Phantasialand | F. L. Y. | Vekoma Launched Flying Coaster | 2020
- Thread starter roomraider
- Start date
Intamin to Win
Mega Poster
Vekoma has very suddenly become good. Did they change ownership/management? And if so, someone please link the thread
Matt N
CF Legend
They were purchased by Sansei Technologies (owners of S&S) in March 2018, but I'd personally say Vekoma got good before that.
Fluorineer
Mega Poster
Very odd. If F.L.Y. is an abbreviation for something, they could have just trademarked the written-out name. If it's not, then it's an ultra-lame name anyway so nothing is really lost.
Certainly not suddenly !
Crazycoaster
Giga Poster
It’s quite simply that technology has become better, and Vekoma is using Force Vector Design to build rides now.
Flying Pilot
Mega Poster
Hey everyone,
I heard something and I have no idea if someone has ever mentioned this.
Ofcourse we are going to compare this coaster with a B&M flyer but there is ofcourse a big difference:
The mechanism of the trains. But not only that, the position is also a little bit different aswell.
For the people who have ridden an b&m flyer, they now that a ride on it is quite stressfull for your neck, because you do want to look foward when flying.
The seats of the Vekoma flyer train are a little bit on an angle. So that you dont have to bend that much to take a look foward.
So when I heard this, I compared a B&M flying train with the few photo's we have from the Vekoma flyer. So I made a drawing: I hope this explains it a little bit.
I heard something and I have no idea if someone has ever mentioned this.
Ofcourse we are going to compare this coaster with a B&M flyer but there is ofcourse a big difference:
The mechanism of the trains. But not only that, the position is also a little bit different aswell.
For the people who have ridden an b&m flyer, they now that a ride on it is quite stressfull for your neck, because you do want to look foward when flying.
The seats of the Vekoma flyer train are a little bit on an angle. So that you dont have to bend that much to take a look foward.
So when I heard this, I compared a B&M flying train with the few photo's we have from the Vekoma flyer. So I made a drawing: I hope this explains it a little bit.
Robert.W
Roller Poster
To be honest, I've never really found the flat riding position on B&M flying coasters to be particularly uncomfortable, but it is pretty easy to see that the tilted riding position on Vekoma's new flying model does look a lot more comfortable. The tilted position should hopefully allow much more accessible views of the wonderful theming surrounding the ride!
Stanjensjens
Roller Poster
I don't know, it could also crush your balls.
A very sound point, @Brian, but one thing that did occur to me and something I have no idea about.
You could have a 110° seat angle in the seated position that rotates in to a truly horizontal flying position with an eccentric/angled pivot. Have we seen any close-ups of the trains with enough detail to rule that out?
Wondering if @mrrc might be able to help?
I've personally never had any problems with neck pain on B&M flyers, but that might be a different story on this if the show element requires a lot of 'looking around'.
You could have a 110° seat angle in the seated position that rotates in to a truly horizontal flying position with an eccentric/angled pivot. Have we seen any close-ups of the trains with enough detail to rule that out?
Wondering if @mrrc might be able to help?
I've personally never had any problems with neck pain on B&M flyers, but that might be a different story on this if the show element requires a lot of 'looking around'.
Ethan
Strata Poster
Aren't the cars in the sideways position during the show scenes, as far as we know?
As far as we know, I think so...?
I'll admit, I'm a little behind on the detail of this project, so was leaving room a flying show scene too. Happy to stand corrected!
Ethan
Strata Poster
To be honest, I don't think anybody can really follow this project at the moment! I check up on this coaster every day and I still can't grasp the layout.
Flying Pilot
Mega Poster
I have no idea what the exact angle is ofcourse, I just wrote something down. But as far I could see in the sitting position, it is tilted a bit more than a B&M.
Yeah, I wasn't really picking up on the specific angle, so much as saying that an angled seat back in the seating position doesn't necessarily mean an angled seat back in the flying position.
It's a good observation you've made, and if true will be interesting to see how they compare to the B&Ms and older Vekomas (I believe they're horizontal too, from memory).
Flying Pilot
Mega Poster
Yes they are indeed. Also fully 90°.
I have heard this from someone who is close to this project. The rotationpart looks like to be parallel to the track, so that means it keeps the same angle.
The only flyer I have ridden is air, and I can see this idea going to work. Air is the slowest flyer of them all, but if you want to look foward you need to look up which is a little bit stressfull for your neck. So I think this could be more comfortable.
I have heard this from someone who is close to this project. The rotationpart looks like to be parallel to the track, so that means it keeps the same angle.
The only flyer I have ridden is air, and I can see this idea going to work. Air is the slowest flyer of them all, but if you want to look foward you need to look up which is a little bit stressfull for your neck. So I think this could be more comfortable.
MrRC
Mega Poster
Yes, i can try to help. Maybe this picture will do ( plz note link in signature is NOT anymore for FLY, but for GOTG)
CSLKennyNI
Giga Poster
*cracks knuckles*
I've been thinking about doing a post like this for a while now. No time like the present.
Given the complexity of this project and how updates come in confusing small bits and pieces with pictures from over/under fences; it is quite a confusing mess to follow and make sense of.
So I'm going to try my best to outline what we know of the layout so far, along with pictures for reference - most pictures are older ones from this thread only the pictures with (c) Bear on them are recent and show the current state of construction.
F.L.Y. Explained
Length
It will have to be over 1,124 metres long to take the 'world's longest flying coaster' record from USJ's Flying Dinosaur. By how much is currently unknown but given the small space can't imagine it being by much (for comparison Taron is 1,320 metres long).
Tobi on PhantaFriends.de (famous for his NL2 recreation of Taron) calculated there was about 650m of track installed as of 13th August - more track has been erected since. So there is likely half/more half of the coaster already built.
Inversions
So far there appears to only be 1 inversion in the layout - a Zero-G roll. Will be interesting to see if there are anymore as construction continues.
Trains
The trains on the test set up consisted of 10 rows of 2 seats. On the German forums the train length has been found to match the length of the station platforms and the 3 maintenance bays so we once again can safely assume that F.L.Y.'s trains will be the same. The 3 maintenance bays (accessible by two switch points after the station) would suggest it will have a minimum of 4 trains (Blue Fire and Colorado Adventure have 3 bays as well, yet 5 trains so we can't rule out the possibility of 5).
Station
The new generation Vekoma flying model as we've all seen from the test set up (courtesy of @mrrc ) utilises a new loading method where the seats on the trains are upright in a 'sitting position' and the train is on sideways track. Based off the foundations on the construction site and capabilities of this model we can safely assume the station, just like Taron's station, will have a load (marked in red) and off load (marked in blue) platform. The station is located underground between Maus au Chocolat and Wuze Town/the Fantasy Area.
Dark Ride??
Still in the sitting position the train will leave the station, turn 180 degrees and enter a long room.
This could possibly be home to some sort of dark ride section or a pre-show scene (similar to Baron 1898 for example).
Of course though it may also just be a nicely themed room you quickly go through until at the end you turn 90 degrees upwards into the lifthill.
Unless they announce or tease a pre-show/dark ride bit beforehand we probably won't know for sure if there is one until it opens!
Lifthill
The booster wheel lifthill is the one from the Vekoma test set up (reused parts are noticeable as they used actual supports sitting on temporary extensions). As the lift is enclosed and riders are still sitting upright here; there is possibility for some kind of small dark ride scenes or at least animated theming - such as moving gears and cogs as you climb up maybe?
As seen in this video of testing at the top of the lift the track turns 90 degrees and inverts - meanwhile the seats rotate 90 degrees bringing riders into the flying position.
The train then exits the lifthill building via this smoked filled tunnel/cannon seen in the concept art. There could potentially also be some form of propulsion inside the cannon (booster wheels or short LSM section) here as @Bear suggested recently.
1st Half of the Layout
What follows is currently unknown as the track has not yet been erected, however the train will somehow make its way over to this curve of track through the buildings and structures that have already been completed (start and end marked with a red dot - the right hand dot is where the curve starts/train enters it).
Then (as Bear marked recently on the above picture with a blue line on the track) the track continues flying across the middle of the area, into a banked to the left turn around, followed a low to the ground S-Curve (which goes under the cannon/lifthill track) and then into a highly banked curve down into the underground launch tunnel (the lower of the curves in the picture below).
Launch
In this underground tunnel is the start of the LSM launch - the world's first for a flying coaster. It's also going to be quite unique as it is unusually curved.
The rolling launch starts relativity straight in the tunnel, and then before the end of the tunnel, it begins to curve upwards and out.
2nd Half
Its too early to exactly tell where it goes next.
There's this heavily banked curve goes in-between the towers structure beside Wuze Town (also worth noting that between these towers will an entrance into the area, so the track in the 2 pics above will be overhead as you enter Rookburgh from Wuze), down through a concrete building, and then low to ground the track goes up into a large stretched airtime hill over the middle of the area (as seen 3 pics above).
Afterwards the train enters the Zero-G Roll over a building - which is still currently the tallest part of the coaster. What the direction of travel in this section is yet is unknown.
As the track after the roll hasn't been erected yet it is difficult to say what happens next.
Presumably it will turn right and eventually connect to the other long stretch of track over the area (the lower long stretch in the large overview pictures further up) - this stretch then goes into a banked curve (covered in blue tarpaulins in the old picture directly above) through the buildings and structures there, and then into a helix in the corner beside Maus au Chocolat.
Brake Run
The coaster will then eventually come around into the brake run which is housed in an underground tunnel directly beside the launch tunnel (although travelling in the opposite direction).
At the end of the tunnel the track and seats will rotate again to bring riders back into the sitting position.
Then after a section of curved section of brake run in the sitting position the train will enter the station off load platform.
So I hope that helps some how for those interested in this project and hasn't just confused people further.
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CookieCoasters
Giga Poster
@CSLKennyNI what a fantastic breakdown! It’s really helped bring everything together in my mind, much more than it was before. I’m genuinely more excited and WOWed by this project just from reading that. Thank you!
Looking forward to new developments
Looking forward to new developments