understood anyways). Same goes for theme park rides. When accidents occur (and I'm talking about rides in general not just PKI here), they get a lot of attention because they don't happen very often. And when something does happen, it is only natural to call into question the measures taken to prevent such an incident. And people get suspicous. That's just human nature. Certainly working on a really big ride and another good-sized ride that people here like to make fun of , you learn about the borderline insane measures taken to protect people on rides - just like on airplanes. And when you think about it, accidents, for airplanes or roller coasters or trains or manufacturing businesses or just about anything else you can think of are bad for business, not to mention the almost imminent lawsuits that occur if somebody is injured or killed. So they obviously want to prevent them.

Yeah what TowerGuy said - its part of morning saftey tests - trying to send the train with the restraints unlocked. It won't dispatch and our display screen says on it in big all capatalized bold yellow letters: DISPATCH NOT ALLOWED LAB BARS RELEASED or something like that. On Top Gun each individual car's restraint lockers are checked by a probe on the lift also. We'd have to really try to get the ride(s) to really hurt somebody - unless someone stepped in front of it or something. Further reasoning as to why a minor CAN operate a ride.

What, you think I would vote against the Zone? And all area-ism aside, the HB (at least not counting NC - I've never heard their's) soundtrack totally sucks. I can barely stand hearing it walking to and from Oscar's. IS soundtrack is good also. Not familiar with RT's. And as others have pointed out, OC and AZ's are the same. But since the OC generally sucks otherwise I vote for AZ. Long live da Zone! Steve-O

Skyline all the way. I don't really like La Rosas that much. Their crust is way to thin and they don't put enough toppings on it. I like Papa Johns better.

You get a discount if you come in after 5 and go the next day, I know. Might be worth it to get a season pass, don't remember how much they are though.

Happy birthdy Aaron. I'd like to personally invite you to Diamonds one year from now. Diamonds, for those of you out of the loop, is where many ride ops at PKI (in AZ especially) who are male and at least 18 years old go to "bond."

OK, after a thorough review of these posts, here is my opinion in a nice, ordered, numbered form: 1) Nobody high up in the federal government knows what they're doing. 2) PKI requires that at least one 18-or-older person be at every major ride. 3) PKI would probably not have that much trouble staffing only people over 18. Keep in mind I believe there is a wait-list to get into the rides dept. 4) SOB puts through thousands of people per day and cost the park several million dollars. Do you really think that they would allow a plastic toy easter egg to do any damage to it? 5) At every ride that has an auto-restraint system, the ride won't start until they have been locked down. This is part of our saftey test we run every morning. 6) I know more than a few 18 year-olds who have no business running a ride (anyone in AZ last year knows who I'm talking about, and its more than 1 person). 7) Tiny's right. Its pretty hard for a driver to do something that would cause harm to anyone on the train unless something went catastrophically wrong and the trains were about to crash or fall off the track or something. When a ride is normally operating, all you really use are two buttons and two switches. If the driver for some reason did do something wrong, the computer will often just automatically stop the ride. 8) I don't know why the yellow tape is there. 9) All the ride ops (particularly the ones who work on big rides) go through a lot of training about emergency procedures and how to operate the ride in a safe manner for you and us. Anyone who openly violates saftey procedure can be fired instantly. 10 and finally) Look, I understand that you want to be safe. That is most definately a reasonable request. But some of this is comprable to breaking down the door to the cockpit on a 747 and telling the pilot how to fly the plane - when you've never even seen the inside of a cockpit of a crop duster, much less an intercontinental jumbo jet.

Its all fun and games on here...but lets show a little respect for the child who actually was killed on Drop Zone. Tiny Nobody has ever died on Drop Zone - the one at Kings Island anyway. I remember hearing something a few years ago about someone falling out of a very similar ride somewhere else, though. Think it was somewhere in California. Definately wasn't at PKI.

SOB - gotta stay loyal to my home ride, ya know.

The park was nearly empty on opening day. Mostly ACErs.

I could so see that happening. Wildest rumors I've heard: Vortex is sinking Top Gun is going to be torn down SOB's trains valley on a regular basis Kid falling out of Drop Zone The employee parking lot is going to be re-paved Tomb Raider exploded Paramount is going to sell Kings Island back to the Linders

August 2001? Man, I remember that. I was in West Virginia at band camp (no this one time... jokes!) at the time, and we were under a tornado warning twice on the same day. Saw a rotating wall cloud (which usually precurses a tornado) headed right for us. Scary %$@#. I'm told it was quite bad around Cincy, as well. Apparently there was a radar-detected tornado over Kenwood as well, though one never formed.

Yes, SOB has been on one-train operation so far this season (except today, apparently but I was off today). Yes, a new train for SOB would probably be extremely expensive. Yes, SOB has 3 trains, one is rotated out every year. If you look, you'll notice we're running 1 and 3 this year. No, I don't know where the other train is. No, one of the trains has not been destroyed. No, SOB is not going away any time soon. SOB doesn't actually have much downtime nowadays. Last year it was not at all uncommon for the ride to function perfectly for at least a week or so. Only major problem with it is that its a pain for the mechanics to check every day and for us to run saftey block tests, so more often then not its not quite ready to open at 10 AM. But other than that, the ride has been running very smoothly - both figuratively and literally!

When we are informed of a tornado, we have to throw you out of the station - but the crew is supposed to take you to their tornado shelter. Really now, do you want to stay there if a God for bid a tornado was barreling towards you? I sure wouldn't. I believe that the Festhaus is also the major designated tornado shelter for guests - though I probably wouldn't go there because it has a large wide-span roof.

It didn't roll back. And even if it did: 1) Anyone who talked about it on this forum would likely have their post removed. 2) Any employee who talked about it would be fired - then possibly shot between the eyes. I know I'm sarcastic a lot on these boards, but this is not a joke. Anyone who has any reliable knoweledge on any type of mechanical incident or closure (except for weather or something) can't talk about. It's part of the agreement to work there.

Other. I think you can make a case for me, too. But heck, I learn from the master.

Doesn't yours say Stephen on it? And plus your freakin 7'2"! You don't need a name tag!!

Don't worry about it, man. She's from HB. Nobody can tell the difference between the entertainment shows and the rides over there. But for future reference, if I EVER see you with a camera on SOB, I will kill you.

Whenever I'm at PKI, I'll be wearing a blue knit-skirt and kakhis or shorts. And I'll have a gold name tag that says Steve on it. That's all the identification you need for me, I think.

I'll answer your first question: It was most likely saftey testing. When the park is not sure if the ride is safe to ride, they tend to not want people to ride it.

I apologize if I was rude. I'm not accusing anybody of anything. I realize that rumor's can spread quite easily, and that you are simply spreading what you have heard from someone else. Son of Beast did not open at all today - this is because maintence had to do some heavy-duty work on it that for whatever reason was not completed during the week. Extra precautions need to be taken at this time of year, before the structure and trains are "broken in," so to speak. Its not much different from what many parks experience when they put in a new large ride (like Top Thrill Dragster at CP, or SOB here at PKI to name a couple), its just on a smaller scale. I suppose (and I emphasize that this is just speculation here) SOB could valley if most, if not all of the following conditions were in effect: 1) Most of the weight in the train were shifted towards the back 2) The track had not been greased poperly 3) Some of the wheels were stuck or fell off 4) If part of the train de-railed 5) If ailens came and put a giant laser beam directly onto the ride, multiplying the effect of gravity by at least 10 to the 5th power 6) If dynamite or some other explosive device were placed at the top of a hill and was detonated as the train approached 7) If the winds of an F4 or F5 tornado were blowing against it (more than 200 mph) 8) If a giant and extremely strong barricade were placed at the top of a hill 9) If the train were cut into two multiple "pieces" if-you-will 10) If a medium-sized plane crashed directly into the front of the train at the top of the hill (which would likely also cause an explosion, blowing it further backward) To my knoweledge, none of these have ever happened - and for most of them, the park would undoubetly shut the ride down if there were any reasonable chance of them occuring. You gotta keep in mind that each of SOB's 6 cars per train weighs more than 2500 lbs - and that's with no people or dummies (and I'm talking like crash-test or water jug type dummies, not dumb people here) in any seat. If it did valley, it would be to say the least an extremely difficult task to make it run properly again (much less get it out of the valley). When the RCCA and Premier made the ride, they kept this in mind, designing the ride so that it was extremely difficult for the train to valley.