A.J.

Fortunately, the design of my corresponding seat alleviates that problem. Comfort is what most of the general public who purchases a car is concerned about the most. Phrases like, "the seats are comfy" or "it rides like a dream" come to mind, even if the car in question doesn't ride like a dream to someone who owns a luxury car like a Bentley or Rolls-Royce - or owns a lesser car than those but can still tell when a car's ride is stiff or choppy. Likewise, guests should be able to be comfortable riding a roller coaster. While they're only in the seat of a roller coaster train for five minutes or less, the number-two priority is to make sure those guests are comfortable sitting in those seats. This is especially true for The Gravity Group, who have partially marketed their new "Timberliner" trains as being comfortable. The name of the game is - Contours. Shaping a roller coaster seat to fit the natural curvature of the human body provides the most comfortable seat possible to riders - their spines are not flat against a board of metal, their captain's quarters' are not jammed in between two boards of metal, and they have adequate support through the twisties. Combine this kind of seat with the over-the-shoulder restraint presented earlier... Remember that in reality there would be a safety belt connecting from the lap restraint to the seat.

Those of you planning on going to Phunfest - it looks like Knoebels has a SURPRISE! waiting in the wings... CLICK! Oh, and I'm pretty easy to spot in a crowd. I'm a lanky ginger with big hair and I'll be wearing a bright-colored shirt. Say hi if you see me!

Ah, you did know what you were talking about! It pays to check whatever location someone has under their avatar - keeps you from looking like an [censored]hole too! That's very interesting. It really makes me wonder why that section of track wasn't used as a mid-course brake to begin with. Even though it wouldn't be running three trains, with that block there you can make dispatch intervals even between two. Back on topic - I don't know why, but I absolutely love X-flight's shade of red.

But was that section actually a mid-course brake? I found this footage from Iron Wolf's opening, and there is no brake there. Then again, you are from IL, so I could be wrong.

CLICK!

Just an update - I've noticed that, for me, the problem only occurs on the forum. The front page is fine.

‎"Let's see how many sad and pathetic students we can shoehorn into a bus" is my new favorite game.

What do you mean by "changing their technique"? They've only made the truss-style lift hill once! The track with the yellow braces is most likely lift track because it has the opening for the cable...if it's not lift track it's track for the station just before the lift.

That's the point. It's a completely safe over-the-shoulder restraint, but there is no impression that it's anything more than a lap bar. I wanted to have a single large anchor point to the outside of the seat, but I found that using that kind of system makes it more difficult to produce four-across seating without staggering the seats. This design does allow for seats to be fairly close together, which will be revealed in more detail later.

A frequent occurence that I have is that I'm "caught" between dreaming and being awake. Like, I "wake up" and I can see my room, and everything around, but when I try to get up it's like I'm paralyzed. I can feel myself moving but I what I see is that I'm stuck in one position. Then I realize I'm not awake yet and I panic.

Yee-up, I will be going to Phunfest this weekend by ANY MEANS NECESSARY. Unfortunately, my costume will not be, as I really don't want to spend the money to get it dry-cleaned.

I think he's comparing it to the big Tivoli coasters (Pepsi Orange Streak, Viktor Vandorm).

Remember to test your ride from all seats of the train - all of Newton2's values (speed, G-force, etc) are taken from the train's exact center.

Sure thing. This is a shot with the Safari window automatically resized (by clicking the green + on the top).

EXCITEMENT! I'm going to Phoenix Phall Phunfest by any means necessary! Not going to wear that tuxedo though, I don't want to ruin it.

There are lots of complaints all over the place about how the iPhone 4S doesn't have a gigantic screen and blah, blah, blah, but one of the things I like about the iPhone 4/4S is that it is relatively small.

Hey guys - Lately I've noticed the advertisements are overlapping the forum UI (for example, just now I wanted to click on a page number but the advertisement blocked it). Is this normal? I remember that initially when the advertisements were put up, they were always anchored between the right side of my window and the left edge of the forum UI. EDIT: I'm running Safari 5.1 on OS X 10.7. Using the "maximize" function on the title bar doesn't fix the problem, but manually resizing the window does. Any ideas as to why?

Sheesh, I would never spend time re-making supports that already looked perfectly fine, realism or not. Honestly, if I would have to remake every single support to make it look like a Gravity Group wooden coaster to please NewElement or whoever, I wouldn't even bother. If you're still adamant about this project, I would still get rid of the giga braces and continue your existing structure, leaving adequate clearance for the roadway. You can get rid of a section of garden to include a support structure that's anchored to the ground in the roadway's median.

You really should just stick to the normal structure as opposed to the funky Giga Coaster braces. It will look much more clean.

So...the Apple iPhone 4S is getting ready to launch next week - anyone going to get it? I personally am going to buy the regular iPhone 4 on the 14th or a few days later since it will be getting a price drop to $99 on new contract (I've been waiting to upgrade from my ancient LG enV Touch).

That was for the 16th. I was the one who initiated it, so that explains why you wouldn't have found it looking at QueerRudie's posts only.

Oooh! A Huss Magic! It makes me wonder what happened to all of Huss's cool old rides like the Flipper and Magic.

Since the next waterslide installment is a work in progress, I thought I should showcase something else. The debate between lap bar and over-the-shoulder restraint doesn't seem like it will be ending anytime soon. More and more roller coasters without inversions are being equipped with over-the-shoulder restraints, while more and more looping roller coasters are being equipped with simple lap restraints. What a lot of people don't realize, however, is that most of those new lap restraints open overhead as opposed to forward, essentially making them over-the-shoulder restraints! In my research, I have concluded that there are three reasons over-the-shoulder restraints are used. First, having a restraint that goes over a rider's chest prevents that rider from moving and/or falling forward - especially useful when a holding brake is applied or a train is stalled, with the rider in question facing toward the ground. Second, having a restraint that opens upward with a safety belt ensures that a rider is restrained to their seat even if the restraint comes unlocked, with the tension of the safety belt keeping the restraint from opening up any higher. Third, most if not all over-the-shoulder systems require a full seat backrest and headrest to anchor to. This allows a ride to be a launched roller coaster, and some manufacturers who design trains with backrests simply build the over-the-shoulder system in so they don't have to design another restraint system. Enthusiasts hate them though! What good is a roller coaster if you have a piece of metal against your shoulders preventing you from enjoying amazing airtime? I have a potential solution. Bolliger & Mabillard, as well as Vekoma, have created restraint systems that use an overhead lap bar with shoulder bars anchored high and extending far out from the body, combined with a flexible vest harness. This design ensures rider safety while providing no impression that riders are being restricted at their shoulders. I have designed a similar system, but with an omission - I have omitted the use of the vest harness. I made this decision to save weight on the trains, as well as provide even less of an impression to riders. It is essentially the "un-OTSR" OTSR. Check it out. The safety belt, anchored on the seat and connected to the center of the lap restraint, has been omitted for modeling purposes - so it is easy to raise and lower the restraints while working on different models. This particular shot shows the size of the restraint relative to a typical lab countertop.

I've always been under the impression that B&Ms are people-eaters. You'd be able to fit a station in less space with the four-across. I personally think it would be awesome if the trains had twelve cars (48 people per train!). That would probably be wickedly heavy and impractical in the long run, but I still think it would be awesome.

All right, enough of this donkey crap, or I'm locking this topic. T-BONDI, if you don't like or offended by what someone has to say about your park, simply ignore it. Plain and simple. Coasterman, quit being rude. Give helpful suggestions, not flat-out criticisms. Plain and simple.