Is Maxair Open?

Does anyone know if Maxair is back up and running?

If not, any word on when CP expects it to open.

Thanks,

5 days and counting can't wait:).

It wasnt open this weekend, and i wouldnt expect it to be open for a couple weeks.

How do you know a couple of weeks?

Because the whole top of the ride is still torn apart and they are going up to the top to fix it for a good amount of the day.

^ - but spending most of a day working on it doesn't account for "weeks".

Although, once they do get it fixed, they still have their testing to run, the certification testing and then training to do before it can be opened.

Go here for ride status updates. It's listed along the right side.

Maintenence was working on maXair on Sunday, so at least work is being done.

Thanks Jeff

How can you say it will be open in a couple of weeks? How do maintenance workers working on it mean anything? It looks the same as it did more than 6 months ago when everyone was saying "of course it will be open next season."

Some people over at Thepoinol were at the park yesterday and said people were woring on MaXair.

How do they afford to visit the park without ads on their site?

^I know with these food prices!

OK.

You have the entire off-season to get Maxair running. You're telling me that it takes twice as much time to fix a ride as it did to build it?

I've said it before; penny for penny, MaxAir was a worse investment, and more problematic, than Top Thrill Dragster. It's a fricking pendulum for &*%^ sake. It goes back.....and forth......and back......and forth....

What an complex engineering marvel it is.

KevinJ, do you know what the problem is? Do you know how to fix it? Exactly. Your ignorance is not needed.

Just because it's a simple concept, it doesn't mean its a simple fix. Who is to say they knew what the problem was originally, and didn't have to take other measures to figure out what was wrong with it, before they could fix it. That along with materials needed to be ordered to replace, or what not. You can't say that you've never been fixing something and had a time where you just say "Crap, I need this now too..." It happens.

With that said, it is taking longer, but it isn't because maintenance workers are laying on the ride platform eating chips and watching TV.

maXair is a pretty complicated ride just because of its size. and because of a design decision that, in my opinion was the right one.

The ring at the bottom of the ride is HUGE and it represents a very large mass. We're talking 9,000 pounds for the passenger load *alone*. The stability of the ride when it is parked suggests to me that it's probably a lot heavier than that, otherwise it would wobble more as people are loading and unloading. Now with all that mass at the end of a comparatively lightweight boom, the easiest way to move the thing would be to push it from the bottom. Just put a big sled on the bottom of the ring and drive it like a Pirat. Trouble is, Huss didn't do it that way. Instead they decided to drive it from the top, where there isn't a whole lot of space, and where the force requirements to get the thing moving are quite a lot higher. That means they are pushing the boom with a tremendous amount of force just to overcome the inertia of the ring on the bottom. To get enough torque to do that, they are using SIX electric motors, all synchronized with each other so that they all add to the force required to push the ride. That's a fairly complicated trick involving a fairly elaborate communication system between the motor controllers, and precise control over the motor coils.

About the only other method I can think of that would allow them to drive that ride from the top would be hydraulic motors. But those can be a real pain to deal with and would probably be less reliable than the electric drive has been, even though the system would be simpler.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I think we might also be dealing with some financial massaging here - IE, "we can't buy this thing in third or fourth quarter, we'll have to do it first quarter" type of thing. I don't know this for sure, but I think we're dealing with some pretty expensive parts here. Also, they're getting them from a bankrupted company which might complicate matters even more.

Come on Matt, don't you too play the ex-employee budget card. It's speculative and completely arbitrary.

You bring up what I think is the fundamental flaw, Dave, in the Huss giant rides: Trying to control really heavy things with a bunch of electric motors. The Giant Top Spin at Kings Island takes that problem and makes it worse by having to also synchronize across two sides of the carriage. As I'm sure you recall, Siebert had many stories about how the computers couldn't quite keep up with subtle changes in sync issues.

RideMan said:

About the only other method I can think of that would allow them to drive that ride from the top would be hydraulic motors.

And then you have an S&S Screamin Swing.

I know, they use pneumatic, same concept, different media.

It's not the same concept at all. Hydraulics for ride systems typically turn something with a hydraulic motor, while the air based systems push pistons through tubes.

I wouldent put it past them suing the manifacturer to get it fixed because its been down so long and there not doing any major work on it. If they had a total motor failure it could cost them a couple million to purchess a new motor and install it. The thing takes 5 crains to do so.