viking86

On most steel coasters, atleast B&M's and Intamins, its all about the trains and wheel assemblies. When I visited Mirabilandia a few years ago they were running 2 trains on Katun. One of them gave glass smooth rides, while the other one was shaking alot, causing some light earbashing in the outer rows.

That's a common misconception -- that drop towers are cheap to build. A decent sized tower from Intamin or S&S in the ballpark height of 250-feet will run upwards from $7 million. That's more than most large wooden roller coasters cost. Add low capacity to that, and its not really a surprise that not that many are being built these days.

I LOVED the FAbbri drop tower at PowerPark. It holds you at the top for 40 seconds (!!!) before it shoots you down. But it doesnt have the controlled feeling that S&S towers has.

I find it to be completely opposite. In my opinion, you feel alot more "loose" without a floor to put your feet on. I think the airtime on, lets say Thundercoaster at Tusenfryd, feels alot stronger when I lift my feet from the floor going over the hills. Visually I dont think its much difference while riding.

A quick look at this picture should make you change your mind...

Nope he meant Dreier Looping. Its not listed on RCDB because it operated as a travelling coaster. It operated as Magnum Force at Flamingoland before it was sold to La Feria Chapultepec Magico in Mexico. RCDB says 4.7G's while the Schwarzkopf site says 6.1 G's.

Boomerangs may not be very popular with the coaster enthusiasts, but I think its a good additition for a small park. If you look at the close-up pictures of the train you will see that most of the passengers are smiling during the ride. Interesting with the close distance between the ties in the vertical loop. Cant remember having seen that on any other boomerangs. Anyone know the reason....??

Excellent pictures! Looking forward to see more from our trip. Oh, and I love the bird pics...

I dont see any reasons why the trains shouldnt operate properly. Its just a different seating arrangement, it doesnt use any technical stuff that the world has never seen before....

The drop off the MCBR on Katun is straight. I think one of the reasons, as well as space, is to make the passengers feel more exposed. With a twisting drop, the track just seems to dissappear as you go over the top of the lifthill, and you get a great view of the rest of the park. With a straight drop, you would only see the track in front of you while cresting the top of the lift.

Im very sorry to hear about your loss. I have fortunately never experienced loosing a pet suddenly, but we had to take one of our cats to the vet a few years ago. He was old, but in good shape, but one day he just stopped eating and drinking. It seemed like he just knew that his time was over, so we didnt have much choice and took him to the vet a few days later. It gave us time to say goodbye, but it was still very sad, even though he had lived a long and happy life. They may just be pets to some people, but in my opinion they are members of the family.

I have only been on one from each company, but heres my top three list: 1. GCI (Thunderbird) 2. Intamin (Balder) 3. Vekoma (Thundercoaster) IMO Thunderbird is by far the best of these three coasters, which makes it very easy for me to put GCI on the top. Vekoma would be in second if Thundercoaster had "good days" all the time, but unfortunately its running like crap some times which ruins some of the fun. So I'll have to put Balder and Intamin above it.

Judging by the pictures in one of the articles, it seems like something happened at the bottom of the first drop. Will be interesting to find out what happened.

Final video from Gröna Lund has been posted. I hope people have enjoyed watching my videos, even though there are very few comments on them.

SK Brann, Bergen (Soccer)

This was a temporary ride. The article says that the World Carnival is a travelling fair.

5 people were killed when a ride car fell off a ferris wheel at the World Carnival in South Korea. The falling car landed on another ride car and caused it to tip over. Heres a norwegian article with two pictures of the accident scene: http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2007/08/13/508726.html

Nice pictures! Shame it stopped raining because Thundercoaster is amazing in the rain. Not as rough and ALOT faster! By far the best coaster in the park in my opinion!! And they operate Speedmonster in the rain so you wouldnt have missed anything....

I have two non-coaster rides which I like alot: -Fritt Fall, Gröna Lund -Starflyer, Wiener Prater

Parque Warner Madrid Best: Superman / la Atracción de Acero Worst: Coaster Express

Like my friends from England said: "Welcome to Norway, the country where everything costs 400 billion pounds" Nice update! Looking forward to see more.

Vekoma has started making cars with lapbars only for their suspended family coasters. Theyre really good. Check out http://www.rcdb.com/ig3702.htm?picture=5

PowerPark video is finished: As you can see, the speed through the final turns on Thunderbird was sick, producing some insane lateral G-forces! In my opinion the best wooden coaster in the north (Norway, Sweden, Finland).... All comments are appriciated!

That is not safe. Have you seen how Vekoma/Arrow coasters enter the corkscrews? Without proper restraint the riders spine could snap. Oh come on! Yes, there are lateral G-forces, but I have experienced far stronger and far more sudden lateral G-forces on coasters with lapbars only. I dont see how it would cause any problems at all. To me, this just seems like the average Vekoma/Arrow bashing....

Särkänniemi video is up on Youtube! Feel free to comment!