Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 16, 1990 TAG: 9006160189
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICK K. LACKEY LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Inside, it looks like a small movie theater. A room holds 59 people in six rows of seats that seem ordinary, except that each seat comes with a safety belt. There's a 7 1/2-by-16 1/2-foot movie screen in front and TV screens on each side.
Outside, it looks like a big black box held about 8 feet in the air by six huge shock absorbers.
It is, in fact, the country's largest flight simulator. It's like the ones used to train military and commercial pilots, only bigger. The room does whatever a plane can do, but only for a few feet in any direction.
Questor can pitch, roll, yaw, surge, sway and heave. In other words, the whole theater can rock and roll.
And each motion is synchronized within a thousandth of a second to a four-minute action movie, as an 800-year-old gnome named Alwyn seeks the magical Crystal of Zed.
The screen serves as the front window of the craft; the movie is the scene outside. The idea is for you to feel as if you are in the movie.
When Alwyn, the craft's inventor and helmsman, jerks Questor to the right to avoid a stalagmite or giant fish showing on the screen, you feel as if you are moving with the craft.
Questor is the only flight simulator at a theme park in the Mid-Atlantic region, say Busch officials, and one of the few such attractions in the country. Actually, there are two identical Questors, each 22 by 30 feet, weighing 35,000 pounds, so more people can take the ride.
The Questors' maiden voyages were conducted at the Williamsburg theme park Monday for several hundred journalists and guests. But first everyone feasted on large chocolate-covered strawberries, small swan-shaped pastries and huge saucy shrimp.
As a test of whether Questor would cause serious motion sick- ness, I consumed a large number of shrimp half an hour before the trip.
Would my stomach pitch, roll, yaw, surge, sway and heave?
No, I never became ill, though years ago I got car sick during a car chase scene at a drive-in movie. Apparently Questor is safe for even weak stomachs.
Busch officials recommend Questor for children as well as adults, but not for the elderly or people with bad backs or hearts. Questor is equipped with ear phones for the hearing impaired and a special slot for a person in a wheelchair.
It does jerk you around, but not nearly as violently as a roller coaster. It's exciting but somewhere on the tame side of terrifying. On the maiden voyage, I heard no screams.
Questor is located in the theme park's medieval English village of Hastings. To board the craft, you first enter a castle door. You walk down a 300-foot tunnel seemingly cut through stone. The passageway is lit by glowing crystals.
Finally you come to a small room where Alwyn, an animated gnome, pedals a unicycle and tells you that he finally has perfected a craft that will take him and you to fetch the magical crystal. The craft, he explains, can fly, float, shrink, and bore through mountains. It has a mechanical hand in front to seize the crystal.
Next you board the craft, though if you could smell popcorn, you'd swear you were at the movies.
You have to fasten your seat belt, because the craft draws energy from fastened seat belts. At least that's what a voice says.
Alwyn appears on the two TV screens. Presumably he's somewhere else in the craft, at the helm, and he narrates the trip.
For the maiden voyage, Busch Gardens hired Bob Saget, star of the TV shows "Full House" and "America's Funniest Home Videos," to be the official co-pilot.
You start out flying through a cave, dodging stalagmites. The movie was made by GLYN/Net, Inc., a New York-based production company, and the the opening scene was filmed at Endless Caverns near Harrisonburg.
Later the Questor goes under water, and giant fish swim across the screen. It surfaces, then plunges over a waterfall, as the flight simulator jerks forward and down. That scene was filmed from a model helicopter.
Questor's technology is based on what engineers call "onset" cues. A series of brief motions synchronized with visual images provide sensations of plunging or flight.
When the movie shows you going over the waterfall, the flight simulator jerks forward and down a few feet. If all goes as planned, you will continue to feel as if you are falling even after the actual motion stops, because the screen still shows you falling. Your mind is supposed to be fooled.
Regrettably, my mind wasn't fooled. I felt the jerk when the craft went over the waterfall, but afterward I didn't feel as if I were falling. During another scene, I was supposed to feel as if the craft did a complete barrel roll, but I didn't feel it.
The flight simulator was made by Reflectone Inc. in Tampa, Fla. The company's usual customers are the military and commercial airlines.
"One of the benefits of this type of ride is that it's reprogrammable," said David Shorrock, executive vice president of Reflectone. That is, the flight simulator could be reprogrammed to match up with another movie.
Sometime in the future, Shorrock said, a person in a flight simulator might be able to interact with the movie. If the person jerked the craft right, it would go right. For now, the person merely takes the ride and hopes the gnome knows how to drive.
Shorrock said Questor is safe. If the computer fails, he said, the craft softly and automatically comes to rest.
Joe Peczi Jr., the Busch corporate director of entertainment, thought of the concept of a gnome pursuing a magic crystal. He wanted something medieval for Hastings. And he wanted a new draw. The park is 15 years old and attracts 2 million guests annually.
The cost of Questor, Peczi said, "is comparable to the most expensive kind of a coaster you could build." But he said it is intended for people "who would never dream of getting on a roller coaster."
Busch Gardens in Williamsburg is open daily 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. through June. In July and August, the park stays open until midnight Saturdays. After Labor Day, hours are reduced and the park is closed Wednesdays and Thursdays; season ends Oct. 28. Admission is $20.95 for a one-day ticket, $26.95 for a two-day ticket. Admission covers the rides and most live shows, but not food, games or special concerts. For information, call (804) 253-3350.
by CNB