PilotDude

Okay, before everyone gets wound up. This was a powered-paraglider, aka. Butt fan with a bed sheet. They are covered by FAR part 103. And everything I saw in this video was 100% legal. No "airspace" issues (KI doesn't own airspace, just as you don't own airspace above your house), had plenty of altitude and never flew over crowds. It would be against KI rules to launch or land on their property (they can trespass you if you refuse to leave), but that is is, no laws were broken.

This is funny. The park is not a "no fly zone". The park has no legal basis to call itself a no fly zone. They can and do say you can't fly a drone FROM their property which is 100% legal (in that they can trespass you off property if you refuse to leave, but no legal charges for the act of flying the drone), but off property and airspace above they have no say. Might have to find a good weather day here in the near future to venture down that direction, been awhile since I have flown in that area.

This sounds more like a break in or training then a certification. While I have operated roller coasters I have never been certified for any given coaster so I am unsure of KK or CF rules for non-maintenance coaster training. In other coasters I have worked around, both B&M and other companies, the manufacturer did all of the certification operation as they owned and insured the coaster until it passed its certification. This is a really complicated area to discuss though as each ride, insurance and state has its own requirements. But from my experience it was a let B&M break it so they have to fix it, they certify it as working then park maintenance goes through a training period where they can operate it, then general park staff. The first several dozen? runs of each train are going to have issues. Each issues will be tiny, something as simple as a sensor moved just enough to no longer sense the lap bar position. It isn't uncommon for to have a test run, manufacturer techs climb all over the train and coaster for a couple hours, dispatch again and repeat. On any given day a certificated coaster wont complete 500 dispatches with out an error. Most of them are so minor it "fixes itself" with the computer re-polling a sensor/ sensor group but the computer still logs an error that maintenance can check the log for.

From my experience working around roller coasters during their construction and testing, while I was not "on the crew" building the ride and I can't publicly talk about my actual job due to non-disclosures but you can think of it someone hired to protect to customers interest with regulatory compliance and safety, none of these numbers are even remotely close to real world. Granted each ride is different and both the state and manufacturer have ride testing requirements(insurance as well but are mostly identical to the manufacturers) and I have not seen the documentation for Orion, but I would be shocked if they had this requirement. In this day and age, testing is data driven not brute force driven. Rides are tested with sensors and that data is used to verify if the ride is safe. Think G force, speed, deflection, vibration, etc. vs well it went around 500 times and therefore it is safe. B&M has designed a testing protocol that will be followed to a T, and they will be part of the testing, they will want to test under different conditions, such as weight of the train, wheel configuration, ambient temp, dry/wet, single vs multi train operation, and many many other variables. While it is possible the coaster may hit 500 cycles or even 5000 or could be as little as 50 before the testing phase is over, there is no single number on dispatch a train X number of times and your good to open. They will spend days opening and closing the station gates, putting trains on the track and then away all while them never making a circuit. Roller coaster testing is a serious business.

Could also be they have another job to get to by a certain date and need this crew done and moved on. Or they could be tired of paying for the cranes and don't want to fall into the next month as the crane wasn't budgeted for that time period. Tons of reasons for them to be working today, in construction days of the weeks don't really matter. They are working on a job and do what needs to be done to get that job done on time and budget.

I would much rather they only light the head chopper and any close fly bys and then use the lighted wheels on the train to make it look like shooting stars. Can you imagine streaks of light just flying through the shy?

I mean $$ and engineering aside why not. Make it a year round attraction with perfect weather all the time. I am okay paying an extra tree fiddy a year to pay for this upgrade.

Let's be honest, not sure anyone would be mad. Disappointed yes, but not mad. B&M Wing Coaster Vortex!

I would love to see a Forbidden Frontier type attraction, just not in The Vortex pit. Put it closer to Kiddie land, maybe take out the picnic grove and put it in its place. It would give the wild west stuff from the train much better themeing and revitalize that area. CP Forbidden Frontier is nice as it is in a quiet area of the park which allows the parents a chance to relax, and lets the kids have fun with out all the extra stimulus. The Vortex pit would be the exact opposite of this and would be a huge failure IMHO.

Coming from the north you can spot it near Traders World. You can see the top of the tower and Orion sitting on the horizon.

I love the fact we have to keep coming up with new "well it could of been". At this point all of the evidence leads to an intentional act that removed the webcams from public broadcast. We have evidence the cameras still operated, we have no evidence of any of the new conspiracy theories of website upgrades, or cut fibers or power outages or what ever. Speaking of power outages that is now officially debunked as the cameras were still on, so that is a confirmed lie. If we say okay a line was cut, that is a really silly idea. One you would want a DVR or other recording device kept in climate control and easy access for upgrades, which the top of the tower isn't really ideal for either. This would also allow Mystic Timbers to have been online still, but it wasn't. So I think we can say the Tower played no part in the webcams going down as a camera not on the tower was off as well. So what does that leave us with? A website upgrade (which we have no evidence of), a network upgrade (but then we wouldn't have the time lapse footage), or an intentional act to not broadcast (Occam's Razor is in play here, the simplest answer is probably the right answer). If they wanted to take down the webcams for any reason, okay its your camera you have every right too, just don't lie about it. Lies can only get worse, they are never the best option as the truth will always get out and now you have two crises not one.

Huh, that is really weird. I thought they were offline due to "technical upgrades". Sure seems like this is the same angle and same camera. Guess KI just didn't want the public to get a view before the put out a time lapse for those views. This honestly just makes how they handled it even worse from a PR perspective. Guess the upgrade was done in time for us to see, and they chose not to let us see so they could make this amazing time lapse that "obviously" makes up for the lack of hype. /s

Lift is done, cams are back. Talk about timing, what a weird coincidence. /s

Guess the webcam mystery is solved. KI posted on Youtube a video of the topping off. Once we all go smash that subscribe button they will turn them back on. /s

There is no difference between a drone and an airplane in regards to the laws with the pictures. KI has a rule you can't fly a drone from their property. As a land owner you can do that. What has happened is the park and this site have decided they get to control the land around the park and the airspace over it, which has no legal bearing. If you were standing on public property flying a drone over Kings Island, they could call the cops and the cops have exactly zero recourse. Period. That is the law. Only people who could do anything is the FAA, and unless you are creating a hazard to others, i.e. in airspace, over crowds, etc. they will not do anything about it. Wont even send someone out to investigate. The footage was legal. The park has a rule of no flying drones from there property, they can claim over but it has no legal standing,. KIC has agreed after advice from park management to not allow drone footage on this site as per the ToS. KIC has every right to do that even if taken legally. If you have footage from a drone you want to show people, you would have to post it elsewhere. IMHO it is silly of this site to not allow it as they are making the choice to drive traffic elsewhere, but that is KIC's decision to make. If you don't agree that is how it is done, then you would need to find another forum or site to be a member of. I would counter that Kings Island rules are less restrictive then the law as they can not keep you from doing something legal off their property even if they claim they can. They have every right as the land owner to forbid drones from their property, but if launched and recovered from somewhere else, that the pilot has legal permission to be on, the park can't do anything about it. Local cops don't have jurisdiction, not state patrol. Heck the DEA could come out and tell you to stop and you don't have too until the FAA themselves get involved. I looked up with the FAA on any incidents involving drones around Kings Island, I could not find any. I couldn't even find a news article of an incident. I am not sure the statement that many flying drones around the park are breaking FAA rules is factual. I am certain the part about local laws is not a factual as no city or township can make laws about drones other then to ban them from their property (federal preemption). I do agree that KIC has every right to ban drone footage from the site. It is in the ToS which everyone agreed to when they signed up. It is a legal contract. I think it is a bad policy IMHO as you are now driving traffic from your site to other sites. But that is a business decision for someone other then me to make. No laws were broken. A site policy was broken as they ToS state no drone video, right wrong or indifferent that is the policy we all agreed too.

They have worked some Saturdays. All just depends on where they are at in the schedule and what is next.

So while I haven't broken the rules, because I share a view with others who have I get in trouble? That would be like someone who is defending the park calls me an ass, and since you are defending the park your comments get removed. It doesn't make any sense. And I would like to be clear I am not defending any side. The only side I am on is my back side while I type this up. I take pride in researching topics before I post to make sure I am factually correct before I post, and should I make a mistake and someone can show me, I will gladly correct the information I provided. I have also not speculated on why the cameras are down. I am sure the park has a reason they think is valid for them to be down. That might be an upgrade gone awry, the power being off to tower, or they just want it to be a surprise. I am not the park, I can't and won't speak for them. I can only report the facts. This is the part that will probably get me in trouble, but this type of moderation is only adding to the frustration. You can't shotgun mod and expect people to be happy. I am a mod on several other sites and I realize how hard moderating something online is. But IMHO this style of "your on the wrong side" so therefore you are part of the problem is only going to make things worse. As more people get frustrated, they will stop caring, and if they stop caring they won't worry about following the rules. Again I might be wrong in what I am seeing, but IMHO it would be better to treat this as a case by case basis and not a I disagree with your view so I am silencing you. I apologize in advance if I have offended anyone, again that was not my intention. I just want to have a fair open conversation so we all can move past this dark time.

I have never said or claimed anyone with KI was incompetence. I said this is why people are frustrated and reported the known facts. I mentioned season pass sales as it will be the only way we will ever know if the webcams being down played an impact on peoples attitudes towards the park. I hope Orion brings a banner year of pass sales as it will pay off the coaster quicker leading to us being able to spend money sooner. As for social media, I am not asking for them to entertain anyone on a discussion of the webcams. But if you went back to look at old social media post they talk up the webcam with links. Those post have since been deleted and or edited to not include webcam mentions. Again this is fact, as you can use services to go back and look at the old posts. I feel like more is being read into my post then is actually written. I am not sure why people are trying to put words in my mouth or inferring things that were never said. I have never been purposefully disrespectful to anyone and if I have I do apologize.

Wow, that looks awesome. When is something like this going to happen again? Can't wait to get to be part of it this time.

Not trying to be a dick, but could you give an example of the difference between criticism and bashing. I had a post removed that was a summary of the events about the webcam going down. No comments were directed at anyone, so it can't be the lack of respect, and I didn't bash the park, just recapped the events. If you would like to address my post as a private message I understand, but I think it would be nice to have an example for everyone to follow on bashing vs criticism so we can make sure we all are following the same set of guidelines.

Only the keystone of 3 piece to go. What comes first the webcam or the lift hill is done?

Kings Island is 8ish miles from the closest airport. The best I can find, is AC 150/5190-4A, it list 10,000 feet or just under 2 miles as the biggest airport protection zone that would apply. Granted this needs to factor in on an vertical angle or for every 20/34 feet you go horizontal, the protection zone goes up by 1 foot. IF KI was 10,000 feet away exactly, which it isn't, a 295 foot height limitation would exist, but due to the distant proximity of the closest airport, no practical height limitation exists. The math changes if I68 or Warren County Airport ever got a precision approach, they have a GPS instrument approach but that isn't considered precision, so we use 34/10,000 vs 50/40,000. But KI is still outside the 40,000 feet zone, even if it was on the edge of the zone the height restriction would be 800 feet. Going to a precision approach vs non-precision is cost prohibitive. These are system only the "big boys" prefer as the rest of us like our GPS approaches. I am not saying "The Terp" is wrong, I just can't find any information that supports that claim. Side note: if KI wanted to get into the TV transmission business with a mult- thousand foot tower, they would have an extensive permitting process that would involve aircraft, such as Victor Airways, approaches to airports including CVG, etc. But that is beyond the scope of this idea.

But it would make great footage for their next commercial. Crane topples over taking out entire amusement park? we covered it. :play b roll from webcam:

No need, the webcam will be back up in the next few days just in time for crane tear down.

The FAR or Federal Air Regulations 14 CFR 91.110 Minimum Safe Altitudes "....1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft." Looking at the sectional, or pilot map for flying by visual rules, the Eiffel Tower is shown as the highest point @1080MSL. Which means all pilots flying over Kings Island have to be at 2080 feet mean sea level. If anything ever grows taller then the top of the tower as measured from Mean Sea Level the maps will be updated very quickly. If a pilot is flying in an area that is not "congested" i.e. farm fields the same FAR states you have to be 500 feet AGL or above ground level. As Orion is only 287 feet AGL, this would give a 200 foot plus buffer, but since the area is "congested" you get almost an 800 foot buffer. Side note Helicopters and Ultra light powered parachutes have different rules on minimum safe altitudes, but are not allowed to cause risk for people on the ground. As for what has to be lighted and what doesn't the rules are multiple pages long as they try to cover every single possible circumstance, but the closer it is to an airport the rules tighten so shorter towers have lights closer to airports, and can be taller with out lights further then airports. Fun fact at any given time 100's of towers in southwestern Ohio have burned out lights at any given time, and pilots have to look up the notice on each and every one of them for every single flight. The notice system sucks.