Tanks4me05

If you did have the time, I would have recommended all the parks, as each one has something unique to offer. However, since you can only do two, I'd say Hersheypark, because it has four fantastic coasters and five or so good coasters, and Knoebels is famous for just about everything there (though I do say that their Roll-O-Plane, as rare as it is, isn't the most intense model I've been on.) That being said, next time you are in PA, do make sure to get to Dorney, because the park still has quite a lot to offer. Their water park is really good, they still have two fantastic coasters (Talon and Stinger believe it or not; actually pretty smooth if you keep your head back and insanely intense) and four good coasters, on top of the awesome Intamin First Gen drop tower, and the Dinosaurs Alive (which actually was pretty well done) and it feels overall like a mini Cedar Point. And there's that new Laser Maze thing that I still didn't do yet but looks fun and unique.

Invert for now. That may or may not change after New Hotness, however. reddit or 4chan?

Ambient heart rate for me is about 56, BP is 120/78 IIRC (went to the doctor's about a month ago, so they might not be exact, but from what I remember the numbers were essentially perfect.) I guess that and being able to march with a 40 lb. tuba for three hours a night, and being able to run up two dozen flights of stairs in 57 seconds (my favorite place to study at college is on the 12th floor of a pharmacy building; nice and quiet) means that I'm in shape.

Togo. Both my Togo experiences (Sky Rider and Shockwave) were a lot of fun. And yes, I rode in the back. A *little* punchy in the helix lead in, but otherwise both were fantastic. French onion soup or New England clam chowder?

I have a month and a half or so until I fly to Coney Island. Why would I fly to Coney Island you ask? Because it's not just Coney Island, it's the beginning of New Hotness...

Any small airplane with turbulence. Awesome. It's especially good when I'm on a return flight at the end of a coaster trip, as it gives me a bit of a parting gift.

And the only reason why I still have yahoo as my email address website is because I don't want to go through all the trouble of dealing with notifying all the clubs and companies, etc. of my changed email address. This, on top of the comments on the articles, make me want to throw up.

^Is anyone else surprised that we went this long without a genuine "this ride isn't OMG phenomenal" or is it just me? (Admittedly it's one of my most anticipated coasters of the year.)

Hmmmmm, the coasters actually appear to be in a really good condition. Were there any flat rides there worth mentioning?

Last night, I was dreaming that I was on the lift of a stand up coaster, where it e-stopped about 15 feet up the lift in front of a guy doing welding work. Then, some kittens that were being held in these small, egg shaped containers split up into three or four pieces got loose, and as I was back on the ground trying to cup one of the kittens in the containers, I accidentally sheared off half of one of its front paws. Then I woke up.

^^Probably about $0.15 to $0.25

This... this is giving Troll 2 a run for its money in terms of epic horrible-ness.

Just curious, but where do these "legal limits" you're talking about come from? Are they set by the park's insurance agency, state inspection agencies, ASTM, IAAPA, specific ride manufacturers or what? And who enforces compliance with the codes? I don't doubt your logic (it actually makes a lot of sense) I'm just interested because I've never heard of a singular organization that enforces the same set of regulations for all rides at all parks in the world. Sorry I didn't answer, totally missed your post, and I only discovered it when I was looking through the older pages to see if HP could possibly have increased the station width by 5 or 10 feet to account for an exit path on the right side. Got them from nolimits-exchange, which got it from Section 7 of ASTM Z9591Z, it's for any acceleration on the body including for roller coasters, but obviously not accounting for fighter pilots: http://nolimits-exchange.com/news/g-force-lesson/35

When I was ten, I went to Hersheypark for the second time, and as I was walking towards Lightning Racer, I saw people on Tidal Force (splash boat/white water landing style) being evacuated on stretchers, with an ambulance there at the time. As I left the park and got back to my uncle's house, we saw on the internet that the ride operator accidentally pressed the water drainage button as the ride was going; no water was available to slow down the boat and it derailed onto the rocks at the turn into the station. Several riders were hospitalized, I'd like to say a dozen. I basically swore off all splash boats after that point. I got over my fear about two or so years ago, but I still have yet to ride one, the two reasons being that I normally just don't care about getting wet and that I have a really awesome camera on me that I don't want destroyed, the latter of which is generally the primary reason.

1: Mega Lite. Wing Riders are more unique, but Intamin is more reliably intense. 2: Beast Type. 3: Hmmmmmmm.... S&S. 4: Neither. Technical Park Vortex.

I saw that a couple Brazilians posted a while back in the thread about this, and normally I wouldn't have taken notice, but I just saw today on reddit's roller coaster section that Chiller is moving to Brazil. Unfortunately, clicking on the image, it does not exist/is no longer available, but from the thumbnail, you can clearly see Robin's track on an open flatbed. I wonder if they will construct it with the Zero G roll or the camelback that was put in at the last minute. (Was the original Zero G Roll track trashed or was it stored as well? I can't remember.) Since Brazil has so few parks, it's highly likely that it's going to either Hopi Hari or Beto Carrero World assuming that this picture is true, I am not hallucinating, and this will actually come to fruition instead of pulling a Batman the Escape on Brazil.

^I don't know why the pictures wouldn't load. They are all JPEG's.

^^There's no way a .22LR revolver can be louder than a 7.62mm rifle. Look at the discrepancy in the amount of propellants between the two rounds. The only way a .22LR can be louder is if you hook a megaphone to someone firing said weapon. But otherwise, I am intrigued with your friend's luxurious preferences.

Did anyone else notice that there's no paint on several of the supports near the flanges?

Hersheypark Great Escape Darien Lake Lake Compounce Six Flags New England Canada's Wonderland Dorney Park, if Invertigos count. And whaddayaknow, I loved every single one of them. You guys really have to man up, or at least put your head back like all those signs say. It does wonders with the roughness.

For Memorial Day weekend, I went down to visit my uncle who lives about 20 minutes from Dorney Park. Since my parents do not permit guns in the house (I must wait until I have an apartment of my own, so that will be at least three years; my mom trusts me with them, but since her best friend's brother died in a hunting accident when she was a teen, she's been scarred by that) my only "regular" encounters with going to a range for the next three or four years will be when I visit my uncle. Seeing as people put non-coaster related stuff in their TR's on occasion, I thought "why not do a photo TR with some guns as well?" Since it takes way too much time, I'm only going to tidy up the best photos I take at the end of the year and I will repost said favorites. ---Prelude: Some cool shots I took driving down--- Driving down I-81 south, between Cortland and Binghamton, NY. I always thought that this route was really pretty. Some more shots, taken a few miles up ahead. Here's a good one. This will be one that will be doctored up at the end of the season. ---fun with guns!--- (This will also be geared towards those who aren't as experienced with guns.) SUPER F***ING IMPORTANT WARNING!!! THIS IS A LOT OF TEXT, AND IT IS OBNOXIOUS IN CAPS AND STUFF, BUT IF YOU ARE INEXPERIENCED WITH GUNS AND DECIDE TO BEGIN SHOOTING, READ CAREFULLY AND TAKE THIS TO HEART! IF YOU EVER GO SHOOTING, REMEMBER THE FOUR MOST BASIC RULES: 1: ALWAYS KEEP THE GUN POINTED IN A SAFE DIRECTION. Right at someone is obviously stupid, but pointing up is just as bad, because it will then act like a mini artillery round; even a tiny .22LR can go over a mile and a half and still kill someone. Obviously, no one has perfect 360 degree vision to see if anything within a few miles is living or not, so don't point up in the air! 2: ALWAYS KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO SHOOT. For some guns, particularly higher quality ones and most revolvers, it takes very little force to pull the trigger. All those news articles of guns "accidentally going off" are bullsh*t. A gun cannot go off unless the trigger is pressed somehow, either by a careless finger, something else that's also in the pocket, etc. 3: ALWAYS KEEP THE GUN UNLOADED UNTIL READY TO USE. Self explanatory. 4: KNOW YOUR TARGET AND WHAT IS BEHIND IT. Even pistol caliber bullets can go through houses. You need something strong enough to stop the bullet, like a large mound of dirt. (Other rules as posted by the NRA, equally as important, but aren't the four most-talked about ones.) 5: KNOW HOW TO SAFELY OPERATE THE GUN. Know its basic parts, how to remove ammunition, how to operate the safety. ***SAFETIES ARE NEVER FOOLPROOF. ALWAYS TREAT THE GUN WITH RESPECT EVEN WITH THE SAFETY ON.*** 6: MAKE SURE THE GUN IS IN A GOOD PHYSICAL CONDITION TO OPERATE. Guns encounter super high temperatures, pressures, and forces. Therefore, the parts need to be very precisely made, and in very good condition. Make sure the gun is free of dirt, rust, holes that shouldn't exist, etc. 7: WEAR EAR AND EYE PROTECTION. After repeated use, guns can cause a lot of hearing damage. (In an "echo-ey indoor room, a lot of hearing damage after one shot.) The high temperature gases and particles coming out of the gun can really ruin your eyes. And with some guns, particularly revolvers, small pieces of bullet can be sheared off because the barrel isn't *perfectly* aligned with the chamber, and these shards of lead, copper, etc. can go through your eye at nearly the speed of the bullet going forward, pierce your brain and kill you. 8: NEVER USE ALCOHOL, OVER THE COUNTER, PRESCRIPTION OR ILLEGAL DRUGS BEFORE OR WHILE SHOOTING. Like a car, it's downright stupid trying to operate machinery as dangerous as that when you are impaired. 9: STORE GUNS SO THEY ARE NOT ACCESSIBLE TO UNAUTHORIZED PERSONS. There are a lot of safety devices, like trigger locks, safes, etc. to keep guns secure and away from people that shouldn't have them (children, robbers, general idiots, etc.) so please purchase them and use them when you're not using the gun. And remember, like any other device, it can fail, so pay attention. 10: CLEAN YOUR GUN. To make absolutely sure that it is safe, guns should be cleaned after every use, and before use if you haven't used them in a while. Accumulated dirt, solidified grease or oil, etc. can screw over the gun. At best your gun might not fire. At worst, your gun could blow up in your face and some part can go backwards and kill you. 10B: BEFORE YOU CLEAN, MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOUR GUN IS UNLOADED AND NO AMMO IS NEAR CLEANING PRODUCTS. Self explanatory. Guns are like cars: If you are stupid with them, if you don't pay attention at all times when you or people near you are using them, they can be incredibly dangerous, killing you, a bunch of people around you, and mess up a whole load of valuable property. But if you treat them with respect and always remain alert, guns--like cars--can be very safe, very reliable, very useful, very fun, (and very expensive.) Now that that's out of the way, on to the TR! Here's the first of my uncle's two guns, a .22LR Beretta NEOS with a 6" barrel. I shot this one before. ...And the other one, a Smith & Wesson M&P9mm, with flashlight/laser combo attached; this is his home defense gun. Eine Liebe, zwei Pistolen. Just playing around with some different poses. "FPS View" of the M&P. Awwwwwww, they're kissing. Here's my uncle with the NEOS. Closeup, kinda blurry though. I normally would have trashed this photo, but I didn't have a lot of photos from the range, so I kept it. Here's my first time doing 50 feet with the NEOS, five rounds (one went off the page.) Overall, pretty consistent, save for that one flyer. He also had it sighted for 25 feet and forgot to bring his sight adjusting tools along. For those who are not well-versed with guns, "sighting" the gun means adjusting the sights so that they are at the aligned when your gun is actually pointing up slightly, so at a certain distance, the ballistic trajectory of the bullets will actually be at the same level of the muzzle, if your technique is good enough; that's called "elevation." "Windage" is for compensating for the wind, so the gun points off to the left or the right a bit to compensate for the wind. Again, some more lessons for the uninitiated with guns (I admit, I have only gone to a range four times, including the two times that I took photos for this TR, but what I lack in first hand experience, I make up for it by doing my homework, and a LOT of it) This is a .22LR bullet (LR standing for "long rifle") - probably one of the cheapest bullets you can find at roughly $0.04 apiece. Looks tiny, right? Yeah it is. But it sure is deadly. Wanna know what almost killed Reagan? a .22LR. What was the Mafia's favorite caliber? The .22LR; they liked it because it's quieter and its low velocity actually makes it more deadly; it has more than enough to pierce the body, but not always to go all the way through someone. What it usually ends up doing is it ends up ricocheting around a lot inside. So instead of one small hole (like there would be if it went faster) you get four or five small holes, and many more broken bones from said ricochets. My turn. Closeup of me. Closeup of my uncle shooting the M&P. Me shooting the M&P at 16 feet, or defensive shooting range. Though handguns can be shot at 50+ yards depending on the model, the vast majority of handgun fights are inside of 20 feet, so you have very little time to react given those situations. First time shooting at 16 feet, and I have my hand out for reference. (I started off at 25 feet though and then went up.) After my first time with a 9mm, I have to say that it had a LOT more recoil than I expected, it felt a lot closer to what I expected a .45 ACP to feel like (not to say that I didn't like it though.) So when you are starting out with handguns, start off with .22LR's, as they are cheap, much easier to handle, and there is still plenty of recoil in them to make it feel like you have something more powerful than an airsoft gun. So, after 30 or so rounds, I'm already shooting better than my uncle who has owned this gun for almost a year and has probably put a couple thousand rounds through it. Okay, NOW time for some roller coasters! The weather was really crappy though; clouds for most of the day so a lot of the shots weren't as good as they could be, and it rained like crazy in the afternoon. New skyline! I miss Laser though. At least it has a new home in Germany, unlike the fate of many Schwarzkopfs recently. Some parking lot shots as I was walking to the entrance. Double train shot! This... ...is gonna... ...suck. If you're happy and you know it, clap your--- oh. Sorry. Finally in the park. Weather still sucks though, as you see. Yay, Talon got a new coat of paint! Or was that last year? Can't remember. Still a great coaster as ever. wahooooooooooooooosh Love the sign. Not as good as Voodoo's though (screw it, I like that name better.) And #160... cha-ching! But in all honesty, I feel sorry for you guys over in NorCal, because I thought that this was fantastic. (Just keep your head back like the ride ops say and it's a lot smoother.) Saw this as I was getting out of the bathroom. E-Stop or idiot with a cell phone? My guess is the latter because I saw that at least three times today Too bad the clouds were here, because this would have otherwise been a really nice shot. Listen, I love my home city of Syracuse NY, but the cloud is something I *DON'T* miss. I have a few shots of Thunderhawk here. The ending would have been better if they took out the stupid trim at the end. To be fair, it needs the ones at the beginning of the turns, though, as even with them the climb up the third hill is taken painfully fast if you're in the front. Otherwise, it's a really good, solid ride, relatively smooth, probably around HP's Comet or Predator (now that it finally got Voyage's old trains.) This is the pain hill I was talking about earlier. Now it's time to check out Dinosaurs Alive. I was skeptical about a generic themed park putting in a themed attraction like this because it was so out of place, but I was nevertheless willing to give it a chance. It's an upcharge for $5, but no staff are hurrying you along (though several are along the route to make sure you're not doing anything stupid and to answer questions) and you can actually loop around and go around the route as many times as you want before entering the gift shop (beyond the gates at that point, your ticket is then considered void.) Although I still think it's out of place, it was actually pretty well done. The dinosaurs were fairly detailed, and I forgot that they actually were animatronic; there's a sensor shaped like a little floor light or mosquito torch that senses when people walk by (my guess to save power). The details on them were pretty sweet, and for two or three of them there had consoles so you could control the dinosaurs yourself, which I though was a cool feature. You could move their tails, heads and jaws, legs, arms, necks, and even lungs! Though IMO the programmers could have put in a little more effort and made it so that you could run more than one of the movements at a time. I actually had a fun time with this and did three laps before I left. At least we now have some cool new views of Steel Force. And Voodoo. Holy crap, that's big. "Lookin' at me? I sure am looking at you alright. I'm feeling... horny." DP is now partially approved by Robb. (Hey, less lines for me; I personally love the place.) Apparently, this one is called the Irritator... why the heck was it named that? Ohhhhhhhhhhhh... now I get it. You see that would be the cool thing about being a scientist, because you get to name stuff. You know with subatomic particles, you have hadrons, leptons, baryons, etc? Well I want to be a physicist and discover a new subatomic particle with magnetic-like properties. That way, I can name it the Clingon. Hey, wait a second... could it be????? YES!!!!! IT'S FINALLY SUNNY!!!!!! Dinosaur. Totally haven't seen one of those before. In all seriousness, when we get to the point where we can genetically recreate dinosaurs, (won't be for a long time, but I'm confident we'll get there) a Dinosaur zoo would actually be really possible and safe if built correctly. The only issues are that you'd need to build tall enough enclosures for the carnivores with thick reinforced concrete walls, where guests walk on top, and guard towers will be about with a tranquilizer rifle and an antitank rifle in case crazy stuff happens, and maybe a safari with the herbivores. And for the grand finale, a pair of full-grown T-Rex's. Yeah. They're big. Well, I might as well give my opinion on Steel Force now that I have had so many pictures of it by now: I actually enjoy this ride quite a bit. It's not necessarily in the top tier of rides, but it is still a lot of fun, and has a pretty good deal of moderate airtime, like a B&M hyper on the more intense, slightly rougher (but not that bad) side. Definitely worth a few rides. There was potential for a four train shot here, but I didn't feel like waiting what could have been a long time. I've been here for probably four hours and only got on three rides, so I decided to start riding more. Some more shots of Thunderhawk. Not many people pay attention to it, so I'm giving it some love. Such an amazing amount of airtime on this ride. It still doesn't get that much of a line over here, but it is nevertheless a fantastic ride and I'm happy that it is still here. Second favorite style drop tower short of the Larson and ARM models. Don't worry Hydra, I didn't forget about you. This is actually much better than most of you guy say it is. Dominator still is the best floorless out there, I agree, but this ride is NOT forceless, actually has a sizable pop of air going down the first drop, the hang time in the Jo Jo roll is impressive, and it is still one of B&M's most unique creations. Don't skip out on it if you are here. Then about two hours of HARD rain the sun finally came out so I took some pictures of Talon. No sepia effects, just playing with exposure. I got really lucky with the angle to achieve that effect. By now, it was actually sunny, but there were still clouds over us that were dumping rain. Sun showers, I think they are called. Strange phenomenon, but it pisses me off when I'm at a park. (30 - 45 minutes later) Come on, don't rain out on us again... YAY!!!!!! FINALLY. Decided to give Hydra some more love. Didn't want to bother with the line for this one, thanks to its legendary two adult rule. Going through my final rounds through the park, making sure I could get some sunset pics and a few more rides. Camp Snoopy. Yay, new paint! I like that this place is still getting a pretty good deal of love. I didn't go on it because I was feeling a little sick to my stomach as I walked past it, but I still took a couple pictures of it for the appreciation of the classic that it is. A really fun, cute, classic ride. Overall, it's kept in a very good condition. Now over to the southwest corner of the park one last time. Stinger... THROUGH THE TREES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Haven't heard that one in a while, huh?) And for the finale... Steel Force has a maintenance ball!!!! Epilogue: After preparing to leave the park at 9:45, the car stalled in the parking lot, and I saw that the battery went down the pooper. I noticed that the dashboard lights were on, but I figured that that wouldn't be the issue because that's nothing big. I tried calling my dad twice (as we both drove down) but he didn't answer. After waiting about ten minutes I called a third time, and he explained to me that he was on the phone as my sister was telling him that she just got engaged (I approve; her boyfriend is a super nice guy) I eventually hatched the idea to go over to a park employee to see where he could point me as it was only about 10:30 by this point. He led me to the Lost and Found person who called a maintenance/security guy that helped jump the car. By about 11:00 he finally got the car started, I had to sign a few papers for liability issue (apparently they've had to do this a lot before) and I was off to my uncle's house for the night before returning home the next morning. All in all a good three day trip, and hopefully it might hold me over long enough to last until New Hotness.

According to actual G force limits, you have to be above -1.5 G's after 0.5 seconds. So my guess is that the airtime was just a little outside the legal limits, so they put the trims on so the ride will be just within legal airtime limits, meaning either it gets above -1.5 before the 0.5 second part, or it stays comfortably within the -1.4 range, as you can keep a ride at -1.4 for up to four seconds.

All the pizza... *wipes drool off of keyboard.* Seriously, I thought going to Dorney last weekend would hold me over until New Hotness (I actually love the place, so shoot me with a laser-bear-launcher for all I care) but once I looked up this TR, my cabin fever immediately came back.

^Expedition Everest has a system where the there are track sections on opposite sides of a revolving drum, and once the drum revolves 180 degrees, the other section of track engages, and the coaster then runs backwards on a different section of track. And the "Tower Coaster" in RCT3 (where the coaster stops on a vertical tower, the tower rotates 90 or 180 degrees to another section of track, and the train is released backwards or forwards depending on how it entered that part of the ride) was an actual prototype designed by Stengel and it is patented, but it was never built. But in terms of having randomized experiences, there are no functional prototypes of which I am aware.

Your recollections of Fahrenheit are incorrect. At least in its opening year, it had misters. I remember specifically placing my hat over one of them so it would get all nice and soaked, cooling off my head.