StLCPfan

When I was 8 in 1980 my family went to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City. The first coaster we rode that day was Schussboomer, a Schwarzkopf Wildcat. The second was Zambezi Zinger, still one of my favorite roller coasters. I miss that ride very much every time I go to Worlds of Fun and walk by the lovely Boomerang replacement for Zinger.

I'm from the same area of Missouri southwest of St. Louis. The limestone bedrock in many places is only a few feet below the topsoil in this area of the state, so I would think if they wanted to dig footers they might have to blast the bedrock in some spots.

I think it would be awesome if the word master in the facebook post haiku were a big hint and MIA got a Schlitterbahn-style master blaster water coaster next year.

Yes, with the "beautiful helix of nothing" on the mine train and McDonald's: The Ride, I mean Hair Raiser, the views look SPECTACULAR!

The Arrow suspendeds, because of the swinging action that made the rest of the ride experience fun, had problems with inversions. The ride's swinging carriages had to have significant momentum to make it through an inversion and not fall to one side or the other, so they abandonded the idea of adding inversions to the suspended coaster design. And the mine train which originally was located at Six Flags Over Mid-America where Ninja is now is located at Magic Springs as Big Bad John.

^^^Geauga Dog, the Mr. Freeze at the back of the station used to move his head from side to side, and the automatic safety spiel came from him too.

When I went to MIAdv in 08 I saw the train more as a break from the walking to look at the backside of Timbers and ALL THE LAND THEY HAVE FOR FUTURE EXPANSION! And Timbers has a gorgeous backside. CONGRATULATIONS on the new waterpark addition, MIAdv regulars! Their waterpark is one of the best I've ever been to, and this will make it even better.

For those speculating about the RailBlazer history, Arrow made the stand-up trains. They comprised of an OTSR harness and a weird panel that swiveled up and locked in place at the knees. The current River King Mine Train track is the track that was used for Rail Blazer. The other one that remained the mine train in '84 was sent to Dollywood in '88 or '89.

Pilgrim's Plunge is not a chute-the-chutes ride dude. The boats are EXACTLY the same as Shoot The Rapids' are, 2-across five rows seating 10 passengers. The only difference between Pilgrim's Plunge and Intamin's other new and improved log flumes is the elevator lift and 135-foot drop. It is a SUPER FLUME. Yes, the ride is mostly about the drop. Holiday World touted the largest drop from the very beginning. The ability to tone down the splash to make it an acceptable amount of wetness instead of the tidal wave of chute-the-chutes rides is the difference.

Six Flags opened at 9 this morning for "Rise and Scream" ert for passholders. It didn't list EK in those rides, so I figured I would ride Mr. Freeze, The Big Spin, The Boss, and Screamin' Eagle and then get in line for EK by 9:45, but Evel was running when I got there just after 9. I got 5 rides in before 10 when the regular crowd rushed the ride. This coaster is AWESOME! It flies through the course. I was whooping and laughing the whole time. The air and the smoothness of the transitions, even the really abrupt one as the train heads toward the swoop curve wraparound 3/4 through the ride, were PERFECT! This is similar in ride to The Boss after the mid-course break, but SMOOTH and RERIDEABLE. I was a little worried when there was no test seat because right now I weigh 280 with a 39 inch waist, but I was told I wouldn't have a problem fitting. You have to be able to get at least 1 click of the ratchets on the lap bar, and I got it down 3. I talked with a guy from GCI around noon. He was standing back by the moon cars watching Evel run the circuit, just quietly enjoying his creation. I asked him about the design, the CG picture included when Six Flags released the information showing the swoop curve wraparound going clockwise, the opposite of Thunderbird's counterclockwise move, and he said no, it's almost exactly the same as Thunderbird. I don't know if anybody else had noticed that yet. That's the spot with the insane direction change from a left turn away from the section along the lifthill to a right turn heading back toward the first swoop curve and turning counterclockwise around it heading into the final bunny hops. The bunny hops are really cool! COME TO ST. LOUIS AND EXPERIENCE THIS RIDE! I'm really looking forward to my trip to Valleyfair next week, Renegade looks really fun, but the compactness of EK with the multiple crossovers and headchoppers is a PERFECT addition to my home park.

This happens periodically in both RCT and RCT2. Even if you set all roller coaster inspections to 10 minutes, sometimes the breakdown is brake failure. If there is a train in the station and the mechanic called doesn't reach the ride to repair the brakes before a train on the course reaches the station the two trains will collide, and one of them explodes. I think it's funny that Sawyer had a complete destruction occur when this happens instead of a realistic crash. The only way to prevent this is to pull up the ride window every time there is a roller coaster breakdown and check what is the cause. If it lists break failure as the cause of the breakdown, check to see how close the mechanic called is and how close the train on the course is to the station. Sometimes you get lucky and the mechanic repairs the ride before anything happens. Sometimes you can move the mechanic with your pincers, and he/she will be called again over the radio and reach the ride in time. Sometimes the brake failure occurs within too short a time of the train on the course to be stopped before it reaches the station, and the crash is inevitable. When the crash does occur, you can either reopen the ride or go back to a point in the game that you saved. The handbook reccomends saving frequently, and the coaster crash is one of the main reasons for doing so. If you have saved the game within a few minutes of the crash, you might be able to go back and prevent it from happening. Use the pause button when relocating the mechanic to prevent the crash.

I've compared the rendering of Evel Knievel to Thunderbird, and it looks like the only difference is that the track coming back towards the lift and first drop of EK drops next to the first drop and the track then curves clockwise around the first turnaround and jumps over those two low sections of track, whereas Tbird goes over the first drop BEFORE turning around counter-clockwise at that point. This looks like a really fun coaster. I, like many others, hope that the next coaster SFStL receives will be a nice steel one, either a large looper or hyper from B&M or Intamin, but I am REALLY looking forward to riding Evel Knievel next year.