I love pie

I don't see how the block brake affects the ride experience at all. It's literally only there for CAPACITY. It's not there as a point in the ride for the riders to say "Oh we're halfway through the course, time for something else!" That's not what it is.... Take Banshee for example. It has its block brake at the VERY end of the ride, but I have yet to see anyone here post how Banshee is terrible after the "MCBR" because there's just more brakes afterward. If GateKeeper didn't have a block brake, would anyone still complain about the helix? And the block brake isn't pointless. GateKeeper can get over 1800 riders an hour. It is an extremely fast paced ride to operate. When dispatching at interval, a train will be only feet away from setting up at the top of the lift because the train ahead hasn't cleared the block brake yet. That block brake is far from pointless. It's NOT there to make the ride more exciting. It is ONLY there to make the ride more efficient. Same with Shambhala's block brake.

I love that zero g roll.

YAY! I was about to say that the drop, and first overbank would be completed soon, as once the coaster goes vertical, coaster construction starts to become really fast, but then I remembered Valravn. If the ride's queue will be heavily themed, then vertical construction better start becoming really fast, if they want to open it in time (I think).

Well, from experience of riding coasters (as all of us here have), the steeper the curve of a hill is, the more of a "pop" of airtime you will receive. Also, the steepness of the descending drop also can be a factor for how much airtime the riders will experience. The less steep a hill is, the less airtime you'll experience. Also, double-down hills can produce airtime as well. I hope this helps. Thr height of the hill is also a pretty big factor. The ride in your avatar is a perfect example. The beginning few hills on Skyrider (Now freestyle, located at some random-middle-of-nowhere park in Italy ), gave mainly strong floater air. However, once the ride hit the final bunny hops before the break run, you got a couple great pops of ejector air. That also reminds me that it's not just the shape of the hill/element that affects the amount of airtime, but also where in the train you are. Looking at Skyrider again, the last two hills gave the best ejector air in the front; however, on other rides, like Vampire at La Ronde (a BTR clone), the Zero-G gives far better airtime (if you can call it that) in the back. All in all, there's a lot of factors that come into play. Would a hill give ejector airtime if it was shaped to give 3-5 secs of floater, but crested at a speed of 70-80 MPH?

Compressed air launches are fairly simple. Air is loaded into a huge pressurized cylinder underneath/next to the track. That pressurized cylinder has a valve on it that connects it to another cylinder (or chamber/whatever you want to call it) that has a piston inside it. That piston is attached to the catch-car that hooks onto the train. Once the correct air pressure is achieved, the valve opens and immediately fires all that compressed air right into the piston chamber, which pushes the piston down the tube, which pulls the catch-car that pulls the train down the track. This is actually the same launch system used on aircraft carriers to launch fighter jets off the flight deck. Just for kicks, I'll mention that hydraulic launches like on Top Thrill Dragster or Kingda Ka are fairly similar, except replace the air with hydraulic fluid, and replace the piston chamber with a giant cable winch that winds up SUPER fast to pull the catch-car down the track via two cables attached to it. Ain't engineering just the coolest?? How come compressed air launches have a faster acceleration than hydraluic launches, even though they are both similar? Oh how I love science. Especially chemistry, engineering, and astronomy.

Also can somebody answer how compressed air launches work, like the ones on dodonpa, and Hypersonic XL (or the ones that used too. )?

J.K. Rowling.

I dunno, I kind of see it more like this.... Dueling Dragons SLIGHTLY > Dragon Challenge Disaster = Fast and the Furious Twister = Fallon Remember that Dragon Challenge didn't start out not dueling. So it's entirely possible that had Dueling Dragons continued in existence, this same thing might have happened to the ride. DD's theming of course was WAAAAAAY better than DC's, but honestly, I've ridden both sides of it recently, and they are both still pretty kick A$$ coasters! I've been through Disaster/Earthquake three times in the last 10 years, and two of those were to help someone film it during the last week. I don't think I've been into Twister in probably 15 years. So neither one of those attractions I ride at all, and I'm expecting (only do to my interest level of the properties) that I will not ride F&F or Fallon much more often than I did Twister or Disaster, so in my mind both of them are a wash. They aren't replacing something I frequent, and they aren't something I probably frequent once they are built. But who knows? I'm willing to give them a chance. Maybe they will surprise me and end up being a bit of fun! Do you know why they downgraded the theming?

I love how you cherry pick these 3 things (at least one of which is very debatable... especially when we're talking about rides that aren't open yet) and then ignore the fact that during the same time frame they built a really cool Simpsons land, an awesome Transformers ride and 2 of the most amazing themed lands and ride experiences anywhere in the world anchored by 2 of the most incredible rides ever built anywhere ever with Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, Gringots and Forbidden Journey. How can you ignore all of that and claim that Universal is "getting ruined" because they removed 2 crappy rides in Disaster and Twister? I'm confused. You first you say that anything is better than Disaster, and Twister, and in your last comment you said twister, and Disaster is better than something. Also is a chinese knock off SLC, with cactus seats, and sandpaper restraints better than Disaster and Twister.

Even though I didn't take the pics, I'm just gonna say thanks, for complementing me on my pic finding skills.

I'm pretty sure SOB had structural problems.

Which is exactly my point

I feel like Universal is getting ruined. First they have the idiotic idea of removing most of the theming on dueling dragons when 're theming' it, then they remove disaster, and replace it with a Jimmy Falon ride, then they remove twister.

The Incredible hulk says hi Look at dat

What was everyones reactions to dueling dragon's dueling feature, and TIC's launch?

The Incredible Hulk (Yes I know you said LIM, which is oddly spefic).

The Incredible Hulk (Yes I know you said LIM, which is oddly spefic).

Logo looks sweet. Can't wait to ride.

I've never been a fan of Skyrush's color scheme, dispite it being a kick butt ride.

Is it possible that it was relocated? or has it been too long since it was last used...? It's been re located.

So, Intimidator 305 then? Wonder when KD will start giving free big macs in the queue of I305.

Florida master race.

pringles.

5. Ginger Ale 4. Root Beer 3. Fanta Black current 2. Tie between cream soda, and cold butterbeer from IOA 1. Stoney Tangawazi

Diamondback @ Kings Island.