ZeroGravity55

^ Great trip report! Thanks for sharing. Those round footers are for the station. It seems like they started showing up after the announcement.

Hasn't there been reports this year that Cedar Point has fixed the tightening vest issue with Gatekeeper? Also, hasn't B&M been able to solve this problem as there have really been no complaints about any tightening vests on Banshee?

Man, I swear this coaster produces some of the most conflicting reports I've ever read about a ride. I read one last week where they said they loved the ride. Read another last week that called the first half El Toro like, and then the second half Son of Beast like. Seems like this happens every year though. Saw one on here where the guy said it be out El Toro for his #1 this year. I've read more good than bad this year, but I try not to get my hopes up because the ride tends to be a bit bi-polar. I really wish I could have rode it when I visited in June (it was closed all day), so I could already have made my own observations about the ride. I'm considering visiting the final weekend the waterpark is open, but I'm thinking about holding off for Happy Halloween Weekends to get better pictures of Thunderbird.. I'm so glad there has been a real emphasis on theming these last two years. Not saying there hasn't been theming before, but there seems to be a lot more detail being put into every project. I'm kinda of hoping they use PP's old station to create some sort of dark ride/shoot the chutes combination, or they come in and redo/re-theme Frightful Falls. I think they could do some crazy/creative things with Frightful Falls. It could really use a face lift. To be honest, the last time I rode it was about 5 years ago. Might give it a spin the next time I'm there.

Looking at the first drop, I could see them literally dropping this sucker all the way down to the footings, looking very similar to the first drop and turns on the Intamin Mega-lites and Chance Hyper-lites. Then it would go through that hill over the lift. Looking at the hill, I thought that it might be a possible inversion. Now seeing the way it is bridged, looks like it could be one hell of an airtime hill. Much like ones that follow the initial drop and turn of the Intamin Mega-lites and Chance Hyper-lites. Getting an idea of where I'm going yet? Honestly, I see one spot on this ride that has what I feel would be a natural inversion, there are other spots where inversions could go, but I feel they would be forced into the layout. I mean, they can really only do one inversion, which is a barrel roll, and that gets kind of repetitive, especially with the compact layout on this ride. I don't really expect any overbanks. Those big swooping turns are kind of too drawn out IMO. I'm expecting this thing to stay low to the ground, have lots of airtime, and there will definitely be some "twisty" in this ride. Several transitions where you enter at 90 degrees, and being that this is Six Flags, there will most definitely be one or more inversions.

^ Yes. The Flywheel is supposed to supply the power for the LSM's. The park paid to have a substation put in across the road to specifically power the Flywheel. I think somebody brought it up on here last week. With Santa Claus being so rural and no major cities near by, the Flywheel was needed to ensure that the worst case scenario wouldn't happen when the train is launched, which would be that it could cause blackouts. I could have interpreted that wrong though.

^^ They clearly stated last week that the building was for the flywheel. As tall as the station is, I expect all the computer stuff that goes into the LSM's to be housed underneath the loading area. They did the same thing with all of The Voyage's computers (I know it doesn't use LSM's). I believe it is easier on the maintenance team that way. I believe the land he was referring to is across from the employee parking lot on highway 162. Conventional thought tells me that the employee parking lot will end up over there one day and they will work with the state to get a tunnel under the rode like they did for The Legend parking lot. They could go two ways with that employee parking lot if they do move across the road. One, use it for the continued expansion of the Thanksgiving section. Two, which would be my personal preference, expand upon the 4th of July section. I don't think they've fully maximized the theming potential that sections has to offer. They already have the pathways going down there, which are currently for employee use only right now.

That building is supposed to host the flywheel and will be the building with the words "Will power" on the side

^ No he basically got put in timeout. I found one of his posts from yesterday. Honestly, it's gonna be hard for him to post on here with any credibility now (at least in my mind). Same here.

I'll chime in on this. They can only really put in as many inversions as the footings/structure already present will allow them too. Looking at the POV, there is about 5 spots that will allow them to put in a inversion. I already see two definite ones. It'll be up to Six Flags after that. RMC originally only designed two inversions into Medusa Steel Coaster, then the park asked for one more. I'll say this, RMC will design airtime into this coaster. They have on every other redo. And finally, they will also design this thing to absolutely fly through the course, just like every other single one of their coasters. At the end of the day, inversions or not, Cyclone will be a much better ride.

^ Yeah he stole the majority of those pictures from the negative g website. Hell, one of them has a red Raven train from the 2010 season on The Voyage when they were going through that whole Timberliner fiasco. There is another one of Wildebeest where you can clearly tell Mammoth hasn't even been built yet. I might buy that he visited the park and used someone else's photos to describe his trip, but the way he worded that report, there is no way I'm buying that he visited HW. Now back on subject. Does anybody else love looking at the webcam and being able to picture Thunderbird now? Don't get me wrong, I loved the mystery, but I hated the torture. Speaking of the webcam, they sure are moving a lot of dirt, like digging the dirt up around the footers.

When I think of severe laterals, I think of El Toro...which doesn't rattle my brain like this coaster did. I'm not gonna sit here and say the thing was butter smooth or even comparable to Intamin or RMC woodies, because it wasn't. When I compare how rough a ride is, I always compare it to the ride I took on Mean Streak in the summer of 2010 and The Voyage that same summer. The Legend never came close to being that rough, nor did I get off thinking I had an overall uncomfortable experience. Yes, there were several potholes at the bottom of several of the valleys, mainly after the turnaround at Zinga, the tunnel after the double up, and right after coming out of the double helix. Those were the only areas that I found uncomfortable. Nothing that stopped me from getting back in line and riding again. Check the page on this thread that has the announcement on it.

First off, by the way you worded this, you already assumed the ride was "crappy" before you rode it? Also, I got my fair share of rides on The Legend a month ago (The Voyage was closed) and it actually wasn't that bad. I'm assuming you, like most people, mistook the severe laterals, which the ride is known for, as roughness. Does it need retracking in some spots? Yes, but it is not as bad as a lot of the other wooden coasters out there. Also, there is nothing short about The Legend. It is a good 2000 feet longer than The Raven. What? There is nothing long about The Raven at all. It is quite known for being short and fast.

While the situation was different, they had a horrible experience at Six Flags Over Texas last year (then hit two more Six Flags parks, Great America being one of them) and they still went to Great America this year. I believe they're going to Great Adventure in the next week. As long as Six Flags continues to build RMC's and such, I say there will always be trips to Six Flags parks. That doesn't mean TPR has to give them good publicity. Not saying Robb or anyone else would give them bad publicity on purpose, but when it is something as ridiculous as what happened yesterday or what happened at SFOT last year, the park (no matter which one) deserves to be called out on it.

^ I think it is only fitting that post # 7000 on this thread had Will Koch mentioned in it. As I said the day of the announcement, Thunderbird cannot have been Will's only dream. I'm sure there were many more. I'm looking forward to the park making those dreams a reality. I'm sure they will be just as incredible as the ones that have already come to fruition.

I sort of get the first time KT was denied on Viper, but after she got the wristband, there is no excuse. Really there is no excuse for it happening the first time. She rode Goliath and American Eagle before Viper. Heck, anybody who has been following the TPR trip on Twitter can see that she has been able to ride all (or at least it appears) rides with 48 inch height requirements at all the other parks with no problem. That is six parks where she was able to ride with no problem, but they encounter a problem at Six Flags. This should fall back on whoever is responsible for training these ride ops. The ride ops shouldn't really be faulted for being cautious the first time, but they should have known not to be pushing down on anybody's head with the measuring stick. The second time they should have known that the wristband meant she was allowed to ride. As I said, both instances fall back on whoever is responsible for training these ride ops. Obviously, they didn't do a very good job.

Well, they out source all their ride dynamics to Ride Centerline, so not quite. Essentially Alan Schilke and Ride Centerline are part or the RMC team. They played a major role in designing the track technology that RMC uses. Yes they're independent, but RMC has always been listed as the builder/designer.

Paula tweeted this photo earlier. This is where the S-curve will be. It appears they didn't remove that many tress, in case anyone was worried about that. Not that anybody should be worried though.

^ I know RMC does everything in-house as well.

Intrasys supplies most of the different manufacturers launch components (Mack, Intamin, Gerstlauer, Premier etc..), it's nothing unique to this installation. And that puts an end to this discussion. Still is the first true B&M launch.

Looking at Intrasys website (they're German), they specialize in anything linear drive engineering (obviously). These guys design this kind of technology and build it. I'm guessing that B&M gave them the track design and where the fins that will go through the LSM's on the trains will be located, then asked them to design and build a launch for this coaster. Quite frankly, this sounds like B&M. It would probably be more reliable for them to outsource this type of thing to a company that actually specializes in linear drive engineering. I would go ahead and say that this would still be the first true B&M launch, as it seems that B&M outsourced this project opposed to HW having to find someone to do the launch on their own much like Universal did. Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if other coaster manufacturers (Intamin, Mack, Premier, and ext.) outsource their linear drive technology on their coasters to companies that specialize in it as well. We just never hear about it because the parks that build these rides are never cool enough to hold Q&A's with us coaster enthusiasts and tell us that information. Okay, that may have been a bit biased, buy you get my point.

This is where we are confused. One implies that this is a launch coming from B&M and the other implies it is a different company supplying the launch. I don't think this layout is bland at all. How many coasters launch straight into a reverse immelmann? The vertical loop is actually unique to the wing coaster concept as it is only the second wing coaster to have one. None of the other wing coasters have over-banked turns, which I think actually fits the this wing rider concept quite well. Yes the zero-g roll and inline twist are kind of bland. It wouldn't be a wing rider without the near miss elements, and this thing stays pretty close to the terrain. I've said this before, but I really hope the animation is correct on how fast this thing is going through the course. Watching the other wing riders, they tend to die out as they go through a lot the elements due to the weight of the trains. With this thing only having 5 cars per train, I think it is actually going to improve the ride experience. Thunderbird doesn't seem to really die out until inline twist at the end. It actually looks like there is going to be a little pop of air from the jerk the train take on that s-curve. At the end of the day, is this thing going to provide the forces any of us are looking for? No. Now I do think it will grasp the wing rider concept better than the other wing riders out there? I hope so.

^ I think we've established that. The question at hand is if this a true B&M launch or something similar to Incredible Hulk.

Does B&M actually build anything they design or do they just contract out that aspect to businesses like CSF? That would explain a lot in my mind. As I said before, perhaps they designed the launch and somebody who deals with that technology, in this case Intrasys, is building it/ supplying it.

^ Maybe B&M designed the launch and Intrasys supplied it?

^ No!!!! I want a Raptor like B&M roar! I really hope they don't put a lot of sand in the track.