Flying Turns at Knoebels is the only wooden bobsled coasters still in operation. This is
such a unique ride. And we should be very thankful we even got to experience it.
This coaster was plagued by construction and testing issues. So was it all worth it in the
end? Find out in this review of Flying Turns. The first bobsled coasters were made of wood.
These ones were all built by John Norman Bartlett. These coasters opened in late 1920 and 1930s,
but they all went extinct by the mid-1970s. Intamin revived the bobsled coaster in 1984
and Mack followed suit in 1985. These ones were made of steel.
Flash forward to 2005. Knoebels had just closed Whirlwind. In the fall of that year, they
announced their intentions to build Flying Turns. This would be a wooden bobsled coaster built
in-house and inspired by the work of Bartlett. Covid-19 caused a lot of delays in the amusement
industry. Busch Gardens and SeaWorld delayed their new-for-2020 coasters until 2022. And
Six Flags delayed one of their new-for-2020 coasters until 2023 with Aquaman Power Wave.
But this is just child’s play. Flying Turns at Knoebels was delayed time-and-time
again. Most parks would have given up. So why was the ride delayed? It’s no secret
safety standards have become more stringent since the original bobsled coasters were built. The
park’s biggest issue was designing a train that could reliably and safely complete the circuit.
The original trains went too fast. The second generation trains required
the track to be redesigned and modified. But during testing, they jackknifed.
People were skeptical the ride would ever open, but Knoebels kept working at it. And their
perseverance paid off. Flying Turns finally opened at the very end of the 2013 season and it won the
best new ride in the 2014 Golden Ticket Awards. The ride had become a tricky one to experience
in recent years. Flying Turns was closed for the entire 2020 season for retracking. A fourth lift
hill was added towards the end of the ride to help the trains get back to the station.
Then the coaster never opened to the public in 2021. This was related due to
the staffing shortages that plagued the entire amusement industry post-pandemic. Flying Turns
requires 8 staff members and considering its lower throughput, the park found it more cost-effective
to staff 4 smaller rides instead. The only time Flying Turns ran in
2021 was for private effects. Fortunately, the coaster was open
for much of the 2022 season. However, it is still one of the least efficient coasters out
there. It’s a stark contrast to the rest of the park, which prides itself in speedy operations.
But this is the price for nostalgia. The ride has 4 trains. But each is comprised
of just 3 cars. Each car can hold a max of 2 riders, but it’s not uncommon to see solo riders.
This is because of the ride’s strict weight limit. No individual car can exceed 400 lbs.
Solo riders or pairs are weighed before entering the queue line. The ride has a
light aviation theme and this is called KSA, or the Knoebels Security Administration.
The exact weight isn’t displayed. An employee will just let you know if they’re allowed
to ride and/or if you need to split up. The cars are loaded heaviest to lightest.
When you reach the load platform, the employee will assign you a row. You stand
on a scale and the employees will rearrange guests as needed to comply. As before,
the exact weights aren’t displayed for guests to see. Again going with the aviation theme, you are
just told which boarding gate (aka row) to go to. This whole process is why the line can move at a
dreadfully slow pace. The ride handles roughly 200 riders per hour. A full queue takes 45 minutes,
but it often stretches beyond the entrance on busy days. If you can beat the crowds here, I’d
ride Flying Turns first. But don’t be surprised if it builds a line early. In my most recent visit,
the coaster already had 50 or so people queuing up 20 minutes before the park opened.
Another thing to consider is whether rain is in the forecast. I’ve seen this closed on rainy days,
so I believe it cannot run in precipitation. This wouldn’t be the first bobsled coaster to close
in those conditions due to the trackless vehicles and potential draining issues.
When it’s finally your time to board, you enter these bobsleds. You sit on a padded
cushion with your legs outstretched. Pairs of riders need to sit in each others’ laps. The
only restraint is a single seatbelt that wraps around the front-most rider.
The vehicles then have high sides and seatbacks for comfort and clearance purposes.
Then there are grab bars on the sides for guests to hold onto.
Once dispatched, you roll forwards and climb the first of four lift hills. What follows
is a 540 degree helix. It starts slow, but it has some mild force at the bottom. And
then there’s this hump on the way to the second lift that comes close to giving weightlessness.
This section also establishes two things. One, the trough is gigantic. It completely envelopes
you and you cannot see beyond the ride. It’s a neat visual. Two, the ride is shockingly smooth.
It is far smoother than the steel bobsleds. This trough isn’t slatted like the Mack
ones. Then the transitions out of the trough sections isn’t rough like the Intamin ones.
The second lift is considerably larger and takes you to the ride’s max height of 50
feet or 15 meters. The next part is the meat of the experience. You have a figure 8 layout.
It consists of a series of 180 degree turns and s-bends. These turns aren’t too notable
minus the visuals. Once you reach ground level, you reach your max speed of 24 mph or 39 kph.
This is where things get interesting. The last few s-bends have considerably more swinging.
You really climb up the trough walls as you change direction. The swaying reminds me
more of what you get on an out-of-control water slide as opposed to the other bobsled coasters.
Until 2020, the return to the station consisted of a long brake run through the maintenance shed.
You then have a turn and one more lift hill en route back to the station. Now,
you have an addition lift hill going into the maintenance shed. It’s not a major difference,
but if it helps this ride stay open, I’m all for it.
This coaster boasts a total of 1300 feet or 400 meters of track. But it honestly feels
twice as long as that, most likely because of the number of lift hills extending the ride time.
Before giving my final score, I want to discuss the visual impact of this ride.
Due to the nature of a bobsled coaster, you can’t really see the trains too well off-ride. You just
see the underside or outside of the trough. The best way to see this ride is from aboard
Stratosfear, but for those who aren’t a fan of drop towers, Knoebels fortunately has a few
observation areas offering a rare glimpse of this ride. One of them even has an old bobsled car on
display in a case. I didn’t know about this until a local pointed it out on my most recent visit.
So what would I rate Flying Turns? Purely as a ride, I would give this coaster a 6 out of 10.
It’s decent. It’s the smoothest bobsled by far and some of bends towards the end
have some nice swaying. But I can’t rank it any higher since a lot of the ride is pretty mild.
But as an amusement park fan, I definitely admire the dedication of Knoebels to preserve
and recreate history. No other park would have taken on a project like this and stuck with it
through some engineering challenges. While I prefer several of the other coasters and
rides at Kneobels over this, you will not find anything else quite like Flying Turns out there.
So those are my thoughts on Flying Turns at Knoebels. What are your thoughts on the only
remaining wooden bobsled? Do you think it was worth all the time and effort? Let me
know down in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I would appreciate it if you
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more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!