saxman47
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Posts posted by saxman47
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Mondial has been around for a long time and is relatively well known (in the flat-ride world, anyway). I believe Canada's Wonderland has a bunch of Mondial rides.
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Me: No It dosn't. Your an idiot.
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When I was queueing up a second time for Space Mountain (I got Alpha and Omega creds), I had asked the op what the riders per hour was, she didn't know, but she told me they dispatch every 22 seconds...I mean, that's impressive to say the least.
Assuming they are running both sides and the trains are full (6 people per train, per side), that would give an hourly capacity of about 2000 riders/hour.
Pretty good, but there are other disney rides that do even better. I know Pirates of the Caribbean is well over 3000 people/hour.
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EDIT: ^beat me to it!
Some rides are obviously way easier to achieve the "theoretical" capacity than others, since most of the time the manufacturers theoretical capacity is an indication of what the ride is technically capable of, assuming dispatch interval is hit every time and with completely full trains. This number can be almost impossible to come near for some rides with complicated restraint systems, etc. For example just because the ride is capable of dispatching a train every 60 seconds doesn't mean it is possible with the limited number of crewmembers that some parks staff at their rides.
I know when I used to work at Nitro we could hit 1400-1500 pph if we were really hustling. Basically you dispatch the train in the station the moment the previous train drops off the lift. The lift always has a train on it and the trains roll right into the station without stopping on the transfer. It's a beautiful thing when a crew is pumping trains out like that. On other rides, this is not so easy. B&M hyper restraint design has a lot to do with it.
Some parks like Disney however, will very realsitically run the ride at its maximum capacity all day long, just because they have the staff and the appropriate planning/logistics/ergonomics of the ride system down to a science.
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obviously we'll have to wait for additional information to be released, but you would have to suspect that the man was fooling around/trying to stand up/etc, since it seems pretty hard to just "fall out" of a wild mouse, even if you had no lap bar at all.
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I guess it just goes to show how much the visual aspect of a ride impacts some people.....I think we all would agree that Tower of Terror is wayyy more intense than California Screamin'. Heck I love rides as much as the next guy and even I get a little anxious when ascending ToT before that first drop......
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I've been on the majority on the list, with the exception of patriot and top gun (carowinds). I can say that for me, Montu was heads and shoulders above everything else. The first time I rode it, it blew me away. When I returned to Florida this past November, I confirmed my previous opinions.....I just love that ride (in the back row especially). Honorable mention to Dueling Dragons and Raptor.
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good article! I think this will put some people at ease who are normally wary of some of the "big" rides.
BTW, just as a note, Disneyland's Space Mountain only has 1 track.
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I also believe a company called Fabriweld made the track underneath Indiana Jones. Fabriweld used to be the track-manufacturing segment of Arrow, but split off into it's own company at some point.
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And, I have to point this out again because it is so painfully obvious... Why do you hear the loud hiss of air escaping the brake when it opens but NOT when it closes? The loud hiss is the compressed air being released to allow the springs to open the brakes. You do not hear this when they close because the air is being forced into the brake to close it.
I don't know if you're talking about Pony Express specifically, but this is NOT the case with B&M's. They hiss when they close, not when they open.
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I'm admittedly a Gadv fanboy, but Dorney Park is a more well-rounded experience and I think your family will have more to do there. Besides giant coasters Great Adventure doesn't offer much else, unfortunately.
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Is there a reason these coasters don't use LIM motors? or do LIMs not power enough?
In order for an LIM coaster to achieve that kind of speed and acceleration, it would require an enormous power draw. All systems (hydraulic/air/LIM/LSM) need to transfer the same amount of energy to the train, but the difference is in how efficiently they do so. With LIMs, they require all their power at once. Thus, you need some crazy electrical infrastructure to be able to deliver those high currents in such a short amount of time. Hydraulic and air launches store their energy gradually in between launches by compressing a gas slowly over the span of about a minute or so. This is more efficient since the extremely high power draw of LIMs creates loads of heat which is basically wasted energy.
So, in short, it's not that it can't be done; it's that it is probably not practical or cost effective when there are better options out there.
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All I know is that my first time on Magnum, I couldn't stop laughing the entire ride from the first drop to the brake run. I was laughing at the clunkiness, the pain, and the sheer ridiculousness of those airtime hills. One of my favorite moments on a coaster, ever.
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that's a really good point. It might not be the ride neccessarily. SFNE's Bizarro isn't really well kept up, it's Six Flags, they can be lazy.
that is a ridiculous and unfair statement. I'll leave it at that.
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IMO there isn't a significant difference in ride experience between hyper and giga coasters. Heck, I'd say MagnumXL-200 is scarier than any modern hyper or giga
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^ actually Avatar won for cinematography
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I vaguely remember reading something about B&M hyper restraints having 2 ratchets as a fail-safe to prevent the restraint from coming loose. Can anyone back me up on this?
Yes, they do. Also there are sensors on each lapbar that tell the computer whether or not it's down far enough.
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Hey anybody know if the job fair this weekend is on rain or shine? I was planning on going tomorrow but it's supposed to pour all day.
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Anvil: The Story Of Anvil not being nominated for Best Documentary is a crime. That was probably my favorite movie from last year.
I'd love to see District 9 win for best picture, just because of how much less it cost than something like Avatar. Which I still haven't seen, as I really don't want to sit in a theater for three hours. Plus, it seems like it has the most predictable plot ever. If I watch it at home whenever it comes out on DVD, I can at least pause it when I want or make obnoxious commentary to the cat while it's on...
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I know some people disliked the predictable plot, but I reallllly recommend seeing Avatar in theaters. It will not be the same on DVD. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for me, Avatar was the single most mind-blowing experience I have ever had in a movie theater. I walked out in awe. It may not be the "best" movie ever made but it IS one of my FAVORITE movies ever made. I'm just saying, if you haven't given it a shot, I would at least gamble the 12 bucks and give it a whirl, you may be pleasantly surprised.
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The third issue is what to do with the walking around with purchases, when it comes to merchandise spending. It is in general a great idea for safety and speeding up the line to store loose articles, but the split second a guest buys a souvenir or a on-ride photo (talk about overpriced! bet they would sell more if they listed for 9.99 - it's just a digital photo!), they then are now faced with storage costs. That is customer unfriendly. To encourage in-park spending on merchandise, there has to be a system where guests can purchase items and then be able to store them somewhere for free.
you just echoed my sentiment exactly. The souvenir cup problem is a massive guest service issue. They NEED to come up with a solution for this, because the current situation is just absolutely ridiculous. (This is coming from a former employee who had to explain this absurd rule to guests day-in and day-out). The only reasonable solution I see is to get rid of the cups. Perhaps have them available in the gift shops as an actual souvenir, but the whole free-refills deal has to go. Allowing guests to take the souvenir cups on the ride is obviously not practical and unsafe. Allowing them to leave them in the station causes confusion over whos cup is whose, people taking the wrong cups when there are multiple trains running, etc. A collapsible cup that would fit in a pocket is not realistic since it would most likely leak, etc. As it is now the free and/or 99cent refills encourage guests to carry the cup with them all day. Asking them to pay for a l0cker to store it at every ride is absurd. Get rid of the cups. Problem solved.
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Avatar
I have to agree with everything that's been said thus far......i was absolutely blown away by this movie. Best visuals I have ever seen, bar none. Yes the story is not that original, but I thought it was extremely well put together and made for just an all-around great film. He may only come out with a movie once in a blue moon, but Cameron really seems to know what he's doing.
The way the CG and real actors interacted was just phenomenal. The movements and expressions of the Na'vi had my jaw on the floor. Everybody should see this movie IMO.
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Great job! I really enjoyed that....like others of said it's nice to see a video that includes CP's many flats as well....it's not ALL about coasters sometimes
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Thanks for the replies so far! It's great to "see" you and your rides.
Hey a question for the two of you who operate B&Ms - I am always a little worried about the safety of their lapbars. Can you tell me why exactly I should trust these things?? I admit reading that they don't use back-up safety restraints, doesn't exactly help me all that much...lol. This is the reason why I haven't gone on our local B&M, Silver Star. Yes, I am a chickenshit and also a fairly new coaster enthusiast.
Can you help me here?
On the B&M hyper restraints there is a ratcheting mechanism in the floor of the train where the pole attaches to the floor...there are actually 2 separate mechanisms and if you listen/feel closely you can actually feel 2 "clicks" for each big "notch" you go down. If you pull the lapbar down slowly enough you will distinctly hear each ratchet click individually, locking the restraint into that position. Even if one mechanism totally fails you won't be going anywhere. Also, these things are inspected daily by maintenance and even we as ride-ops do morning safety checks on the restraints for redundancy. Every single lap bar position is checked each day, so no worries!
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here's me at Nitro last summer
A Corksrew question..
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
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real B&M corkscrews (the interlocking type, etc.) don't really do much for me. On their inverts I believe they call them "wing-overs" and these are more forceful but can bash your head if you're not prepared for them especially on some of the older coasters like Batman.
I also actually prefer the Arrow/Vekoma type corkscrews, which I've found to give a good sense of hangtime and have a certain elegance to them due to their simple but perfect geometric shape (yes....I just called a Vekoma "elegant" lol)
I do LOVE me some B&M zero-g rolls, however (be it on inverts, floorless, etc.) Those are probably my favorite inversions of all