SKYHAWK TEST?!

Does anyone know why I saw skyhawks "broken arm" swinging today? Its sooooo early. The park doesnt open for 80 some days.

Here

"Why not? It's their park and their ride. They do what they want, whateva! uh huh."

I guess they already started testing, because of the problems Skyhawk had last summmer...

Also, how did you see it was testing?

If you weren't aware, every new installation of this ride had issues last year. Simplifying the issue, the tubes that the pistons ran through were at an angle, and as such the seals around them would deteriorate on one side until they could no longer seal the pressure, and they'd blow. No idea what the solution is that they're testing now.

Sure is a lot quieter now, though.

Just seeing the rides already starting to test makes me excited!!!

I wonder if they updated the cylinder to a new one or just modify the exsisting ones?

I have found that Phonolic wear bands preceding the piston seals as well as the inner bore of the cylinder being chromed is a great combo when dealing with any type of side load.

Judging by the hole they cut in that thing, I assume the entire mechanism was replaced. Essentially it's not that different than the drop towers, it's just that instead of attaching the car to the cable, it's connected to the pulley at the top.

True, and like you said earlier it is all about the side load.

Do you know if they have had any similar problems on the other swings they have built, or is this just a case of make ride "x" amount bigger and this cylinder should do just fine. WHOOOPS, that didnt work like we thought it would sorry!

I know Swing Shot at KW had some problems last year also, but I'm not sure if they were the same issues that Skyhawk experienced.

The seal failures is an engineering issue. Probably some combination of lack of radial load support and inadequate lubrication.

Doesn't suprise me that S&S rides have this kind of a problem.

Its too bad its quieter. I actually liked how loud it was.

All the S&S Screamin' Swings built for 2006 (Skyhawk, Swing Shot @ Kennywood, and Xtreme Swing @ Valleyfair) all had issues. Skyhawk saw the most uptime throughout the season I believe.

^^ I also liked how it was loud.

I have heard Xtreme Swing @ Valleyfair! referred to as the S&S breakdown ride by some people.

Could the "issue" with Skyhawk accounted for the short cycle time too? Maybe they were just trying to prolong the life of the part they knew was bad? If so, let's all hope the cycle time goes back to the previously advertised 2-minutes. :)

Good point Jump to Conclusions. I wonder if they are using any type of auto inline lube system. They are very common and fairly cheap all things considered.

The short cycle time was for capacity. Hopefully they'll do for Skyhawk what they did for maXair this past year - never ending rides!

Or they could just add a couple employees (to decrease loading time), and add 1 or 2 more full swings.

Thats one thing I didn't like about Skyhawk. You had maybe 2-3 swings and you were done. MaXair does like 4-5 swings. That's why I prefer MaXair, plus to me there is more airtime on MaXair.

I love the feeling on Skyhawk a lot more than maXair. I won't say maXair makes me sick, but it's borderline. The new cycle time on maXair last year was nice. The only think I ever complained about for Skyhawk was the short cycle. Just as it got good it would end.