CoasterGiant

Here is some Gold Striker porn...

I must say it is so nice to see CF and CGA starting to invest in the park again. There were a couple of years there we were all wondering how long it would be until they closed the gates for good. After seeing the improvements they are making in this off season and the investment in a new MAJOR attraction I have to say I am quite pleased with the direction of the park today! I look forward to seeing what the next few seasons will bring and hope that the park receives the revenue that it deserves. I am once again proud to say that CGA is my home park. By the way, if you liked the video, show some love on my Coasting for Kids fundraising... www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/andyh/CaliforniasGreatAmerica2013

No offense taken. I guess I should not have jumped on my soapbox. I am glad that my little coaster porn is being so well accepted! Interesting thought that I might just be the first person to do this sort of thing!

Just for the record.... I was the pilot of the RC Aircraft that took the video and I had the full permission of the park to do so. We waited until the media/ACE/TPR event was over and all the construction workers were on lunch break so that I would not be flying over anyone's heads. In fact, the surprised looking "construction worker" some have mentioned who made the little cameo appearance in the video was in fact the group sales manager Ryan Davies who was escorting me on the construction site. I was a good 6 feet away and climbing fast when he turned around . In a few shots, you can see the small group on the ground including me controlling the aircraft. With me also was Tyler Currie, who is the Operations Director of the park, and there was also the marketing manager with us as well as Club TPRs own BibbaBrat. All of the raw video footage and 380+ still images was given to the park free of charge to do with what they wish and they have already used several still photos as I provided views of the coaster not obtainable any other way. I was flying a DJI Phantom Quadcopter with a GoPro Hero 3 Black attached with a 2 axis gyro stabilized gimble. There was still a lot of vibration and rough air as the wind was blowing pretty good as you could see by the flag on top of the structure standing straight out. That is what caused the "rolling Shutter" or Jello effect as we like to call it in some places in the video. The video was shot in 720p @ 60fps and the camera was simultaneously taking a still hi-res picture every 5 seconds. Some of the shots that look like accidents waiting to happen were actually very well choreographer by me in flight and are maneuvers I have practiced many times to perfect. The flying was difficult at times due to the places we were allowed to stand in the site, sometimes it was difficult to tell exactly what the shot was going to be as I could not always tell the orientation of the camera very well. The fly thru of the head choppers of the structure were skill shots as I was 30 feet below and 30 feet to the right side of the openings making it very difficult to line up. All that said, keep in mind that I have several years of practice flying RC helicopters and multirotor aircraft, and more specifically, ones designed to be camera platforms. This is not something to think you can go buy this week and fly with any competence the next week so you can run out to the local park and take cool videos and pictures. There are also FAA regulations that prohibit the use of unmanned air vehicles to be used for hire, I am purely a hobby flyer. There is a 300 foot AGL ceiling and it must be in continuous unaided visual control of the pilot. Basically, don't try this at home kids! And why is it someone always brings up using the RC aircraft to "spy" on your neighbors and peer in peoples windows? Sheesh people, paranoid much? There are thousands of hobby flyers out there and have been for many years. There have been cameras attached to those RC aircraft as well for just as long. And how come everyone is all uptight about "drones" used by the police? Has no one ever heard of a helicopter or airplane before? They have been taking your pictures for YEARS... BTW, a "drone" is an autonomous craft, these are Radio Controlled with a person at the controls, not a self flying "drone". Ok Ok... end of rant! All in all, this was an awesome opportunity the park allowed me to have. If I am lucky they may invite me back to do some other fun things in the future. I think I got to put together a great 11 minute coaster porn flick and the park got the golden shots of the whole layout and nearly 5gb more in raw material. Here is the link to the craft used for those interested: http://www.dji-innovations.com/products/phantom/overview/

GEEK ALERT - It is official! I love working at this place, we get credit for discovering an element that only 35 molocules existed for (gasp) 60ms... Livermorium (formerly ununhexium) is the synthetic superheavy element with the symbol Lv (formerly Uuh) and atomic number 116. The name was adopted by IUPAC on May 31, 2012.[3] It is placed as the heaviest member of group 16 (VIA) although a sufficiently stable isotope is not known at this time to allow chemical experiments to confirm its position as a heavier homologue to polonium. It was first detected in 2000 and since the discovery, about 35 atoms of livermorium have been produced, either directly or as a decay product of ununoctium, and are associated with decays from the four neighbouring isotopes with masses 290–293. The most stable isotope to date is livermorium-293 with a half-life of ~60 ms. Discovery On July 19, 2000, scientists at Dubna (JINR) detected a single decay from an atom of livermorium following the irradiation of a Cm-248 target with Ca-48 ions. The results were published in December 2000.[4] This 10.54 MeV alpha-emitting activity was originally assigned to 292Lv due to the correlation of the daughter to previously assigned 288Fl. That assignment was later altered to 289Fl, and hence this activity was correspondingly changed to 293Lv. Two further atoms were reported by the institute during their second experiment between April–May 2001.[5] In the same experiment they also detected a decay chain which corresponded to the first observed decay of flerovium and assigned to 289Fl.[5] This activity has not been observed again in a repeat of the same reaction. However, its detection in this series of experiments indicates the possibility of the decay of an isomer of livermorium, namely 293bLv, or a rare decay branch of the already discovered isomer,293aLv, in which the first alpha particle was missed. Further research is required to positively assign this activity. The team repeated the experiment in April–May 2005 and detected 8 atoms of livermorium. The measured decay data confirmed the assignment of the discovery isotope as 293Lv. In this run, the team also observed 292Lv in the 4n channel for the first time.[6] In May 2009, the Joint Working Party reported on the discovery of copernicium and acknowledged the discovery of the isotope 283Cn.[7] This implied the de facto discovery of livermorium, as 291Lv (see below), from the acknowledgment of the data relating to the granddaughter 283Cn, although the actual discovery experiment may be determined as that above. In 2011, the IUPAC evaluated the Dubna team results and accepted them as a reliable identification of element 116.[8] Naming Livermorium is historically known as eka-polonium.[9] Ununhexium (Uuh) was the temporary IUPAC systematic element name. Scientists usually refer to the element simply as element 116 (or E116). According to IUPAC recommendations, the discoverer(s) of a new element has the right to suggest a name.[10] The discovery of livermorium was recognized by JWG of IUPAC on 1 June 2011, along with that of flerovium.[8] According to the vice-director of JINR, the Dubna team wanted to name element 116 moscovium, after the Moscow Oblast in which Dubna is located.[11] However, the name livermorium and the symbol Lv were adopted on May 31, 2012[3] after an approval process by the IUPAC.[12] The name recognises the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, within the city of Livermore, California, USA, which collaborated with JINR on the discovery. The city in turn is named after the American rancher Robert Livermore, a naturalized Mexican citizen of English birth.

My E Ticket ride for most awesome positive +Gx was being shot off the deck of several aircraft carriers... Nothing like 0 to 160 in 2 seconds! Oh, and a ride in the back seat of an F16 was a hoot from all axis. For coasters it seems to me that FlightDeck at CGA has the best positive Gz in the coaster world for me. Allbeit quick, FlightDeck seems to cause bigger grayouts on my body if i don't grunt and squeeze so it takes the #1 spot in my book. While SFMM Goliath has a great sustained force I don't seem to have to react as much to it. Fun facts in Physics - In the avaiation world G Force is described as: Gx = Front to back +Gx is from the chest pushing you back into the seat. -Gx is back to front. Gy = Lateral Side to side across the shoulders. There is no +/- rating of Gy Gz = Vertical Axis - head to feet. +Gz is head to foot. -Gz is foot to head.

And yet another thanks from me also. It was an absolute pleasure meeting you all and making lemonade and CGA today. I hope we get to play together again real soon! Wonder what kiddie coaster I can squeeze into next time?