Tanks4me05

Probably Mega Bloks. They are a lot cheaper and they generally have much more creative pieces that can do radically different stuff, though there many Lego pieces that are not without merit (IE the Lego Technic series.) Seriously, that is a TOUGH one for me. Would you rather listen to "Adagio for Strings" by Samuel Barber or "Da Pacem Domine" by Arvo Part? (Look them up on youtube to decide if you don't know the pieces.)

How many tuba players does it take to screw in a light bulb? Three. One to hold the light bulb and two to drink until the room starts spinning. What do you get when you drop a tuba out of a 13 story window and it lands on a seven year old? A flat minor. So a tuba player walks into a bar... and he ends up paying $175 to fix the dent. Can anyone guess what instrument I play?

^And you also have to factor in since this style of track will require less footing, that means less ground space will be taken up by the foundations, which is obviously a primary concern at Hersheypark.

It depends on how many days you are spending. To get to the main thrill parks in Orlando, you will need two, maybe three days: One day for Sea World, and two days (or one if you feel like doing a credit run; I generally advise against credit runs unless the parks are really small, because I don't like feeling too rushed while going to amusement parks) for both Universal parks. I also recommend doing Fun Spot USA and Old Town in Kissimmee (they are two adjacent, separate parks) because one of them has a 150 foot Larson drop tower, and the other has the world's tallest sky coaster with a gorgeous LED package on the supports. You can do both parks at night. If you're going in the winter, I suggest to go to Sea World during the day, and hit up these two parks at night, after Sea World closes. And if you are going after March 2013, (I assume you aren't, but you didn't specify when you are going) go to Fun Spot Action Park (5551 Del Verde Way, Orlando, FL) because they are tripling their size and are getting two coasters, one of them rumored/speculated to be that compact GCII "Big Fun" model that was recently unveiled at IAAPA this year. And then there is also Busch Gardens over by Tampa, which is about an hour and a half or so outside Orlando. As far as hotels go, there are so many, I can't possibly point you to a specific one, except for that Days Inn a mile away from Sea World: I got stuck in a smoking room, and the smell was horrible, paint was peeling on the ceiling, the bathroom smelled incredibly musty, and I found a cigarette burn mark on my comforter the third night I was in there (stayed four nights.) However, the attached IHOP was amazing and the staff were INCREDIBLY friendly. To find a hotel that you want, just go onto Google Earth, zoom into the parks in the Orlando area, and type in "hotel" in the search bar. I don't know your budget, but all I care for is a clean hotel, so I won't do any hotels that don't have guest submitted reviews, don't have links to their website via Google Earth so I can check them out further, and I generally won't go with anything less than a 3 star hotel. (The Days Inn was a 2 star.) And try to plan your schedule around what is open at Busch Gardens, because I went in February and I didn't think to check what rides were closed for maintenance then... I found that Montu was closed until a week after I got there, and everything was booked by then.

The only Boomerang that I've ridden was Carolina Cobra at Carowinds. It was actually a very fun ride, and I also wouldn't mind one coming to Fun Spot. Never been to this park, but I hope to soon, especially with this expansion. Love me a GCI Big Fun! Well, I've been on six Boomerangs from the following parks: Darien Lake Great Escape Six Flags New England Canada's Wonderland Hersheypark (last visit was 2008, so that's pre-new trains) Lake Compounce And I have to say, they are a LOT better than most enthusiasts say they are. Are they rough? A little. But IMO they are well within the tolerable range, and they are actually quite intense. They're pretty much the only 5 G ride you can readily find around the world.

February: SWO, BGA, USO, IOA May: Darien Lake (X2) August: Dorney Park, Martin's Fantasy Island I have about 87.8% of the required funds for the New Hotness trip, so hopefully, I'll be able to put in my deposit by mid January.

<3 (Not my photo.)

Sky Rush. I'm a hard core Hershey fan. I miss HP, I haven't been there since Fahrenheit opened.

I'd say wave from a float. Which of the following guns would you rather shoot?

^^Frankly, I was going to say that Hair Raiser would tie with SDC's Wildfire (kind of like Wild Eagle's setting, but it's a bit more "isolated" from the rest of the park and the brown color blends in a bit more with the trees) and Montana Suiza at Parque de Atracciones Monte Igueldo (the world's only concrete coaster) rather than Wild Eagle, because Wildfire is on the edge of the park while Wild Eagle is more in the center (or specifically, there are rides on all sides of the coaster.) But either way, it looks gorgeous. And it makes me want to experience more than the GMT-5 Time Zone even more.

Something like this. I went to Adventureland's water park. Their tantrum that they added, I had to wait an hour for because they only let one person down the slide at once, and the slide has speed bumps, so the time goes by slower as well. You may or may not be aware of the fact that the one person per slide rule is a necessary evil of water parks as there is a legitimate safety issue, and not because America is lawsuit happy, either. It's a real reason this time: They only allow one person down the slide at a time and they wait until that person is out of the water because they need to make sure that that person isn't actually stuck inside the ride somewhere. If they let a 240 pound man collide into a thinner than average eight year old that was just barely tall enough to ride at the high velocities on something like a speed slide, the results will be outright disastrous. Also, the speed bumps on the tantrums? You need those, too. I went on the one at Darien Lake in 2010. Even after the speed bumps, I went almost vertical, and it was a little scary, because I could feel my unsecured body beginning to fall out due to the roughly zero G's keeping me in the tube at that velocity and angle. If the speed bumps weren't there, I would have gone well past vertical. Although that sounds like a wicked idea, that would have meant that I would have ended up falling out of the tube, with me falling about six to ten feet onto my skull or neck, coming in contact with very hard, high strength Fiberglass, easily paralyzing me, or worse. Unless the slide's land plot has enough room to make consecutively larger funnels (which these seldom ever do) then the speed bumps will always be there.

In 2007, I waited two and a half hours for Superman: Ride of Steel (pre-Bizarro.) It could have been about a forty-five minute wait, but it was one train operation and five minute dispatches. However, there was one thing that I waited an hour for: You might think that's nothing, but I was waiting that long for a 580 foot long, kidney bean shaped go kart track. It's at a local FEC that virtually no one on TPR has heard of (Thunder Island for the few Central New Yorkers on here.)

When you are riding any coaster, lean forward into the restraints while riding. The drops feel about 20 degree steeper. So Behemoth will feel like a 95 degree drop. I've tried it many times on several different coasters (the effect is most noticeable on straight drops) and it works every time. But in regards to Leviathan, I can definitely say that I am now very impressed by the ride. It looks phenomenal now. It makes me really wish I had enough cash for both New Hotness and Leviathon.

^^^After looking at PMBO's lift on a coaster video, it looks much more similar to that. So with the looks of it, I think that they are showing a picture of an Arrow Hyper coaster. But my question is, if it is an Arrow Hyper and not a B&M sitdown, which of the parks is actually selling theirs? They are usually the star attractions at their respective park. The only one that I would think that would have even a remote chance of being sold is Desperado, but that's solely on the basis that it resides in a casino and not an amusement park.

I say a B&M mini hyper or sit down. The stairs look like that of Goliath at La Ronde: http://rcdb.com/3385.htm?p=17709

-X2 -Takabisha -Dodonpa (And I thought Storm Runner's launch was insane... *drools*) -EGF -Either of the Mr. Freeze twins (the inverted top hat is one of my favorite inversions. I can't wait to get on one.) -Wildfire, Silver Dollar City (the setting is absolutely gorgeous in the Ozark Mountains.) -Voyage -Wood Coaster - Knight Valley (that crazy huge Chinese GCI on the side of a mountain) -Kingda Ka (mainly because I went to SFGADV twice so far, and it was down both times.) -Tornado, Bakken (I heard nothing but "HOLY CRAP" about the intensity of the spinning.) -Olympia Looping -Mindbender, Galaxy Land (West Edmonton Mall.) -Loch Ness Monster (there's some sort of nostalgia that attracts me to Arrow terrain coasters; I always had a soft spot for these coasters whenever someone was gracious enough to make them in NL for some reason.) -Tennessee Tornado (basically for the reasons of Wildfire and Loch Ness Monster combined) -Supersonic Odyssey, Cosmo's World - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (it may not appear to be top ten material, but it seems to be IMO one of the most unique indoor coasters in the world.) -SkyRush (I love HP. 'Nuff said.) -X Flight, SFGAM (B&M is really going for a crazy new layout, I like their newest idea.) -Superman Ultimate Flight, SFDK (same reason as X Flight.) -Abismo (Upside down lift; longest coaster with such element) -Nemesis

^Oh, I'd push my luck for a re-ride. There's the squeeze brakes, that BIG metal piece that comes up to block the front bumper, and there's also a Boomerang style hook thing on the back of the train: http://rcdb.com/1357.htm?p=18455

I'm quite impressed by the quality of the Apollo shots. It's a pity that the clouds screwed over your chances of getting good lighting during the day, though. It's also nice to see that someone likes Hydra for a change. It really is a lot more fun that what most people say it is. The forces are actually pretty good throughout, and there's good air going down the first drop and the two hills between the cobra roll and the second corkscrew. And plus, the station is close to empty at night on a pretty regular basis. I mean, come on, I doubt many enthusiasts on this site would say no to an entire train to themselves on a floorless coaster at the end of the day.

I love Dania Beach Hurricane. Though at a track record of 159, I don't give each coaster an individual rank anymore (I just do my top five wood and steel and the rest are rated with adjectives, ie "fun", "okay", "AMAZING") DBH is within my top ten woodie list. Though the percentage of wood coasters that have been relocated were small, most of the ones that survived were generally good coasters, meaning the quality the ride delivered was worth the extra expense of moving it. And as we all know, DBH is a very good wood coaster, probably within the top five wooden coasters in the Deep South Region as per most enthusiasts' opinions (if you count Florida as part of the Deep South; it doesn't even have five wood coasters) and one of the better wooden coasters in the country, so there's obviously at least some incentive that may be wort the extra expense, unlike other wooden coasters that weren't so famous in the past, that happened to ascend into coaster heaven.

^ & ^^: If it's a curving drop, (since they scaled back the project to a ten inversion coaster, my guess is that they are doing a near clone of Colossus based on the stats, remember we don't have the details of the new layout) 45 degrees is perfectly fine. If it's a straight drop, 45 degrees still really isn't that bad. I mean, it's not anything like Takabisha, but it's not supposed to be. It's not necessarily the steepness of the drop that matters, it's how quick it transitions to its maximum grade that matters. If anything, some nice floater air will likely be delivered there.

About time you got those pics up. You know I've been waiting for these for a while. Your skills with the camera are actually pretty good. I especially liked the photo where Speed's car was in the overbank, but you framed it so that it was in the center of the loop. I might try that out sometime in the future. It sucks that it was so cloudy that day, though. Some of those pics would have been dozens of times better if it were sunny.

I went to Busch Gardens on a Wednesday in mid February. Though the crowds were very minimal (I got on all the coasters multiple times) Montu is closed for renovation during February, so I wasn't happy about that. My best guess would be to go tues, Wed, and Thurs, between January 22 and February 2 (between Gwazi and Montu's maintenance periods) because no major rides are closed at that time (well, Sky Ride is closed, but if you don't care too much for photography vantage points, you'll be fine) and it's not a prime vacation time. Though it's only a few weeks before mid February, I'm not positive that the end of January would be best. Can someone else confirm whether or not that time is good to visit? I only went once in mid February once and mid April. But if you don't get on everything, then that means that the next visit to the park will be that much more unique, because you have another experience that you couldn't get before. That's a mantra that I've been adopting over the past year or two. It made me worry much less about trying to plan a schedule/route to hit up all the credits and unique flat rides.

I'd say 15 feet. Take a look at the how big the guy standing (lower left hand corner of the picture.) I assumed that he is about six feet tall. I then took a look at the drawing, and the track is in the top position; the rails are about even with the joining section of the A-frame supports. I assume that the track is resting at the bottom position in the real photo. So I used my fingernails to "size up" the standing construction worker, and I got about 2.5 of those distances from the top of the rails to the top of where the track would stop. 6 * 2.5 = 15.

Whirlwind at Seabreeze (2004; Maurer Soehne Xtended SC 2000) Fahrenheit (2008) Behemoth (2008) and I305 (2010.)

Do you guys remember the good old days in NL when people used to build those huge, really long terrain coasters? Well, I've always wanted to build one, but I haven't had the skill to do so until I learned Newton 2 last winter. Well, now I am comfortable with Newton 2, and I decided to start making a new coaster. Although some of these coasters were incredibly long (does anyone remember Timber Rattler from a bunch of years back? you know, that 20,000 foot long coaster?) they often were repetitive, and didn't have much of anything exciting in their layouts. I decided to construct a long coaster, and since I found how much control I have over a coaster thanks to Newton 2, I am making almost every single hill with airtime in the -1.2 to -1.4 range unless there is a clear advantage from a design standpoint to use floater air, like with transitioning to a straight segment. If any of you think that that range is too much, realize that there have been multiple reports of the airtime from Speed: No Limits, SFGADV's El Toro, and T-Express to have airtime in that range. And on top of that, I am using real charts that show the real legal limits, shown here: http://nolimits-exchange.com/news/g-force-lesson/35 which as you see if the safe limit is 4 seconds of airtime in the -1.4 G range, but I have never built a coaster with anything more than 2.5 seconds of air. All other G's are tested to be within limits as well. The vertical G's only go above 3.8 once or twice so far, and the laterals are obviously controlled. I'm not sure if I'll get this ride to go to 20,000 feet like Timber Rattler, but I'm definitely going to get this thing to be at least two miles in length. So far, the ride is a little over a mile in length, and I'm going to try to put in at least another half mile before the second lift. Though the quality of the ride is still the most important aspect, this is a unique ride, in which its characteristic is that it should be incredibly long. Now, here's an extra bit of detail: Anyone familiar with the north eastern US might recognize what it resembles. I recreated a part of the Treman state park in Ithaca, NY; It's why Ithaca is famous for the gorges. Since I live in Baldwinsville, NY (about fifteen minutes north-west of Syracuse, NY) I went here several times with my family because it's only an hour or so away. I've always wondered what it would be like if a coaster was ever put in there, and now I'm finally ready to act upon those ideas. Here's my work so far: Here's one view of the Treman State Park recreated to the best of my abilities. Here's another view of said gorge. Even the pre lift pulls some major air. Take a look at the top center of the picture. Then take a look at the train in the foreground of the picture. That's a 244 foot, twisting triple drop. Here's the Post Lift 1 section so far. Actually, I think I'm going to build at least another 3,000 feet before the next lift. I was fooling around with the idea of making this a contest when I was done. What do you guys think about that?