Coaster Joe

I rode Hawg five times early Friday morning. The shoulder restraints eliminate the "headbanging" as they touch every rider square on the shoulders. Despite the transitions looking aggressive, they are heartlined very well and flow nicely. My fav parts of the ride were the twisting climb into the first block zone and the outside-banked turn. I'm not a huge fan of hangtime but the hanging was far less than in the original Squirrel. The first drop had a negative-G kick before the free descent while the second upside-down moment is entered through a roll so the negatives are entirely from hangtime. A third hangtime moment is the midpoint of the descending barrel roll. The transitions from right hand curve->left barrel->right wall turn are very well done. I kind of compare this to the Eurofighter....although Hawg handles the slower elements with more grace and the manuevers far more interesting.

EK is good stuff.

Do not miss Adventure City....it has my favorite southern Cali coaster in the Miler Mouse...only difference between it and Lakeside is some thick hip padding and a seatbelt. The park is less than five minutes south of Knotts on Buena Park. $10 for two very unique credits. The other Miler was built to straddle a tree. They normally do not allow adults without kids into the park but just tell them you are out-of-town coaster fans and they will let you in. You can ride both coasters multiple times in less than an hour.

The construction of large ferris wheels is amazing. Similar to a cable stayed or arch bridge, the construction loads often dictate member sizes. Once the wheel is complete, the loading is balanced and the rim is stabilized by the network of spokes, or in hubless wheels by a circumferential tie. In an incomplete wheel, the sections are giant cantilevers and the members have to take large bending loads. Enough of my geekiness...but these wheels are construction engineering masterpieces.

Woohoo! I'm counting the hours until my flight at 5:30am on Friday morning.

The Vekoma at Boblo Island....waited over an hour. Went to the back of the park and the Sansei Sky Streak was a walk-on. I rode the Streak about 10 times that day....with no desire to ride the Corkscrew again. Wishing Boblo was still around.

I used to say I never wanted kids but every time I see pics of smilin babies it sways my opinion more towards the "someday" mindset. The mirror pics are great! And skewed-glasses, mouthless, fur-cuff Santa is cool beans...

I think people will be surprised at this ride. The crowns of each beyond 90 drop will be controlled with mags. This must be done in order to limit negative accelerations on the riders....to -2G (-1G because of gravity and -1G dynamically across the crown). However, once the drop reverses direction and dynamic G's are pushing rider into the seat rather than pulling them out, the train will exit mag control and coast through the pullout up to the next block point. This is very different than the first gen squirrels where the vehicle was controlled throughout all pullouts. Also, the 180/180 curve (180 flat curve with simultaneous 180 roll to the OUTSIDE of the curve) will be insane. At the 90 point of the curve, riders will be banked 90 degrees to the outside. Dynamically, this will translate to extreme airtime through the curve. Easily the most unique new inversion to be seen on a coaster in a long time.

I spy an Interactive Faller. Wasn't the original supposedly 100ft tall? If so, that Intamin may be the biggest non-launched coaster in the world.

I'm excited to be taking a mini TX tour next weekend. Bullet was a strong influence on the trip planning as I'm a sucker for wooden coasters I am also looking forward to a non-trimmed Spaghetti bowl, the Rattler, Titan, Schilke's first true layout in RRE, and what looks to be a great Morgan. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to see one of the TX crew hooting and hollering on my hours of riding the Bullet.

I'm quite envious of his fro...

The GG guys look happy with how things turned out...looking forward to riding the Bullet later this fall.

Geeze Casey...that pink hat photo was supposed to be for your eyes only! Glad you caught my insane dancing skills on film. I am aspiring to escalate to #1 fanboy status of Christiana and that midway DDR shot was key in showing my supremacy in lameness.

What row will they heartline from? I can only envision the severe headbanging all rows except the chosen will experience...

One more cool pic looking up at first drop inside the batters. We need to route a queue through one of these!

I had the opportunity to travel to Toverland for the final days of construction and testing of Troy. It’s an amazing ride…I can’t wait to travel back to the park next summer. First drop is very similar to DW, although in the opposite direction. Nice rightward lateral push in the back of the train…strong positives in the pullout. The ride immediately climbs and rebanks to the left into a 70+deg banked turn…with max banking at the peak of the hill. This turn unfolds into the lowest level of the triple crossover where the train begins the righthand climb into the deadman turn. Also similar to DW, there is a pop of air before the peak of the turn for frontseat riders and the train winds back into a steep bank for the dive back to ground level. Fun and fast opening sequence but then things really start to get crazy. The swooping dive turn off the deadman leads into the middle level of the triple crossover…a quick low floater that lands on the backside into a downhill then uphill righthand turn. Awesome laterals and positives. Just before the peak of the next hill the train twists from right to left and sets up in a descending helix where lats are held on the riders for several seconds. The track falls away when exiting the helix and riders get a good headchopper effect mid-float. Another quick low floater with a lefthand curving exit leads into the extended camelback. Great trajectory, long float. The train then climbs right with a pop of air before banking strongly at the peak and aligning with the station fly-through. The hill after the fly-through drops all the way to ground level landing into a slight left hand bank. Quick switch to a righthand climb to the top level of the triple crossover. Snap left at the peak…A left-right twisting S-curve drop on the backside aligns the track parallel with the first curve under the lift. An uphill climb flattens out with a nice pop of air and banks flatly to the right before another pop of air into the final leftward undulating helix. The track banks and unbanks through the helix, giving riders a variety of lats and positives before one final headchopper air hill and lat filled lefthand uphill climb into the brakes. I rode Troy countless times and each time was as fun as the first. There is such a variety of elements and forces that keep it interesting and exciting. I enjoyed meeting Coaster Chi and sharing a slew of front seat rides late one night. TPR should have a great time at this park! Wish I could join the fun!

Thanks to everyone who has been uploading pictures throughout the construction! TPR, along with troytoverland.nl, toverland.info and turbolaaf have all been fun sites to follow during the building of Troy. Leaving in 16 hours...will be there on Sunday. I'm giddy like a kid on Christmas. Stop by and say hello if you are at Toverland.

I wish I could make it as well but will be at Beech Bend that evening...also getting ERT on a fun GCII. unless Robb somehow magically alters the trip to get to DW as well?

Those "pads" are actually the seat bottoms in the up position. They flip up to allow access to the inner workings of the chassis. It would look pretty goofy having an entire lap pad...but I see where you were coming from. I'll be there Thursday through Saturday...looking forward to riding it many times.

New pics posted to the interns website.... http://www.greatcoastersinterns.com/photos.php Looking forward to riding it soon

All the bents for the drop have been placed and the crew is continuing onto the flare turn before the crossover.

Should be an interesting day to check the webcam as there are a bunch of new drop bents to be added.... http://www.troytoverland.nl/nl/webcam.php

Did you realize that Mamba's helix chopper supports were of Jeff's doing back as an intern at Morgan?

The website has been updated showing Wildcat's new trains on the track. Banisters are still in production and will be added before the ride opens to the public. Both trains were run multiple times yesterday to some good reviews. Great work guys!!!