Vigil

So the trip with my friend is officially a go! Can anyone recommend any hotels or places to eat in the area? Thanks!

Awesome! That sounds like really neat, I'll have to check that out. Thanks!

So my friend is planning a trip for us to go to to Great Adventure the weekend of May 5th, driving up Friday morning and spending the rest of the day in the park and the spending Saturday there too. It would be the first time for both of us. Is that a totally crazy idea? Are lines going to be absurd?

That is one fast LSM launch. Looks awesome!

If DC does get removed I totally see them doing some attraction themed around the Forbidden Forest. I think motorbike roller coaster where you straddle cars shaped like broomsticks would be really cool, though. They could theme it to quidditch (which is supposed to happen right next to the castle too) or one of the flight scenes from the books. I hope they don't go the Fantastic Beasts route though; it's just not quite the same.

Well they look pretty damn close to me haha. Nice job!

The UVa Cavalier Marching Band is pretty awesome. And you can't beat their uniforms!

This is really awesome! Do you make the models? What program do you use, and how do you get them so perfect?

Grizzly at KD. I once told a ride op standing at the entrance telling people it was currently closed that I was disappointed it was down. He gave me the most incredulous look and said that he had never heard anyone say that before. It's such a good ride though! Not rough, but definitely with that out-of-control feeling that wooden coasters should have. And the first drop during night rides, especially in the back row, is just amazing. You just get whipped over and drop into blackness. My friends were skeptical, but I had them converted at the end.

Isn't the Avatar boat ride supposed to be using that technology?

I'm sad... I bought it, but my old af computer doesn't have the specs to run it well at all. Yet another reason to pull the trigger on getting a new one. It looks so amazing though!

Hey everyone! I am headed to Hersheypark tomorrow for the first time in just over four years, and I was wondering was to expect in terms of crowds and if anyone had a recommended plan of attack, ride/seat suggestions (or more like avoidances), or places to eat. Thanks!

People on reddit were being as you'd expect ("Omg so unsafe I'd never ride"), but there were a few people who said they were there and that there was blood everywhere. So it's probably blood...which is really creepy and really sad.

Grizzly is one of my favorite roller coasters there. People always look at me sideways when I say that, but the first drop on the back seat at night is amazing. You just get whipped over the top and dropped into blackness. It's a fun ride in the daytime too.

I'm also going to chime in with the Gemini love; it was one of my group's favorites when we went this summer. Anyway, compared to the screenshot of the live feed posted a few pages back, the current live feed seems to have the most recent piece of track removed. Or at least that's what it looks like? Also just a random thought with regards to pieces from older coasters being hard to manufacture. Parks could jump on 3D scanning/printing parts. The cost of all 3D printers is falling, and ones that print in metal are definitely an option. And parks probably have the budget for it too. It makes an exact replica of whatever part they need with no fancy manufacturing.

For a final project in a class I took last fall on multibody dynamics, I looked at the motion and forces that would be exerted on a rider during a flat ride that I had the idea for awhile ago, but never had a reason or the means to investigate whether it would be plausible. But now I did! It's a combination of a zipper and a scrambler. Here are some pictures, and I'll try to post a video of it. The riders are modeled by blocks that are just the average weights of a male and female in the U.S.; this was both due to time and computation limitations. The main arm spun at 7 rpm and the outer ones spun at 20 rpm. You can see in the force plots that the vertical forces stay within the usual limits, but the forces that would throw the rider into the seat and restraint are pretty high and, I imagine, would be really uncomfortable. Even past the force data, I couldn't find any information on jerk limits of the human body, but I can't imagine the very rapid change in forces would be very comfortable either. As a final thought, it got me to thinking how engineers design rides based on chaotic motion. They defy modeling not only because of their random nature, but also because of computer limitations in modeling random nature. Is there a perfect storm of motions that would result in a fatal force applied to the rider? Who knows! Vertical Scrambler 3.avi Plot of motion traces Plot of forces (blue is vertical, red is sagittal) Plot of forces over 120 seconds to show variation

Ahhhhhhhhh elevator puns...

The middle of the train is sitting right over top of the "kink" in this picture. You can see the crest of the drop is a fairly constant radius, but just before the evacuation stairs end, the drop actually flattens out slightly. Right under the middle of the train, the track radius suddenly decreases. (It does actually look to be a function of the support to me.)

There isn't Haunt on Sunday just FYI for anyone who was thinking of going.

Having just ridden the updated version, I agree about Test Track. The high-tech, interactive stuff was cool, but I thought the ride experience was a little obscured and the "point" not as clear. I still enjoyed it, but I think I liked it better the old way.

My feet are sore, and I'm really tired, but we just got back and oh wow it's amazing. It's all so cool. Will post more detailed thoughts later, but it's so goooooood!

Thank you so much, you guys! I really appreciate it; all that is so helpful. I am so excited!

We're actually just doing the rush of fear pass for Saturday and Sunday. Both of us have been fairly recently actually, having never been to HHN we don't know if there's an order to do mazes in or what. For example, the website says get there by 5. Is that really necessary?

So this harebrained trip is actually happening! We are leaving Friday night though and staying over in SC, before finishing the trip in the morning. So now we have the two days at the park, which is better. That said, does anyone have a recommended game plan? I remember years ago being like "I would never go to HHN, 2 scary 5 me." And now I am! I pretty hype; last minute trips are always fun. But game plan recommendations and recommendations for things to do on Monday would be much appreciated! Thanks!