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News & Rumors

 

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KNOEBELS Amusement Resort
Elysburg, Pennsylvania


 

Park News - (10/3/12) A fun parody video of Time Warp has been created about going to Knoebels Hallo-Fun-Nights.

    (8/3/12) A fun music video paraody highlights everything there is to love about Knoebels. Give it a watch and enjoy!

    (2/29/12) All American Thrills has posted a set of pictures taken during an off-season tour at Knoebels. Included are pictures of Phoenix being retracked as well as some work being done on Twister’s helix.

 

icon_STOP2013 - StratosFear - (5/6/13) I’m told that Knoebels new SuperShot drop tower ride opened to guests along with the rest of the park during the opening day of the season last week. Unfortunately there has been no new updates regarding the fate of the Flying Turns however.
    (4/22/13) All American Thrills reports that the new StratosFear tower ride is now up at Knoebels and testing. Make the jump to see some of the latest pictures taken inside the park that show off the new tower ride.
    (1/18/13) AllAmericanThrills has posted a construction update from Knoebels this week as the park has begun the early electrical work to prepare for the new StratosFear tower, as well as rehab work on CrazySub, re-tracking on sections of Phoenix and Twister and more! 
    (1/9/13) Knoebels announced that the park’s new 2013 ride will be a new drop tower ride called StratosFear. While the height is kind of modest by today’s standards at just 148 feet, it is just about right for a small family park like Knoebels. While they offered no updates on The Flying Turns, I’m starting to hear some encouraging rumors that 2013 may be the year.
    (1/8/13) Knoebels has posted a weird riddle on their Facebook page, which seems like a hint about a possible new 2013 attraction. The post says, “What’s 148 feet tall and travels at 47mph?”  Could this be for a new Star Flyer style ride?

 

2013? - Flying Turns - Test & Adjust - (8/21/12) AllAmericanThrills reports that Knoebels is planning on testing the Flying Turns once again very soon. They’re just awaiting some new vehical parts which will be merged with the last version of the chassis. The thought is that they are very very close now to solving this puzzle and hope to be open for

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2013.
    (7/30/12) Consider me amazed… because in just a few weeks since the last pictures were taken, that empty section of the Flying Turns we saw at Knoebels which was the transfer track area, now seems to have been rebuilt. According to one story, they have rebuilt the transfer track area to accommodate the latest train design. A new and very promising train is said to be under construction and is expected to be ready for testing within the next couple of months. If all goes well… this could be the final breakthrough they have been working so hard to achieve.
    (7/27/12) A few weeks ago one of our readers went to Knoebels and was surprised to find that the Flying Turns coaster had no station, or station track. I’m not quite sure why the station was removed, unless they are working on yet another new train design that may require them to alter the design of the station elements. For whatever reason… it looks like there is no chance of it opening this year based on this development.

    (12/15/11) Solid news about the status of Knoebel’s Flying Turns project is hard to come by, though I’ve heard through the grapevine that with the help of Mike Boodley, there is a good chance we may finally see the troubled ride open for the 2012 season.  Cross your fingers!!
    (6/8/11) Knoebels has posted a great POV video shot from the front of a new Flying Turns train on their Facebook page this week.  I’m happy to say that finally things are starting to progress in the right direction for this ride. Given that the video says that the footage was shot from a new “prototype” car, I’m guessing it will be 2012 before they will have a finished version ready to go… assuming all is well with the prototype. Thanks to the Knoebels staff for sharing this with everyone, to let us know that there is still life in the project, as I think many had started to lose hope.
    (4/27/11) A news article digs in for some details about the current status of the Flying Turns coaster, but the bottom line is that coaster is still not ready to open. The problem has been blamed on new building standards that require the coaster cars to be far more heavy than they would have been if built in the 1930s.
    (1/4/11) Disregard that article link posted yesterday about the possibility of the Flying Turns opening in 2011. I got in touch with the author and clarified things a bit, and unfortunately they were not privy to any new information about the ride either, so for now The Flying Turns will remain in limbo.
    (1/3/11) I’m not sure if this site knows something we don’t, but if you read the report about Knoebels on (LINK REMOVED) they seem to believe that the park may be ready to open The Flying Turns in 2011, along with Black Diamond. Of course we’ve all been hoping the Flying Turns would open every year for the past several years, but will 2011 finally be it? Considering the complete silence from the park about the project for the past year, I have serious doubts 2011 will be the lucky year, but I’ve got my fingers crossed.
    (8/16/10) While nothing concrete has been sent in regarding the future of The Flying Turns, I did get a report earlier this month claiming that the park was expecting to receive new trains for testing on the ride in the second half of August. So if you drop by the park, keep an eye open for them to possibly begin testing again if this proves to be true.
    (7/7/10) While it has been some time since we’ve seen progress over at the Flying Turns, a reader tell us about what appears to be sensors and possible cameras placed around the ride currently. I don’t know if these are a few development or left over from previous work, but it would be nice to see some sign of life there. Anyone know for sure?
    (3/9/10) While this article is mostly about the new Black Diamond ride in 2011, it does talk briefly about Flying Turns. Knoebels wont confirm an opening date or even year yet, sticking to the “It’ll be done when it’s done” line, but they do say that they’ve been testing a new train with “encouraging results”.
    (11/13/09) The Knoebels website has posted some pictures of the new train pieces that have arrived at the park this past week.
    (11/11/09) A Screamscape source tells us that the new Flying Turns train has now arrived at the park and testing is expected to begin possibly by the end of the week if possible.
    (11/5/09) Park World has posted an update on the Flying Turns at Knoebels. When will it open you ask? “When it is done,” according to Kick Knoebels. A new train design has been ordered and they expect to have it on site in time to do some test runs before the snow falls. If everything works out at last, we could see Flying Turns ready to open for the 2010 season.
    (8/24/09) While I haven’t heard very much at all, rumor has it that we shouldn’t expect to see the Flying Turns open until the 2010 season at this point.
    (6/8/09) I’ve got a bit of an update on the Flying Turns to share today. It seems they are making some more drastic changes to the track layout this time around while they wait for the new train to arrive. New footers have been spotted that indicate that the sweeping rear lower turn will be rebuilt to have a wider radius. Sections of the trough have been ripped apart here and there and it looks like the a large section of track near the end of the ride has already been completely rebuilt with a new layout. You can see a few pictures posted to Coaster Force.
    (4/18/09) What everyone wants to know is… what is the deal with The Flying Turns? Thankfully Knoebels has posted a new report on just this issue at the bottom of their What’s New page. Do they have an opening date? Nope. Can they confirm it will open in 2009? Not yet… but they report that they are closer than ever, and have been redesigning some of the trough as well as waiting to see the plans for a new 3rd version of the coaster train design, so they can approve it and begin construction of said train.  With that in mind… don’t count on seeing this sucker open until the end of season most likely.
    (10/12/07) While the track layout for the coaster is now complete, it seems that the mystery of the final train design is still eluding them for now. It seems that designing the rolling stock for this project has been probably one of the most difficult aspects of the entire project as they try to discover just what the perfect combination of size, weight, appearance, length, height and wheel material is to make it work. They did have a few pieces of the prototype train on site which they ran for the crowd. It was also mentioned that the final train is only expected to have 5 cars… each holding two riders, so the total capacity for each train will only be 10 riders at a time.
    As for the track itself, I’m told that it is made of up a total of six layers of wood strips, with the top “track” layer made from Cypress, a forgiving hardwood that is also very durable. Knoebels is also experimenting with an a epoxy surface coating that will both enhance the durability of the top layer but make it very slick and smooth, speeding up the train. Because this could also cause the train to slide around a bit too much they are still evaluating if they will use it or not. In the end they may have to come up with a combination of materials to use that will be slick enough to run the train on, but also have some gritty bits in it for the trains to grip on to.
    As for the test runs… it was said that the Flying Turns runs fairly silent right now and due to the design of the trough, it’s near impossible to catch anything more than a glimpse of it running through the course. There are a total of three lift hills, with the last one being fairly small and towards the end of the ride.

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Track Record

Knoebels Amusement Resort
Elysburg, Pennsylvania


www.knoebels.com

Newest Developments
2012 - Black Diamond

2009 - Kozmo’s Kurves, Goin’ Buggy, Kiddie Himalaya

2008 - Wipeout

2003 - Scenic Skyway

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