KBNA777

What about Mellenium Force style lift hills. I mean they are a kind of hybrid design. Would that be acceptable (I for one hate the "long" lift times).

I don’t know if they do this with roller coaster design, but in the Nuclear industry we use PRA (probabilistic risk assessment) on each of the possible failure points of any process. I am going to assume they do something like this, but probably call it something else, and they look at each element in the track design and figure out what restraint should be used. Sure if the coaster makes it up the lift hill it should return to the station, but accidents happen and maybe it becomes stuck in a corkscrew or other twisting inversion. Do lap bar restraints provide a “fail safe” option? Its crap like that, that states or countries or coaster companies have looked at and determined the restraint needed. It is likely that on most if not all of the rides it has been shown that using lap bars would not provided a safe or effective means of restraint. Personally I have never ridden Mindbender but have ridden OTSR rides like Batman and Ninja (SFStL) and don’t mind them. But my wonderful fiancé has unfermented me about how much “cooler” it is to loop with the lap bar. But then again what do I know, I work with Nuclear Reactors.

You make a good point, I loved Street Fighter the movie when I read the script, but then I saw the movie. (That was perhaps the worst joke I have ever made in my life on the internet……..ever) To the El Toro discussion. Were the beams manufactured locally or were they special made and shipped, I mean from like over seas (etc.). Also does the process of producing such a beam raise construction costs as opposed to a traditional wooden coaster? This is a unique manufacturing process, as far as I know, in the coaster world, does this design have any problems with maintenance i.e. parts and different maintenance practices which would lead to a lack of future sales?

Well I was saying it was mean because it just sounded harsh. But you do not directly meet the candidate for president but people make decisions based on their "character". I feel that you have ridden enough coasters you can make that kind of assumption, you just don't have to listen to there results, as they have no basis.

^ So mean. In all honesty he did mention possibly the greatest part of the ride, if you don't count the amazing first drop.

Not sure as I doubt you could make a list of 10 "best" performing parks at this time. Basically all the ones near major population centers, i.e. SFOG, SFMM, SFGA. Then again my logic fails as SFEG is not doing well and Denver is a fairly substantial city.

The reason for the high ticket prices is simple. When you are broke you make more money. I know it is frustrating seeing the prices climb but you have to look at how much everyone's costs have raised lately, i.e. $3.00 a gallon of gas. The other thing is that that money is paying for 30 parks or whatever they own now. Their costs are much more spread out and some parks are just killing them money wise. I think SFEG is one of them. The biggest difference is that Cedar Point was run right and has been for a long time. They do not make terrible acquisitions and spend money on wasteful products, although TTD was not looking good for a while. And you are also right Mark Shaps does want to stuff his wallet, how many CEOs don't. Could be worse, Six Flags is still in business.

The drawing: From an engineering design stand point the model has flaws, but that was not the point of the drawing. Everyone has to start somewhere, and this is a great start. I am not too familiar with MD but with ProE and SolidWorks you can perform FEA and stress analysis on the models (assuming you know the material each pikes is made of). After you design a new car, and I have no doubt you will, try and see what happens if you have loads on the car, i.e. turns and loops etc. But enjoy drafting and design because you will probably always have to do that in some aspect of design. School: Are you planning on doing Mechanical Engineering or more like manufacturing engineering? If you were going to get into ME I would recommend hitting the math hard and get it all out of the way. It is amazing how it seems like you never use any of that upper level math and then one class you get to solve differential equations. The most important thing you can do is not get unwilling to push through the hard times. Engineering is hard, and no matter what you will spend so much time working on projects and in teams, it gets tiring. On a side note, taking business classes really helps out for some reason. I had always thought of the business school as the evil empire. And another note, learn how to write technically, this will help out, as all employers are looking for good writers. In fact that is probably just as important as being able to speak well.

The Voyage at Holiday World. The best wooden coaster around with free soft drinks and cheap food. But then again, my coaster and park list is extremely short.