The Precipice Ride
Built by Santiago Plicio in January 2025
Having recently seen a video of a thrill ride based not in an amusement park but on the top of a skyscraper in the USA, I was inspired to create a model to replicate the ride’s main mechanical function.
The original Insanity ride at the Strat (formerly the Stratosphere) in Las Vegas has five mechanical arms with carriages and is a rotating machine on the very edge of the roof of the building, taking the riders in its carriages right over the edge with this huge drop underneath them.
The rotating structure is supported from a large arm in the form of an arch from where a large axle supports the five arms and ride carriages. These five arms spin, swinging more and more outwards as the speed increases.
A striking mechanical fixture which caught my attention were the straps attached to the main arms which were also supported on the same axle but move freely up or down as the speed accelerates or decelerates.
This made me interested in trying to replicate the action in a model ride of my own, though of course without the need of a skyscraper to do it. To that end I built a long arm well supported with a tower at one end. In my design and building of the arms supporting axle, my version can sport three carriage carrying arms instead of the five as seen on the real ride, though when I have more parts available I will be able to increase this to up to six arms.
The top end of this axle was bolted to two circular plates resembling a large pulley where a large elastic band would be connected to the motor.
The same axle will hold the main part supporting the arms and carriages and also the strips in an angle which will move up or down at speed have also been fitted to the swinging arms.
I was delighted to see how well and so smooth the system was working and how it runs on these axles just as is seen on the actual skyscraper attraction.
I was a great satisfaction to finally connect the motor and see it work as perfectly as the manually driven test did. It is a medium-size model and far from any of my biggest, but it was great to try out another type of challenge and master it.
Sometimes you can find yourself teetering on the precipice before you finally have your epiphany; lucky that wasn’t the case for me even though I did start this model on Monday 6th January which is actually the feast of the Epiphany, but I have found myself many a time on a white-knuckle ride such as a roller coaster or thrill ride about to go over or fall off the precipice, to know there are many much more exhilarating moments than being taken to the edge and back, and even then to be propelled albeit safely enough over the precipice.
Overall the model took me four days to complete, but only a moment to get motivated.