Title: Wave Swinger, sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride Source:
Mike McCarthy URL Source:http://www.funtasticshows.com/market_frames.html Published:Aug 21, 2007 Author:Ferret Mike Post Date:2007-08-21 20:38:23 by Ferret Mike Keywords:None Views:278 Comments:19
One year before I fell from the tree in 1998, I travelled with Funtastic and operated their Wave Swinger. (Picture of the very machine in header URL)
I ran into several people I knew from Funtastic and got talked into running the ride at the local county fair as the ride foreman was gone with family stuff to deal with.
Flinging 48 people around in a circle on a ride that is a shear delight to ride and that I know well was tiring a way to spend 12 hours a day from Tuesday to Sunday, but I enjoyed it.
We got high marks as a crew which made me happy, as Funtastic Rides has a much higher standard for courtesy, cleanliness and maintanance then any other company I have worked with on and off over the years.
This ride and the giant Ferris Wheel is the keystone rides of Mr. Ron Burback.
If I could afford it and if my back yard was big enough, I'd get me one of these things. They are a gas.
Ha my family rode one of these things in a small town in Mexico several years ago. The carnival was put in a really too small of a town square (it was a small town I can't even remember its name)and the swing was set up on one of the corners of the square.
Small towns in Mexico have no buried electrical service. So when we all got in the swings and the damn thing started, up we went round and round, higher and higher. All was well till it looked to me we were all going to get flung into a mass of high voltage unshielded electrical wires and the frikking pole mounted transformer was wizzing about two feet from out shoes. Sitting in a metal electrical chair that I had bot tickets for me and my family.
And then I started thinking about all the Mexican horror stories and carnival horror stories. Swirling around watch the memenceing wires fly by WAY TOO close to us. And think all this machine has to do is slip a board on its footing and we are all going to look like large Popeye's Fried Chicken.
and - I was soo frigging glad when the happy time magic swing ride with the 13,000 volt transformer additional attraction at no additional cost was over.
I like doing the safety check in the morning. It is fun to climb the mast into the bucket above the swings. You have privacy and can see quite a long way out of the opening at the top.
I have ridden in it -- the bucket -- when we were trying to locate the source of a troublesome sound. Believe it or not, it is scary compared to sitting below in the swings.
One thing too about these things, they leak a great deal of oil and they are pretty greasy too. You use large long paper 'kotex' stuffed in areas around the mast to try to sop up some of the mess before it drips on you, the operator sitting below.
The scariest thing I had happen was a boy unhooking the belt from the seat to the lap bar and sliding out. His Dad caught the action and yanked on a seat chain to get close and grabbed the kid by the shirt and hung on as I lowered and halted the ride.
That could of ended really badly. I sweated like a French whore the rest of the night. I did nothing wrong, but one thing you learn about the overhead personnel at a company that works a midway, they are capible of scapegoating anyone at anytime for anything.
It was a relief when they told me at the end of the day not to worry about the incident.