Adventureland Park in Iowa had a surprise announcement today via Facebook today, announcing that they will be opening The Storm Chaser (a WindSeeker) for the 2014 season.

I do find it interesting that a non-Cedar Fair park will be getting one of these! Thoughts?

Should have gotten the other brand...

So another park can share the joys (and nightmare) of them!

I hope they also bought the evac system...

Perhaps Cedar Fair decided against relocating the Knott's WindSeeker to Worlds of Fun and sold it instead.

Original color scheme. :|

I don't know the inner secrets of the WindSeeker issues, but is anyone else kind of surprised that someone else bought a WindSeeker, if only because of the bad press? If Screamscape's recent post about Worlds of Fun's Steel Hawk getting terrible press is true, I'm really surprised that a park relatively close to WoF is getting an identical model.

I'm even MORE surprised it got a three syllable compound word name where the first part of the word is a weather related noun, the second a verb ending in -er.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

Hmm, so many rides that $6.5 million can buy better than WindSeeker. Maybe they brought used.

I mean I'm not surprised that another park bought one, even with the bad press...but who's to say the bad press is accurate?

How many times has anyone on this board heard that Son of Beast has killed numerous people? I bet a lot of people and people will comment on news stories that report the truth with pure lies, saying WindSeeker killed 4 guys when they got stuck because they couldn't breathe, etc. Stories are released, i.e. Steel Hawk is going to be relocated from Knott's Berry Farm and it has a checkered past with the state of California releasing the ride for operation after the ride had stranded several people of 4 hours (when the same exact rides have been released to operate after an evacuation system has been placed for the rides) and people constantly think that the ride is going to kill people if it gets installed at Worlds of Fun (just a guess of ideas that may happen) or that the ride will strand people for 9 days, etc. and that results in bad press.

When in reality, the ride is safe, it is a machine, there may have been faults but the parks have the duty to maintain them as do the manufacturers when it comes to providing resources on solving problems.

I personally like the ride, as it provides a great view, a great way to cool off on a hot day, great capacity, low wait times, etc. So congrats to Adventureland for installing a great ride in my opinion.

My big issue with the WindSeekers, whatever the name, is what would happen if the ride stalls fully loaded at the top of the tower five minutes before the park shuts everything down for thunderstorms approaching the area... and then this 301-foot-tall lightning rod is struck before it can be evacuated.

It is for that reason that I will not ride any WindSeeker when thunderstorms are forecasted for within the next couple of hours.

… And don't wait on the "nature call" either.

Even the (EDIT:) very distinctive same colors! That surprises me.

My big issue with the WindSeekers, whatever the name, is what would happen if the ride stalls fully loaded at the top of the tower five minutes before the park shuts everything down for thunderstorms approaching the area... and then this 301-foot-tall lightning rod is struck before it can be evacuated.

It is for that reason that I will not ride any WindSeeker when thunderstorms are forecasted for within the next couple of hours.

You could have that with Drop Tower, Power Tower and basically any steel ride.

I don't know much about this park, but WindSeeker or Steelhawk or Storm Chaser , what ever.

But this kind of ride could be a more smart ride for the park, it is a more family oriented ride, it looks awesome at night, I think for a small park like that it is a very nice ride for them.

My big issue with the WindSeekers, whatever the name, is what would happen if the ride stalls fully loaded at the top of the tower five minutes before the park shuts everything down for thunderstorms approaching the area... and then this 301-foot-tall lightning rod is struck before it can be evacuated.

It is for that reason that I will not ride any WindSeeker when thunderstorms are forecasted for within the next couple of hours.

You could have that with Drop Tower, Power Tower and basically any steel ride.

The difference being WindSeeker takes up to three hours to be fully evacuated. Coasters take, what, twenty minutes?

Which is why coasters shut down when lightning is within a 20 mile or so radius.

How do you ensure a safe three hour evac period? Not operate these rides if there is ANY chance of lightning in the next three hours?

My big issue with the WindSeekers, whatever the name, is what would happen if the ride stalls fully loaded at the top of the tower five minutes before the park shuts everything down for thunderstorms approaching the area... and then this 301-foot-tall lightning rod is struck before it can be evacuated.

It is for that reason that I will not ride any WindSeeker when thunderstorms are forecasted for within the next couple of hours.

You could have that with Drop Tower, Power Tower and basically any steel ride.

The difference being WindSeeker takes up to three hours to be fully evacuated. Coasters take, what, twenty minutes?

Do you have a recent time frame of this? Has a WindSeeker been evacuated this year?

I just think it's kind of silly to slam a ride for the possibility of being stuck on it when there may be a storm coming, even if there isn't a risk of storm.

The State of California apparently did knott agree.

The State of California apparently did knott agree.

Most of us know here, how strict The State of California is when it comes to inspections and releasing rides for operation. But what makes it okay that one state says a ride shouldn't operate but another state or two says that the ride is safe to operate? Different standards.

And, if this ride is new, or even if it is not, the manufacturer may have taken numerous other steps to make evacs far less likely.

Exactly! Most of us will never know what happens between the installment of a ride and the installment of a newer version (when it may look the same on the outside). Most of the time the parks aren't going to send an update on what the manufacturer has done to make the ride have an ease of evacuation until the time hits. That's bad marketing in my book.

Could you imagine that facebook post from the park: New for 2014, WindSeeker has received a new pulley on the inside of the tower to speed up the evacuation process should an evacuation be deemed necessary to pursue.

Comments: Oh my gawd guys, I'm not ever gonna ride WindSeeker. The park says it constantly needs evacuated and I heard that there were 60 people killed last year when this happened.

I'm even MORE surprised it got a three syllable compound word name where the first part of the word is a noun, the second a verb ending in -er.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

I know, right? It's more fitting a name for a coaster, but as it is, I guess it's better than "Galesearcher," "Gustfinder," or "Breezetracker."

I'm even MORE surprised it got a three syllable compound word name where the first part of the word is a noun, the second a verb ending in -er.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

I know, right? It's more fitting a name for a coaster, but as it is, I guess it's better than "Galesearcher," "Gustfinder," or "Breezetracker."

These all sound like those amusing news station buzzwords and names used to hype up their "state of the art" weather predicting software.

My big issue with the WindSeekers, whatever the name, is what would happen if the ride stalls fully loaded at the top of the tower five minutes before the park shuts everything down for thunderstorms approaching the area... and then this 301-foot-tall lightning rod is struck before it can be evacuated.

It is for that reason that I will not ride any WindSeeker when thunderstorms are forecasted for within the next couple of hours.

You could have that with Drop Tower, Power Tower and basically any steel ride.

The difference being WindSeeker takes up to three hours to be fully evacuated. Coasters take, what, twenty minutes?

Do you have a recent time frame of this? Has a WindSeeker been evacuated this year?

I just think it's kind of silly to slam a ride for the possibility of being stuck on it when there may be a storm coming, even if there isn't a risk of storm.

It has taken three hours to evacuate in the past, and until I see evidence of evacuations taking far less time or not happening at all over a long time, I will continue to not ride WindSeeker when thunderstorms are in the two- to three-hour forecast.

My deepest sympathies for Adventureland.

My big issue with the WindSeekers, whatever the name, is what would happen if the ride stalls fully loaded at the top of the tower five minutes before the park shuts everything down for thunderstorms approaching the area... and then this 301-foot-tall lightning rod is struck before it can be evacuated.

It is for that reason that I will not ride any WindSeeker when thunderstorms are forecasted for within the next couple of hours.

You could have that with Drop Tower, Power Tower and basically any steel ride.

The difference being WindSeeker takes up to three hours to be fully evacuated. Coasters take, what, twenty minutes?

Do you have a recent time frame of this? Has a WindSeeker been evacuated this year?

I just think it's kind of silly to slam a ride for the possibility of being stuck on it when there may be a storm coming, even if there isn't a risk of storm.

It has taken three hours to evacuate in the past, and until I see evidence of evacuations taking far less time or not happening at all over a long time, I will continue to not ride WindSeeker when thunderstorms are in the two- to three-hour forecast.

So will you ride it when there aren't thunderstorms in the two to three hour forecasts?

Thunderstorms are usually isolated. How do you know if its going to be thunder and lighning 3 hrs ahead of time?

Adventureland Park in Iowa had a surprise announcement today via Facebook today, announcing that they will be opening The Storm Chaser (a WindSeeker) for the 2014 season.

I do find it interesting that a non-Cedar Fair park will be getting one of these! Thoughts?

For a second I thought this was another one of Thrill-Biscuit's Photoshops (of which they are always awesome to look at).

So will you ride it when there aren't thunderstorms in the two to three hour forecasts?

Yes. I'm not worried about being stuck up there for three hours on a nice day; I know I can handle it, and I don't sunburn easily. It's only the threat of lightning that keeps me off of it.

Thunderstorms are usually isolated. How do you know if its going to be thunder and lighning 3 hrs ahead of time?

Meteorologists can tell when conditions are right for storms to develop out of thin air (or at least that's how the layman sees it), and can guess with some level of certainty when and in what general area they are likely to pop up. Especially looking only three hours into the future, they can give pretty accurate forecasts.