Skycoastin Steve

^Yeah, the front of the train on the 3rd hill is wonderful floating air. My main love for the back seat is the first drop and the nice whipping action around a few of the overbanks, especially the last one. Airtime fiends are silly. There's a lot more to a coaster than airtime. Sometimes I just think that young enthusiasts see how much old enthusiasts rave about airtime and automatically think that's the gold standard for coaster fun. While airtime is awesome, a coaster doesn't need it to be great.

For what it's worth, the website says Xcelerator will be closed through the end of the month.

^You've got to be getting it on bad days. I've ridden it on really cold days, and it literally almost stops on the 3rd hill. But on those warm, humid Ohio nights in July, that ride is flat out NUTS. I used to get off work at 5, go back to my room and chill for a bit, then go back a little before closing to get one of the last rides of the night in the back row. Didn't care how long the wait was. Can't even count how many times I did that. But as far as I305 topping MF, I'm not entirely sure. We'll have to see. It might end up being one of those situations where I can't put any hyper above Magnum. I don't think any hyper can touch Magnum, and maybe no giga can touch MF. They're certainly very different rides, so who knows! If anything can hold it back, it'll be the restraints (no pun intended). You won't have that flying sensation you get on MF.

One thing I've noticed that wasn't really visible in the POV animation is the amount of head choppers in this layout. There are TONS of them. Intamin is so good at making head choppers.

If I had to speculate about the airtime, I would say that the 2nd hill will most surely be an ejection, given it's short height and the fact that the train will be hauling donkeys going into that hill. The other, smaller airtime hill later in the ride is the big question mark. I'm betting the turns that have small hops (jump turns) like in the Mega-Lites are going to have small pops of air. Butttttt it's all speculation and we'll find out in just under 3 months!

In my most humble opinion, HRRR was the worst of the new coasters this year (I rode Prowler, Manta, Diamondback, and HRRR, will get Terminator in March). And it wasn't even close. I may have just sat in a bad seat and had a bad experience, Lord knows it happens, but I didn't enjoy my ride AT ALL. Plus I got stuck for a good 10 minutes with the lapbar stapling me and cutting off the circulation to my lower extremities. Maybe next time will be better?

I think it's probably because I'm so used to riding it and know how to avoid the extreme pain, but I could marathon the ejector seat. The employee ride night we had one of my years there I did about 7 or 8 rides in that seat over the hour it was open, and without the trims on the pretzel. INSANITY. But I still love it. It's the original hyper, and will probably always remain my #1 hyper.

And just because I feel like copying what downunder did...... 1. Millennium Force - #10 2. Maverick - #17 3. Storm Runner - #30 (wow) 4. Magnum XL-200 - #69 (sad) 5. Top Thrill Dragster - #31 6. Montu - #18 7. Apollo's Chariot - #16 8. Diamondback - #4 9. Phantom's Revenge - #25 10. Incredible Hulk - #39 11. Titan - #74 (no love for the helix of death?) 12. Alpengeist - #54 13. Nitro - #19 14. Kumba - #28 15. Griffon - #27 16. Sheikra - #24 17. Steel Force - #94 (really?) 18. Kraken - #33 19. Manta - #23 20. Afterburn - #35

^See I don't think MF has ejector air. Well, actually, back row on the first drop and then most anywhere on the train on the bunny hop by the station have some wicked air, but the two hills over the water don't. If you ride in the 2nd or 3rd car, the 3rd hill has some good floater air, and the return hill has some ok floater air. But then again, it's not supposed to be an airtime coaster, so I really don't care.

^I mean the first drop was fun, and the Norwegian Loop was cool, but after that it wasn't anything that out of the ordinary. A cobra roll with two drawn out corkscrews, turn, pretty good airtime hill, brakes. As far as Hershey Park is concerned, Storm Runner was wayyyyy better and Lightning Racer was wayyyyyy better.

Fahrenheit was boring. Magnum is about as classic as it gets. Alpengeist is one of those rides that people differ greatly on. I think it's awesome, but others hate it.

We would have known the true extent of the power of Prowler fanboys if it had made the top 10 steel list.

^ I guess being at a theme park they just assume they're going to have to pay for everything.

I've never been dissatisfied with it. The only time it isn't worth it is if the park is totally dead. If there's any kind of lines it makes your day so much more enjoyable to not have to stand in them that much. But then again, I loathe waiting in lines, so other people may feel differently.

^Judging by the color scheme, it looks like Raging Bull.

I guess I can do a recap of my favorite pictures I took in 2009.

Officially registered! Now where is my Delorean with the flux capacitor?

In the 2 years I worked at CP, I don't think I could count how many times I heard Lake Erie referred to as an "ocean." There were even times someone would ask me directly which ocean it was, and I would politely respond, "Oh, that's LAKE Erie." Either that or I would say it was the Erie Ocean.

I think the GP vastly outweighs the opinion of a few posters on here.

I already said this once about track length, but the reason I305 is shorter than the B&M hypers is because it doesn't have the amount of airtime hills that they have. Airtime hills have way more track length than low to the ground turns. And I don't think I could say this enough, but NOBODY in Virginia cares about Six Flags America.........NOBODY. I used to live in northern VA and I could tell you without any shadow of a doubt that if you asked them where they would want to go for a theme/amusement park, they would say KD or BGE 100 times out of 100. I guarantee you KD doesn't see SFA as any kind of competition at all.

I agree Alot of people complain about MF having alot of flat track where it is doing nothing which certainly adds up to its length. (although they were trying to fit it in certain areas) I305 looks like one of those rides that won't let you catch your breath till the brakes then your first breath is WOW! JEFF MF doesn't really have that much flat track. There's a very short section before the 2nd overbank on the island, a very short section before the 2nd tunnel, and then the longer stretch before the final overbank. By comparison, the two Rides of Steel have nothing but straight, flat track between their transitions.

I still think it was hilarious that they themed a wooden coaster after a robot movie.

^I don't see why not, it's not like any of the technology on I305 is new. Cable lift has been done tons of times before, as have the magnetic brakes. As long as there's no crazy last-second track layout change or construction snafoos, it should be a go.

The only coaster of Intamin's that hasn't opened the day it was supposed to was Maverick.

I don't see why it wouldn't open with the park on Opening Day. It would be a pretty big letdown if it didn't.