Batting More Than Average
Batman: Knight Flight 00-12-05
Six Flags Ohio-Aurora

  • Manufacturer: Bolliger & Mabillard
  • Track length: 4,210 feet
  • Height: 161 feet
  • Length of ride: 2 minutes
  • Top speed: 65 m.p.h.
  • Unique qualities: longest floorless coaster in the world, high style and design, first original "Batman" name in what seems like aeons, built partially over an Ohio swamp

    When Six Flags sank their hooks into the park formerly known as Geauga Lake, they inherited a fine coterie of coasters--but also invested a good chunk of change into a quartet of new thrills. Though Superman: Ultimate Escape gets the higher profile, this B&M baby delivers the most exhilerating ride in the park.

    It's constructed on a small footprint of land right next to Serial Thriller, the bold yellow and purple track twisting and twirling around and through itself. One of the most symmetrical coasters in recent years, Batman: Knight Flight also has the distinction of being the longest floorless rollercoaster in the world. For those not familiar with the concept, this means that the trains are designed so that the track is definitely under you--but your feet are still left to dangle. Especially trippy in the front row.

    Much of the theming was still being placed, but the Danny Elfman "Batman" score was pounding out of the speakers impressively as we walked into the queue. The boomerang element is combined with an overbanked curve to create an astonishing symmetry to those who can appreciate functional architecture as art, in fact--the whole layout screams "efficiency" and "aesthetics." It's just an added bonus that if you ride these rails, you'll get a classic B&M experience.

    It starts with a nice little speed bump into a tummy-tickling maneuver that leads to the lift, soaring 161 feet into the air. You'll have plenty of time to survey the surrounding park and get a bird's eye view of Sea World Of Ohio right across the lake. But soon, the trains are cresting the rise, hitting a small speed hill and then twisting sharply down to the right, a Travers drop from hell, right into the loop. After some meaty hangtime, the train rises slightly into a sweetly overbanked rush to the right, seeming to narrowly miss a well-engineered support and then climbing up and around some scenery. Then, the cobra roll. The element never fails to elicit shrieks with each devious twist and turn, but the speed here and the agility of the serpentine cars--there's something spectacular about the fact that you're not even halfway finished.

    The cars muscle themselves up to the trim brakes, which catch just a little before throwing some air-time into your face, dropping down towards the swampy muck that the coaster is built upon. Then twisting up into a power corkscrew, swinging around to form a graceful squiggle of steel and then plowing through another screw, weaving and pressing flesh against seat before popping over a rise into the station. This is a very intense coaster that gets it all done in a very short period of time due to a layout that uses very little space. But they didn't cheese on the speed.

    We giggled our way off of this one and realized that there was still one more newbie to break in. The kiddie-themed Roadrunner Express was still being tested--so it was off to meet one of the strangest "wooden" coasters ever.

    [Back to 2000 Tour Station]

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