Located at Waldameer Park in Erie, Pennsylvania, Ravine Flyer II is my second favorite roller coaster. It features a unique and intense layout with extreme banking. A modern wooden coaster using a steel structure, RFII opened in 2008, although park management had been planning its construction since 1995.
The original Ravine Flyer lasted for 16 years in the 1920s and 30s, but it was closed following a fatal accident when a rider fell off the structure after attempting to leave a train that didn't make it up the next hill. One of the only known photographs of the original coaster is the one on this sign.
Beyond being an awesome coaster designed by the Gravity Group (my favorite coaster manufacturer), Ravine Flyer II has several quirks that make it a one-of-a-kind experience.
One of the ride's features is the namesake ravine that it drops into. This makes it hard to get photos or video of its initial plunge.
Erie is home to a coastal state park called Presque Isle, and that's the peninsula that you jutting out in the distance below. (Peninsulas always jut.) The blue covering over the bridge is to screen noise from reaching the adjacent trailer park. Those residents and the challenges of spanning a state highway created many difficulties in building Ravine Flyer II. It didn't help that the manufacturer that was to build the coaster went out of business midway through the planning process!
Just as the ride starts to slow down, it goes through a 90 degree banked turn (permitted by the steel structure) at a speed that allows you to enjoy it before diving into the ravine one more time and returning to the station.
In 2019, I got to walk into the ride's "infield," close to the 90-degree turn, as part of a Great Ohio Coaster Club event. It was fun to watch the trains circle around you!
6 comments:
Well Andrew, I'll have to leave actually riding those intense coasters to you younger fans, but I do love that last pic of all you coaster nerds checking things out in the infield. I mean that in a very good way.
Once we moved to Tucson back in '55, we rarely went back east. It was always west to the coast. Mom and Dad went to Pennsylvania to visit friends a few times but Sis and I never got to go with.
Thanks Andrew, always enjoy learning more.
Thanks for reading, DrGoat!
I want to go flying down into a ravine on a roller coaster! This is probably a dumb question, but did the original "Ravine Flyer," dip down into the ravine, that same way? Do you know if they tried to follow the same layout as the original?
RFII looks fun. Is it a smooth coaster? Fortunately, I can still do coasters, but I prefer them to be smooth, rather than "brain-rattling."
It's pretty crazy, but I don't think that the original Ravine Flyer layout is even known, TokyoMagic, unless Waldameer has blueprints or more pictures in their archives somewhere.
RFII isn't jarring, but it's definitely not as smooth as a steel coaster, and that's actually a big reason why I enjoy it. They replace sections of the wooden track every year; in fact, they've already started work on the first drop since closing on Labor Day. Parks not wanting to spend money on annual trackwork like this is why some wooden coasters have gotten a bad rap as being "brain-rattling."
Andrew, I know I would've loved riding this, in my younger years! Flying over the road sounds "cool"!
Sue
It is definitely a great ride, Sue.
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