Snovi

Definitely not the heat. Any photo, regardless of time of day or angle, shows the same undulation in the straight sections seen in the photo; they are all consistent. I've noticed similar undulations in Flying Ace's lift hill. My professional background is in mechanical engineering and I have quite an extensive amount of experience with steel fabrication / tolerance analysis and there are two possible situations going on... 1) Intamin has loosened their tolerance requirements as a means to reduce manufacturing and construction costs ...or... 2) Something is going seriously awry in their QA process at the factory. Having that amount of variance in a straight portion of track either means the track itself is "flawed" (again, that variance might be within Intamin's tolerances, so might not actually be incorrect), or the footings for the launch track have an abnormal amount of tolerance within them (again, might be within Intamin's spec but still causing the undulations). Been looking all over for a picture as you described and have come up empty. Here's the best shot I've found of TTD's brake run... straight as an arrow.

Interesting thought about the silver/grey on the back of the spine... Perhaps there's some functional thought behind the color choice beyond pure aesthetics? If CP decides to have a lighting package to illuminate the majority of the track at night, the grey will reflect the light much better than the orange/rust color, giving it a glowing effect of illuminated ribbon in the sky, especially if they use multi-color RGB LEDs similar to Power Tower and MF.

They have the vast majority of financing already in place, so not sure where people are getting the idea that they have a long ways to go in terms of financing this project.

It's a generalized version of the Polercoaster complex that US Thrill Rides was showing off at IAAPA. Skyplex's version will be much taller.

1. Nope 6. Once there is enough content to justify getting a 4K TV; there simply isn't enough content out there to justify the expense. As much as I'd love for there to be lots of 4K content, with the state of the US cable industry and their death grip on both the content and the internet access carrying any streaming content, I don't see the 4K transition happening anytime soon. 7. 4K... I have a HDTV that supports 3D and to me it's a nothing more than a gimmick.

Looks like Tony is taking advice from some people in this thread

Last I heard is the ride is shut down until next year so they can hopefully sort out all the mechanical gremlins that continue to plague the attraction. They had two similar mechanical malfunctions with the drive system in July within a span of two weeks. The ride uses a unique drive system where each gondola has its own drive motor to move it along the track, so rather than having a single drive motor pulling multiple gondolas attached to a single cable like a normal skyride, you have additional complexity by having multiple motors driving each gondola independently. IIRC this system was developed by US Thrill Rides and licensed to Chance for manufacture.

While interesting, I have a hard time seeing any major park installing an attraction like this... extremely pricey with too many risks for a one-trick pony. Further, I see this being a maintenance nightmare due to the environmental factors the system components would cycle through. If they do happen to get someone brave enough to bite on this, I see it getting bought by a developer type looking to build a one-off tourist attraction.

Thanks, Robb! Glad you could finally chime in to officially set the record straight

Just because the restaurants are still open doesn't mean they haven't already purchased the land. The Polercoaster / Skyscraper / Mango's developers likely purchased all the land well before the project was even announced to get everything for the best price possible... if they were to announce the project and then attempt to purchase the land, the land owners would have demanded a higher premium on their land in order to get bought out. It's real estate development 101. The time it takes to go from open restaurant to completely demolished building and cleared land is less than 2 weeks. They are likely allowing the previous land owners to continue their operations up until construction is slated to begin. Also, from what has been released through various media outlets, all the funding for the project is in place, so it's not a matter of whether or not they have the money, just a matter of when they will officially begin construction. The delays to the project haven't been from a lack of funding, but rather them continuing to add to the scope of the project. Finally, just because S&S/Sansei were originally involved in the project doesn't mean they were funding it; it simply means they were contracted out to do the manufacturing. What likely happened is the Skyscaper/US Thrill Rides people sent out an RFP to several manufacturers and inevitably found a more attractive bidder (i.e. Intamin) and gave the contract to them.

It was a combination of the perfect storm... the issues with I305 and the nightmare of getting Shoot the Rapids open (and its subsequent accident). If anything, it was Shoot the Rapids that was the final straw that ended CF's relationship with Intamin.

Yes.

The rain here in Indiana has been nonstop this summer with flooding everywhere (and another 1-2" of rain coming tonight ). I'm pretty sure most of Ohio has been experiencing the same wet summer we have.

Spectacular trip report! One of the best I've seen on here in a long time. Makes me want to book my trip to Cedar Point right now... in fact, I think I will

According to US Thrill Rides' website, around 1,500 PPH: http://usthrillrides.com/products/polercoaster/

You are correct. This is commonplace throughout the entire engineering community, whether it's the aero, automotive, or amusement industry. For example, there are over 50 different top tier suppliers that provide various systems and components for Boeing's 787. Likewise in the automotive industry where you'll find only 2-3 top transmission manufacturers supplying transmissions to 90% automotive manufacturers (ZF, Getrag, Xtrac... a good example is the BMW 3-series shares the same 8-speed ZF automatic gearbox as the Jaguar F-Type.) And similarly, B&M outsources all their electrical control systems to Consign AG. It's rare to find an ride manufacturer that does everything in-house from engineering to manufacturing; S&S being one of the exceptions.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Alan Schilke is designing the layout. I absolutely cannot wait to see what his twisted mind has in store for this.

When a multi-million-dollar investment has to be scrapped... yes, this is most definitely a real thing.

This webcam grab should put some perspective on the sheer size of the batwing: Train entering the batwing

No PolerCoasters were ever planned to open in 2014. They are supposed to be to breaking ground and starting construction sometime in 2014. I wouldn't expect to see any open until mid-to-late 2015.

Another snippet I found interesting is Alan Schilke is doing the layout.

S&S has been showing off an updated rendering of Polercoaster on their giant LED screens (which are freaking awesome)... I wish I had a pic, but the first drop looks INSANE! Hopefully Robb and crew can get a pic of it.

I think it's safe to say that we won't be seeing another Intamin ride at a Cedar Fair park anytime soon. Why do you say that? Don't get me wrong, I'd dream to see an Intamin installation at KI, but I don't think it's in the cards anytime soon. When you look back at CF's relationship with Intamin, it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. After Shoot the Rapids and I305 in 2010, we have yet to see any new Intamin installations at a CF park. I wouldn't be surprised if the snafus with both of those projects (on top of all the others leading up to that year) were the last straw.

I think it's safe to say that we won't be seeing another Intamin ride at a Cedar Fair park anytime soon.

The guy who does their animations is Keith McVeen. He's been doing the bulk of Cedar Fair and Six Flags' 3D animations for quite some time and used to run a website many ages ago called Badnitrus. Last I heard, he's also a ride designer for Universal Creative. If it's a 3D animation for a new ride, 9/10 times it was done by Keith.