With the news about X-flight going at least somewhere going on, it reminded me of some general questions I've had about roller coasters.

1) When there is a new ride that comes, I can only imagine the highly specialized level of expertise it would take to install one. Does a park like KI have enough people on staff to do an installation like that? I wouldn't think you could subcontract just any construction crew to handle that.

2) On a daily (during the season) basis, does each coaster/ride have its own dedicated crew that checks it out everyday, or is there a group that does several throughout the park?

^The maintenance crews perform both morning and nightly sections on the ride and the operation crews for the day are specially trained to do their own checks, in the past there have been many sepearate maintenace personell seperated throughout different maintenace departments. Primarilly steel coaster and wood coaster maintenace. Each morning, members of each time are assinged to their rides to do a daily, thourough inspection.

With the news about X-flight going at least somewhere going on, it reminded me of some general questions I've had about roller coasters.

1) When there is a new ride that comes, I can only imagine the highly specialized level of expertise it would take to install one. Does a park like KI have enough people on staff to do an installation like that? I wouldn't think you could subcontract just any construction crew to handle that.

2) On a daily (during the season) basis, does each coaster/ride have its own dedicated crew that checks it out everyday, or is there a group that does several throughout the park?

As for number 1, I cannot speak to that. I would assume that some outside contracting must come in.

As for you second question, each coaster has a set of test procedures (done by all ride operators) that are followed every mourning before the park opens...and periodically maintenance will come by and check the ride as well.

Hope that helps!!

Edit: Sorry for doubleing the informatioon but i was in the middle of typing when the previous post was done.

Thank You! These are questions I am asked sometimes on a trip to KI. I had a pretty good idea thats the way it was. A girl I went with in the fall, I believe, was under the impression that they install rides, and they just sit there, and everyone just "hopes" that they're not falling apart.

Well, as far as building rides, I`d assume that most of the new rides that are built are at least in part, subcontracted out. I`m assuming that they will have electrical contractors, steel riggers, etc. For example, I know that Fenton Rigging is often contracted by the park to erect many of their steel attractions, like Drop Zone, Face Off, Avatar, etc. While PKI crews may have expertise in some areas, I`m sure that they leave most of the construction work to subcontractors.

As far as the daily inspections, most rides are inspected before the ride operators get there. For example, the wooden track on coasters is walked every day the park is open, before the ride operators conduct their morning tests of the attraction. While I`ve never worked at KI, I know that Coney`s maintenance crews inspect each and every ride before the ride operators do their morning checks of the ride.

You should also know that wooden coasters are walked backwards....and climbing up those drops is very exhausting...to put it mildly.

most of the assembly and construction is contracted out... Maverick was constructed by a company called Adena