Falcon's Fury Full Test Ride

[TTD03]

Well the day has finally come folks, an official POV has been released from Busch Gardens Tampa showing Falcon's Fury running through a complete test of the entire ride. The 335 foot tall drop tower is a scary thought on its own, but this drop tower is different, in the sense that you will be faced down towards the ground in the "Superman" position while you drop down. Have no fear, you will be rotated back up to a normal sitting position before you hit the ground. If you had the chance, would you ride this? Or would you chicken out?

I'm one of the very few that despises drop rides, but will go on them if someone else goes with me. This one is no exception..lol. The ride itself looks amazing though! Very unique.

[TTD03]

What's your opinion on the rotation of the seats back up-right while nearing the end of the drop? Looks a bit painful to me.

[mkingy]

Rotates before it hits the brakes properly so I think it'll be fairly comfortable.

TTD03 wrote:

What's your opinion on the rotation of the seats back up-right while nearing the end of the drop? Looks a bit painful to me.

Exactly what I was thinking. It seems to rotate back to the loading position a little too quick, i could see this causing blackouts worse than those experienced on the helix finale on Goliath at SFMM.

Rotation like that is not going to cause a blackout like Goliath. That's not how G forces work. If it were to be too fast (which I'm sure it either isn't, or won't be) then maybe a little whiplash could be the result. Blacking out could only really happen on the final brakes, and drop rides can afford to have fairly high forces there without worrying about blackouts because the duration is generally pretty short.

[TTD03]

Yea, I feel it rotates back up a bit early, the reason behind it is because they said the G-Forces would be too much on your body when you hit the magnets in the superman position. Perhaps a gradual rotation while you fall would be best? Or maybe start rotating a bit earlier but more gradually?

[mkingy]

Exactly DCS

TTD03 wrote:

Yea, I feel it rotates back up a bit early, the reason behind it is because they said the G-Forces would be too much on your body when you hit the magnets in the superman position. Perhaps a gradual rotation while you fall would be best? Or maybe start rotating a bit earlier but more gradually?

I disagree, the entire gimmick / idea of the idea is falling whilst face down - makes sense to maximise this and pull up at late as possible - I think this increases the effective length of the intended ride!

[TTD03]

Yes but at what cost? A headache from the fast rotation at the end?

It honestly doesn't seem much faster than a sling shot ride to me, or even a zipper

[mkingy]

TTD03 wrote:

Yes but at what cost? A headache from the fast rotation at the end?

Why are you going to get a headache? The rotation is no faster than you'd see on your average fairground ride...

The forces exerted by that rotation will be nowhere near dangerous.

[TTD03]

Eh you are probably right, I think it looks quite fast but that just might be the video playing tricks on me.

Judging the way the cars move in the background I think it is a bit sped up a bit atleast going up, and quite honestly I dont expect the first time it goes up to be at full speed anyway, sort of how skyrush's cable crawled the first few days and now its almost a launch

[TTD03]

But does it really matter how fast it goes up? As long as it makes it to the intended 335 feet, it will hit the speed mark it was designed to hit.

what I was hinting at was that the whole video might be sped up so it might not even come back up as fast as it seems. I dont know though just speculating based on the odd way cars were moving

Can anyone confirm that this has been testing recently? I know they had some issues a few days into testing and was just curious.

[TTD03]

It's opening late, that's all I know.
I'd assume they are testing whenever possible.

dcs221 wrote:

Rotation like that is not going to cause a blackout like Goliath. That's not how G forces work. If it were to be too fast (which I'm sure it either isn't, or won't be) then maybe a little whiplash could be the result. Blacking out could only really happen on the final brakes, and drop rides can afford to have fairly high forces there without worrying about blackouts because the duration is generally pretty short.

yes and no. Blackouts are generally caused when the blood flow to the brain is altered, either by blunt force, or gravitational force, even restricted bloodflow from alcohol. Passing out and blacking out are 2 different things. You are probably mistaking the 2.

dcs221 wrote:

Rotation like that is not going to cause a blackout like Goliath. That's not how G forces work. If it were to be too fast (which I'm sure it either isn't, or won't be) then maybe a little whiplash could be the result. Blacking out could only really happen on the final brakes, and drop rides can afford to have fairly high forces there without worrying about blackouts because the duration is generally pretty short.

yes and no. Blackouts are generally caused when the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain is altered, either by blunt force, or gravitational force, even restricted bloodflow from alcohol. Passing out and blacking out are 2 different things. You are probably mistaking the 2.

[mkingy]

dcs didn't talk about passing out, he was talking about blacking out when "the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain is altered either by blunt force, or gravitational force" so I'm not sure how he is mistaking passing out for a blacking out in any way.

To clarify, my thought that the ride may cause blackouts was NOT a reference to the abrupt tilting of the seats, but, the human bodies adjustment to orientation. Many things cause blackouts: alcohol consumption, standing up too quickly(also known as a head-rush), a blow to the head, hyperventilating, and so on...basically blackouts occur when the blood and oxygen flow to the brain suddenly change. the upright to downward facing orientation changes blood and oxygen flow to the brain, and then going from downward-facing back to upright orientation of the body changes it again. the length of time your body is in this position could lead to blackouts. the body is designed for blood to flow easily to and from the heart. By leveling out the body, you increase the rate and energy at which your heart needs to operate to continue to pump blood through the body, increasing your oxygen intake to fuel the heart to keep it pumping. The human body is designed to be in a vertical position not a horizontal position. even when lying down, the head must remain semi elevated from the heart, that's why we normally use pillows when lying down. Hope that clarifies things.

[mkingy]

Yes, it does - I suppose that's answered by this picture:



Which shows that the restraints aren't perfectly vertical and somewhat pivot you around your shoulders. This would suggest that your head would be semi elevated - and as for duration in the facing down position - I don't imagine it's any longer than you'd see on your typical B&M flyer or for that matter your typical B&M dive coaster lift which has your as close if not more close to horizontal!

spacemountain fan I'm not sure you're making much sense in this context. The rotations weren't *that* fast...certainly nothing like zippers, some topspins, or probably not even like the rotation on a 4D at the bottom of the first drop. I've grayed out on plenty coasters, and even have a section of about 8 seconds on Intimidator 305 where I was probably as close to blacked out as you can be without being blacked out (I was literally almost in a dreamlike state...only kinda knowing what was going on)...but I've done 4 spins on a topspin over a few seconds and it just made me dizzy enough to where it looked like the world was spinning vertically. Not even close to the same feeling, and that was a very fast rotation. I feel confident enough to say people are not going to pass out from this transition.

[TTD03]

Update!

Today Busch Gardens Tampa sent out a statement indicating it might be quite a bit longer until anyone is able to get in line for the imposing 335 foot tall Falcon's Fury at Busch Gardens Tampa.

Pointing out that the ride "includes first-of-its kind design elements, systems and parts," the park went on to say that "due to a delay in the fabrication of key component parts, neither the manufacturer nor Busch Gardens are able to complete the lengthy testing processes needed to open the ride to the public."

The park's release continues: "The safety of our guests and team members remains Busch Gardens?????? top priority and none of these delays involve safety systems. The ride has been safely operated in the initial stages of the testing process, and all other elements of the park??????s newest re-imagined land Pantopia are now open to guests."

It sounds like things may go quiet for a while at this point, with additional news about the ride only being released when necessary. As far as the future goes, the park only mentions that they "look forward to the launch of Falcon's Fury, North America's tallest freestanding drop tower, later this summer."

The new drop tower features seats that face riders downward for the drop, quickly bring them upright at the end of the fall (see video above). That is a brand new, first of its kind ride system, designed by Intamin - which admittedly does have a bit of a reputation for delayed openings on prototype creations.

Here's hoping the new ride components arrive quicker than expected so the park can get the ride open - this is one attraction I know we are all looking forward to!
Source

[mkingy]

Looks like they don't all pull up at the same moment - seems odd!