LuminousAphid

It's recently become the A.R.M. / Larson Intl. Super Shot. Not the fastest ascent, but awesome freefall drop and super smooth magnetic brakes. They need to make taller versions of this simple machine, 200ft would be even better

Be forewarned; 1 of the 3 days I was there recently it was down all day

I will submit Corkscrew @ Silverwood- first coaster with an inversion (besides neckbreakers like Flip Flap Railway: Link) and it's actually quite good for an old Arrow. I thought I would just hop on once for the history, but I went back to ride it multiple times on multiple days, which is saying something. Also Timber Terror. Amazing.

RESURRECTION! Our local fair is getting a KMG Freak Out this year (most exciting flat ride I've been on, shows how much I need to experience) and I was looking at videos of them... look how shiny! Seems like american showmen always go with boring stock programs for their lights though... I could think of some awesome things to do with all those LEDs, but I understand why they don't bother wasting the time That eventually led me to this, this thing is just crazy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Wu2t8cmPdY I would surely vomit before that thing was done having its way with me

Great TR, thanks for putting all the work into it and posting. Every time I hear about SDC I want to go more and more... it's too bad I live in the most coaster-starved area in the U.S. and have to go down the coast or cross country to do any road trips. Time to start planning my 30+ hour road trip to Missouri!

Just found out Butler Amusements is bringing a 90' model to the Evergreen State Fair- any Washingtonians want to go check it out on Monday? Also bringing a KMG Freak Out which I am totally looking forward to edit: I think this is probably a typo or exaggeration, but Silverwood's site lists Panic Plunge as 140' high, but a 120' drop. If it's 140' tall it's obviously not the 128'-8 1/2" model on the Larson page, but it has the round seating arrangement. I wonder if they somehow got the taller tower but with the circular seating? http://www.silverwoodthemepark.com/rides/panic-plunge.php

I had no idea these were still being made; apparently these guys bought their third one this year: And to awesomefaceninja: do you normally go to funfairs at night vs. theme parks during the day? That could be another contributing factor- if it's dark, there is no scenery to give you a point of reference, so maybe your brain is just way more confused at night

Come to Silverwood, Aftershock has the original trains and it's awesome. I haven't ridden the new trains, so I don't know if there's a difference; maybe you'd think it was crap either way. I thought it was super intense, especially going through the loop backward, and the chevron seating gives the two front passengers a hell of a ride! Original trains flying through the station

Hey the fair up here is going to have a KMG Freak Out, and then I was just watching videos of The Beast--also a KMG right?--and wonder: which set of seats on the Beast is better? Inside or outside? I didn't think about it much until imagining being on it myself, and realized they probably give very different rides. Inside looks fun! I am looking forward to trying the Freak Out, then graduating to The Beast later in September Sounds like you enjoy The Fair Life- I am too cheap to enjoy something that expensive, I would be worried about how much I was overpaying for food, etc.

I would go here and ride the coasters if I was in the area, but not something I would go out of my way for... Though it's almost got this "Action Park" mystique about it that makes me want to check it out some time. Cyclops looks very nice, and I do want to try Hades once (only once if it's as rough as its reputation) but other than that, a bunch of go karts? $20 parking doesn't help it be any more attractive, but I guess It's the backhanded "Hey get in cheap!" and then they hit you hard for everything else, I imagine.

That sounds like a recipe for one bad-ass steampunk roller coaster... I guess Baron did that sort of, but there is so much more theming potential for something steampunk. I know that's so last decade, but I think it would be cool.

YES. Both small parks I have been to recently, slow train dispatches were definitely due to seat belts. All the coasters which had seat belts took at least 2x as long to send because for whatever reason many people can't figure out how to buckle their seat belts. I don't get mad about it because that's just as stupid, and I understand how kids would have trouble, but it's baffling to me how many adults can't figure out a seat belt. Timberhawk @ Wild Waves has 2 trains, but last time I was there (on a very slow morning, 1/2 full trains at most) the second train would always stack for 1-2 full minutes while we waited in the station for people to get their damn belts on. Same @ Silverwood; both woodies were horribly slow to dispatch due to seat belts--the ride ops did a fantastic job helping people, sometimes just grabbing the belt and doing it for the guest--but all the other rides were perfectly efficient most of the time. Corkscrew was a good example- 1 op could run the whole ride at pretty much max capacity without even hurrying because there are no belts to fasten/check. Rant over!

This might be true, but you made me wonder- what is the tallest installment of this model? edit: It looks like the 120ft drop version is standard according to their website- is this the only size they make, then?

I'm reviving this because I wanted to make a "best shuttle coaster" thread but found this from last year. What are your opinions on the best shuttle coaster you've been on? Any that are not around any more (maybe Batman and Robin: The Chiller? I wish I could ride that) that are superior to what's around today? I think the only shuttle I've been on is Aftershock (former Deja Vu), and it was pretty awesome. Going backward through that giant loop was intense

The cars on an Orbiter are fixed and don't flip, and also don't have front+back facing seats. I remember getting mildly ill on the Orbiter they used to have here in Seattle; this Moser thing looks way more instense and vomit-inducing BTW nice trip report so far, looks like a lot of things to do. That's some expensive chicken!

I LOVED Panic Plunge at Silverwood, and just looked it up- sure enough it's an A.R.M./Larson! It was definitely my favorite flat ride there, and I rode it at least 3 times each of the 3 days I was there. I rode it way more than SpinCycle. ++for never waiting more than 3 cycles for a seat, and once I got called from the back of the line to fill up the car It felt like a perfect freefall, not artificially accelerated like I hear other drop towers are. I have actually only ridden 1 other tower- Big Shot at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, and that was another experience entirely; plus we paid at least $10 for one ride on that. Every time we dropped on Panic Plunge I (and most other riders) could not stop from yelling in fear and then laughing hysterically, especially if you hold your arms out or up. I give the edge to Panic Plunge easily, it is awesome! Here's a video I made of the ride, sorry about the low resolution, my camera was in high speed mode and can't do HD in slow-mo [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

A Zipper with OTSR's could be good, or could be disastrous. I have never ridden in them, but the strap-style OSTR's like on I305 look pretty comfy, so that might work OK. Or maybe the lap bars on Wicked Cyclone which grab your shins, but I doubt health and safety would allow a lap bar only on something that crazy, even if it would be perfectly safe. I will be keeping an eye out to see if this ever happens, I would ride an open-car Zipper at least once.

Systems should be designed so that any failure results in a fail-safe situation, which is exactly what initially happened. I'm sure that the engineers who create these control systems are aware of the concept, and do everything they can to ensure that a single failure in the system will never cause an unsafe condition. As with anything, there's always the possibility that catastrophic failure can happen (block brakes stop working entirely and a train in front is stalled) but in this case it sounded from the beginning like the control system and ride components worked as they should. There isn't really any other explanation, from what we know so far, for why the two trains collided other than human error.

tl;dr- I rode one with a Mormon kid named Kevin and he puked I went to school in a weird parent co-op K-12 program, which attracted all sorts of people. One of the kids in my grade was a slightly hyper & eccentric but mostly normal kid named Kevin. I wouldn't find out until later that his family was Mormon and that's why they were a little different. Anyway, his mom randomly invited me to go with them to the Evergreen State Fair (random because we didn't really hang out, but I guess we did do activities like boy scouts together) So we get to the fair and being 12-year-old boys we immediately want to go on rides. I think it might have been the first or second ride, but I remember both of us looking up at it; I doubt either of us really wanted to get in that thing, but of course we didn't admit that to each other and kept saying it looked awesome and we wanted to go on it. At one point his mother took us over to the side and got serious, "Are you sure you want to go on that? You won't get sick will you?" Of course not, lets go! So we give our tickets over, and both climb in to the tiny car. The attendant was suitably scraggly and unkempt to be working at the Fair's carnival, but looked confident in what he was doing as he closed the door. It was summer and even before noon it was super hot in there, which didn't make any of what was about to happen any more comfortable. The ride started, and we are both smiling and laughing a bit as we go around the first couple times. I remember laughing more as the car was starting to flip more crazily, then looking over at Kevin. He was not smiling any more. In fact he was holding on for dear life, and becoming more and more pale with each lap we took around the boom. My memory gets a little hazy for the rest of the ride; I like to think he started screaming for them to stop the ride at one point, but I can't say. Mercifully there was no puke during the ride, but within steps of the exit stairs, Kevin had had enough. He barfed right there on the midway, a pretty big pile of stuff for such a small kid. I was feeling a bit queasy as well and being anywhere near that makes me ill as well, so I had to take a walk. I don't remember much of the rest of the day, but I remember Kevin puking! I just remembered that Kevin also puked in the car on the way back from a Boy Scout overnight trip, maybe even twice. I guess he was our school's "that puking kid"

Wow man, you really must have hit rock bottom there for a while. It's good you decided to get your act together and quit that stuff (the counting) As far as I see it, you can count whatever you want as a credit- I see people's signature things with how many they've ridden and maybe think "Wow I hope someday I can go to all those cool places" but like Robb mentioned, it's not going to help you win friends and influence people. I can see how counting credits might help you feel a sense of accomplishment, strive toward a goal, or you just like it, so don't worry about it and count whatever you feel should be a credit. No one will point and yell, "bailybrucem's cheating!" if you count "wrong" I would definitely not count a Superloop as a coaster, I will say that much

That's a nice fire jeep, much better than the giant SUV's our fire chiefs drive around Thanks for posting so many great pics! Of course I'd like to see more of the rides, but I'm sure you'll get back there plenty with the season pass. Ride Coaster in the back for all of us who can't be there

Looks like a nice little park to take the kids for the day, do they still have food vendors and everything when it's open? Also I imagine the state itself doesn't run all the rides and concessions, do you know if it's a local company, individual vendors, or what? It's a very interesting state park for sure, around here our state parks are all nature or history related; it's neat that you have a State Amusement Park

Thanks a lot, I had to have a few tries since it was by hand, but I finally got one that wasn't blurry I wish I could get up to the fair @ PNE and do a trip report there, but I didn't plan ahead well enough to have a enhanced drivers license in time If you go, try to take some pics for me! For content, here's one more shot of Timber Terror I don't think I included: All the other pics are raw, but I photoshopped this one a bit Also here is one of the shirts I got, I like orange so it was perfect! Souvenir prices were really reasonable. I didn't get the small I also got this tank top; I will know who is observant and/or a coaster nerd if they notice it has nothing to do with Marvel

So there are no seat belts on Phoenix? That was the main thing on Timber Terror that slowed down operations; the seat belts have old airline-style buckles that are very hard for the GP to figure out It would be awesome if there are still coasters out there without belts...? Can anyone tell me if Coaster @ Playland PNE has buzzbars or are they ratcheting? I want to get up there before the season ends and ride it edit; Would you rather I start a redundant threat instead of bumping an old one? That's what I thought

That looks amazing, I would definitely make a side trip to ride that if I was in the area. The lighting effects are beautiful!