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Why SFGAm will need to do something with American Eagle. RMC? American Eagle will be 40 on May 23, 2021 … What should Great America Do? We know the ride is showing its age. The trains are original and ride control systems have not been updated since the fin breaks, the individual lapbars were added in 1985. From Rumors circulating the trains useful life span is over and are in need of replacement. The lap bars are custom and uncomfortable, and the buss bar unlock mech is painful and slow. The entrance to the ride is now an afterthought and the queue is strait line. American Eagle takes up a large plot of land and at one point was the parks signature attraction. The entrance to the queue was grand the queue house was enormous and ride was amazing. While the ride is still fun, it takes up much too much land to remain as is in the condition it’s in, what are the options? 1 – DO nothing, again takes up too much land to and is in need of lots of TLC costing lots of money. 2- Do cheap updates, repurpose trains from Texas Giant or just buy new trains and replace the breaks and control systems/ Ride experience remains the same. 3- Refurbish the coaster. Have GCI come in and re-track the coaster, add new trains and updated control system. While I like this idea, it’s a lot of money to re-add an attraction you already have. The ride experience would not change too much and while it was a great ride in its time- will that get the park the ROI it would need from such a large project and high cost. 4- Tear it down, install a Giga in its place. – Its SF, doubtful that will happen, plus it’s still a loved ride much like whizzer and there would be a backlash to its total demise. Plus it has good bones and looks wonderful on the skyline. 5.- Tear it down and add nothing- Its SF that could happen! 6- RMC it.. Ok yes there is RMC just 200 feet away entrance to entrance however American Steel, Steel Eagle, Screaming Eagle, or whatever name the RMC conversion would add to it, would not be anything like Goliath and more like AE just bigger, taller and faster and more amazing. Goliath is wood, has no lateral reverse turns, no duel or racing, and is much shorter, more compact and different style ride than the New American Eagle would (could) be. Here is what it could be. • RMC eagle would be done for the 40th to be opened on Sunday May 23, 2021. • Height would be increased to 180 feet, with a 200 foot drop. Drop would be near or over 90 degree ( Bigger and steeper than Goliath) • Would be racing/Dueling coaster not a double loop. • Would be steel I-Box ( Not wood like Goliath) • Would feature NO inversions ( Goliath has 2) • Built for massive first drop – speed, change of direction, dueling and racing, a hyper racing hybrid. Also Goliath is not as twisted as all the other RMCs are. • Would be as long as Eagle is now, about 5000 feet per side. • The Barrel helix would be more twisted and feature more change in direction, a high-five element and be more dueling then racing. • The return run would feature more side to side banking, higher hills with more air and end with a faster last helix that would be at 90 degree banking. • The ride profile would look very similar to what it is now, and remain white with blue track and red hand rails. What’s the take away? You have a signature, unique, one of kind RMC that will never be done again. It would only add RMC features to the park and the only duplication from Goliath would be the first drop. Nothing else of the two rides will be the same, and since Goliath lacks much of what makes other RMC conversions so great, nothing is lost in the conversion. It would dominate the southern skyline of the park and would be more impressive from outside the park and visible for miles. Great America is land locked, and has limited space to expand. With the coaster count at 15 we are at the point where each new coaster will likely see one go at the same time. American eagle becoming a new version of itself makes a lot of sense. What other coasters will go to make room for new ones. I see American Eagle, Demon, Superman, X-Flight, V2 and even Whizzer all leaving in favor of something new in the next 20 years. … Any comments to this?

How about Hershey KING SIZE. for the name or ... Hershey's Drops... King Size.

having riden Eagle the day it opened, its not a good ride anymore, it was amazing, smooth, fast.. the helix's are braked to reduce rider pain.. Giving Eagle new purpose, relevance and star attraction status.. without removing and having to clear the amount land AE sits on could all be a huge plus..

So with the talk about Demon being rehabbed - how about American Eagle? I know there was rumor of a RMC I-Box conversion - (glad that didn't happen) How about a GCI make over? Ive thought about this for awhile. Similar to what was done on Ghost Rider. Heres the change and the ROI- You change the layout to one long coaster - 9k plus feet long, load on blue side, come back on red but doesn't stop and runs the course a second time. Blue side stays the same, original layout, run it with out brakes, now after the Barrel Helix you return on the red side, after the final helix ( which was awesome back when the ride was new and didn't brake) you enter into the break run for the red side.. however you don't stop and not even braked.. so the exit to the station is re-profiled into a banked turn and back to the lift to run the course again. only this time after the first drop and 2 speed bumps the rest of the second trip is all new layout and profiled very GCI like - banks and attitude changes. After the speed bumps you go up to the top of the barrel and make an immediate left turn and drop to the left. Basically the course will run under the barrel counter clockwise the first part then a 90 degree turn to come back and meet up with the blue helix and rest of the blue course back the station. The return would be changed as well, Trick-track replaces straight flat area, helix would be banked sharper etc. Could run 4 trains so capacity would be slightly higher then half its current. If 3 trains were run then the two on the course could still race/duel while the third loads. the advantages. American Eagle was a top 5 when it opened, and was a really great ride when it was smooth, fast and ran with no breaks.- Half the ride gets refurbished back to 1981. Then you create a custom GCI as the second trip utilizing the awesome first drop again... last you build the worlds longest coaster in the process taking up no new land, not destroying the parks signature landmark etc.. well that's my $15,000,000 idea...

Did it come with Tylenol?

as for Vortex - Im still holding out hope that the conversion includes adding more track - Lift moved to straight out of the station and 130 feet tall, with a inverted turn dive drop, into a loop- a zero G roll - A high banked turn into the existing loop and remainder of the existing ride... Yes I'm dreaming...

As for the stats, I see RMC adding 20-25 feet to the height like they did with WC, prob 3 inversions a stall and 2 rolls, perhaps a dive loop to replace the turn after drop. Joker is possible theme, perhaps but no batman... and Superman right next to it..

too bad they didn't put JLBFM to the right off Dark Knight, they could have added on to the old theater and perhaps co mingled the Queues for the coaster and dark ride. You would then have Superman, DK and JL all in the same place. just BTR would be out of place. Then they could have put a free spin or small mine train coaster with southwest theme in the SW spot.. too bad. Craig

I agree that a layout change for Vortex is unlikely. However - with a small investment or about half the cost of a whole new coaster, you could remove the lift and move it to the south, add about 50 feet to it, ( 140) it would top out just past the end of the theater. From there do a half dive first drop going under the lift, a zero g roll that crosses over the lift - a vertical loop would be where the current lift is. After the loop a banked turn and bunny hop into the existing loop and rest of the ride remains the same. ( Alternate version would add a dive loop between the two verticals that dive over and perhaps interact with the corkscrew element) The room is there to do this layout, it would not cost what a new ride would as only adding about 1500 feet of track and the brake run - electrics and infrastructure would remain mostly unchanged.. I have thought about what SFMM could do with RR if they wanted to change it... I would only add sitdown trains and a launch lift ( ALA Hulk) into a zero g roll that ends connected to the current first drop... a completely new ride experience on the cheap ( somewhat) and you don't scrap an otherwise good ride, they have a floorless so that would be pointless.

I have two and both while working the same ride... Worked at "The Edge" in 1987 at PGA.. Incident 1- While working the one Saturday the park was busy and the The Edge was having frequent "Over Speeds" which was a cabin traveling too fast and the brakes would lock up and the cabin would not reach the Revering wheel. In each case it was cabin 4 and the ride mechanics would have to come and open the brakes and the ride ops would push the cabin to the reversing wheel. So after about 6 of these in the morning the mechanics decided to try a fix and adjusted something on the brake fin for cabin 4. So after the adjustment me and 3 burly mechanics went for a test and sure enough the 800 plus lbs caused another over speed. The cabin's brake fin was now replaced and we were down about an hour. After the ride opened cabin 4 had an Under Speed, this is where the cabin exits the brakes but does not have enough speed to reach the reverser and is sitting between the brakes and the reversing wheel. We get up on the brake run and push the cabin home- meanwhile the next cabin has been at the top of the ride waiting to drop. As the ride restarts and the next cabin drops there is large bang....... the cabin stops dead about 30 feet in the brakes and the top wheels leave the C shaped track causing it to sit upright and the track warped in the process. 4 riders were transported to local hospital with whiplash type symptoms and The Edge was down for over a month.. Cause - Cabin 4 left a 4 inch piece of brake fin in the brakes causing the under speed, when the next cabin came down it hit the obstruction and stopped almost immediately.. As result all the FreeFall rides brake fins where shortened by one section, this was implemented on all operating models that I am aware of. ( I think they were all down while the issue was investigated and happened 2 years after the accident at the Gurnee Edge ride shut it down permanently.) Incident 2- this was a direct injury to me working on The Edge. while checking cabin restraints I was working both sides of the platform. So I would enter the cabin from the load side check all 4 and signal clear to dispatch from the unload side and cross over while checking the next cabin. On my signal the operator would dispatch. With 3 loading positions sometimes position 2 would be ready before position 1 and the operator could dispatch 2 and as soon as position 1 was clear both 2 and 1 would leave at the same time. After clearing load 1, I was entering the cabin at load 2 when both load 1 and 2 dispatched. Not expecting 2 to leave and I was entering the cabin I lost my balance and fell into the track. I had a cuts on my leg and large scrapes and bruises. The ride was immediately e-stopped and was called down code 1 - ride downtime with injury. Security and managers were running from all directions to the ride and ran right past me sitting on the on the employee access stairs to the station. I was taken to first aid and patched up. I was asked ( interrogated ) for about hour, and big words like liability and fault were thrown around. I was still in shock and was really mad to be treated the way I was. So again the ride was down for about a month as the operator didn't issue a dispatch command for load 2. What happened was the operator did command load two to dispatch but canceled the command by hitting the clear dispatch 1,2,3 button that clears all holding dispatches. The Op also hit the unlock restrains button and the restrains in Load 2 would remain open for 10 seconds. In this case as soon as the restraints locked the cabin dispatched. It was found to be a programing error in the panel which interpreted the wrong command and sent the cabin. No I didn't Sue..... LOL ... but I was treated differently by my managers after that and still don't care for CGA and have only been there once as a guest in the past 15 years.

Many have talked about TC and how many trains will be used- From my view i have always thought that the dueling would require 4 trains.. From the POV - seems that with 3 trains it will NEVER duel. The timing does not work - when you watch the POV- its 40 seconds from dispatch to the lift… that does not include the time for the train to exit the station. From the base of the lift to the start of the green track its about 1 min 20 seconds. If you subtract the 45 seconds it takes for the train to reach the lift - and subtract another 40 seconds for the same train to go from the breaks to the load/unload position, that leaves zero time to actually unload- load - check and dispatch. There has to be a train loading while two are on the lift and one on the breaks - With 3 trains it gets even more complicated - from how i calculate it - there would be a one train at the start of the lift- the second train would be over the second lift and third would be in the station - ( thus not alined to duel with 3) I don't even see where it might sometimes duel - the intervals are too tight and is not timed out with evenly spaced dispatches..