8 replies to this topic

[northeastskier]

Does anybody have pictures of the Falcon chairs?

[Snoqualmie guy]

I am sure there are some on this site. Why don't you use the search button.

[skierdude9450]

There were three generations of the Poma Falcon carrier and I think I have a picture of each of these.

This first one was used between 1982 and 1985. It features an odd footrest which looks like a six-pack footrest. The people in the middle get two halves of a footrest. There are just a handful of lifts with these carriers remaining. This was taken from High Lonesome Express at Winter Park:



The next generation was used from 1986 to 1989 and only had a few changes from the original carrier. This carrier was replaced by the short-lived Competition carrier. Most notably it had regular footrests. The seats were changed slightly, but it stayed basically the same. This was taken from Colorado SuperChair at Breckenridge:



The final generation was from 1993 to 1996 and had a few modifications such as the armrests, the seats, and most notably the hanger arms. Poma went back to the Falcon carrier after the Competition carrier had lost its popularity. The new Falcon carrier was replaced in 1997 by the Omega carrier, which is still in use today. This picture was taken from Olympia Express at Winter Park:



Hope this helps!

[northeastskier]

Thanks!

[NHskier13]

I don't know if this means a whole lot, but apparently the french name is actually 'Arceaux', which is more official because Poma is a french lift manufacturer.
Also I have a photo of a 1988 lift, the White Peaks Express Quad at Waterville Valley, which used a unique terminal model as well as a slightly different arceaux carrier.
Note how the backrest and the seat are all divided for individuals, not all in one piece.

 White Peaks Express Quad Bottom Station.JPG (234.68K)
Number of downloads: 73

[snoloco]

Uugh, I hate the seat dividers that certain lifts have. If you are riding the chair with less than the max number, you can't spread out without being very uncomfortable.

[liftmech]

NHskier-- the carriers on the White Mt lift are the same as mine (1986), just that the pads are different. All carriers of those years came with the individual ones, but as they wore out some ski areas bought one- or two- piece pads to replace them. I have a single full-width backtest pad, but two seat pads.

[NHskier13]

Thanks for the info, liftmech. That never occured to me.
Also, there is another "type" of these, i've only seen them on the South Ridge B at Okemo, VT. I think one of the chairs at Copper, CO has them too.
B-Quad (Note there is only one of those thingies between the backrest and the seat, and the whole seat and the whole backrest is one piece each.

Here's another:

Also, there is another lift that I THINK uses the same carriers, I do not know exactly if this is true (Resoloution, Copper Mountain, Colorado)

[liftmech]

Ah. You've found the first version of the Arceaux, which had a single-unit 'basket' which had the seat pad and backrest bolted to it. Starting in 1986, Poma switched to a modular carrier design where the seat/backrest supports (we call them 'boomerangs') were bolted to a single 70mm box beam which was in turn bolted to the bail, or carrier frame. Much easier to maintain as broken parts can be quickly switched out. Here is a closer view of mine (courtesy of remontees-mecaniques.net, oddly enough I have no photos of my own)