Park Review
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Elysburg, Pennsylvania July 28, 2001 After about six or seven hours of driving from Connecticut to Pennsylvania, we (my parents, my older sister, and I) drove by a road sign saying "Knoebels this exit - two world-class coasters." I, being the enthusiast that I am, had already stopped at the Pennsylvania welcome center and picked up all the brochures that I could find. So off we went on a short diversion from the rest of the four or five hours left in our drive to Pittsburgh (where we would be staying overnight so we would only have a few minutes of a drive to Kennywood). The first thing that my parents noticed about the park were the free parking and the free admission (always nice touches) and, being from a home park of Six Flags New England and many visits to Six Flags Great Adventure, this was shocking (to them; I was expecting it. So off we were into the park and to the ticket booths to buy enough to get on the two woodies and a few flat rides. I will use the ever-popular scale of -3 to +5, with 0 being slightly favorable but nothing to write home about. We immediately headed over to the Twister, which was built in 1999 by PTC from the actually blueprints of Mr. Twister in the old Elitch Gardens. The ride utilizes PTC two-bench trains with individual ratcheting lap bars. An interesting fact about this ride is that it also uses the actual storage track and transfer table from the old ride. Another thing I found interesting about this ride is its use of skid brakes instead of fin breaks; it seems like they followed the design to every detail. Unsure about which seat is the best on the ride, and since the double helix and big drop the only parts of the layout that I could see, we headed for the back. I�m still not completely sure of what happened to me on the ride, but it a great experience. The ride starts with a small lift and a series of turns and little bumps and then it goes on to the big lift. The big drop gave some very good airtime in the back seat and the turnaround was fun, but then the ride really gets wild. Somewhere between the big drop and the helix is an extremely effective head chopper that made the few people that still had their hands up (including me) do a little flinch/duck and most put their hands down. After the turnaround the train goes into a crazy double helix pulling some major G's. it was at this point that I noticed that I was the only person with my hands up; the other few people who kept their hands up after the turnaround put them down during the helix. The rest of the ride was a mix of lats and G's, with a few moments of airtime mixed in.
The only problem I had with the ride was the
lack of airtime; I only noticed one or two spots (not
including the big drop) of slight air. It might have
been the seat or the ride might not have been warmed
up yet, but there wasn�t that much air. Next we headed for the Phoenix. The Phoenix (for those who don�t know) was built in the 40�s or 50�s for a park in San Antonio, Texas. After the park closed, Knoebels decided to move it to their park with the help of Charlie Dinn. I think it was originally built by Schmeck, but I�m not completely sure. The ride uses three-bench PTCs with double position lap bars (which means that they don�t come close to you, giving you maximum airtime). The trains don�t have any seat dividers, but I cant remember if there were seat belts on not (I�m leaning towards �no�). As always in airtime coasters with three-bench trains, I headed for 1.3. Again, I had no idea of the layout of this coaster, but I guessed it had high turn arounds and low hills, with the famous double up/double down thrown in there somewhere. How right I was. The ride starts off with a pitch black tunneled approach to the lift. The first drop has a nice float the whole way down and a nice pop of air on the top of the turnaround. After the flat turnaround, the train goes down into a series of low bunny hops, each producing standing ejector air. Then another high flat turnaround followed by another trip into the low valley. This time it�s not just a couple of airtime hills, but the extreme airtime of the double up/double down with ejector air all over the place. Next up is another turnaround and an airtime filled return to the station.
If you love airtime, you'll love this coaster.
It managed to find the #3 spot in my top woodies list,
right behind the Comet (Great Escape and Boulderdash (Lake Compounce),
but before the Villain (Six Flags Worlds of Adventure). The only problem had
with it was the lack of lats. There were barely any
and the there were weak. If there was a
little turn at the top of an airtime hill, or maybe if
one of the turnarounds was a fan turn or something, it would be an improvement.
Another thing that I thought could have been improved
was the tunnel. It was completely dark in there, a
perfect place for a slight dip or even some trick
track. Over all, though, it was a great coaster. We each had a buck-fifty left and I had no intention of riding the craptastic-looking Vekoma double corkscrew named "Whirlwind." Instead, I expressed an interest in riding the flying scooters. They weren�t sure why because the only flying scooters we had been on where the ones at Lake Compounce, where it goes pretty slow and the ride ops yell if you come close to snapping. If you have never been on a good set of flyers then I should explain the concept of snapping. If you don�t know, flying scooters allow you to control your flight with a wing in the front that you can move from side to side. If you do this correctly, you can "fly" up pretty high, in which case your "scooter" puts all of its weight on one of the two cables and allows the other cable to loosen. This also allows your vehicle to tilt either forward or backward. When you return back to normal level, the second cable tightens quickly with a loud "snap." The more snaps you get, the more fun your trip is. On these flyers at Knoebels, both my dad and I were snapping like pros, and my sister and mom (both riding in the respective passenger seats) were having a lot of fun. I'm glad that I passed the Whirlwind and went on this; it was a great experience. Then my parents stopped at a gift shop and my sister and I just sat on a bench (there were many) in the shade (which was all over the place). After this, we went on the classic whip, which wasn�t that good, but it was still fun. This was my first adult-sized whip, and would also be located in three of the four remaining parks of the trip. Overall, I thought the park was a very nice stop, allowing us to get out and have some fun in the middle of our long drive. I would definitely like to spend a full day there; as I only spent twp hours and didn�t go on all the rides or try the food, I will not rate the overall park. Someday I would like to be able to, however. -Mike
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