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Six Flags America (SFA) Discussion Thread


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Sorry that posted without comment. This is good but why such an arbitrary date the park opens back up on the 21st ha.

I'll be there tomorrow I can check on Superman's status. I honestly don't think it's that big of a deal to miss it though, not one of my favorite hypers and if you really like it you can just drive 7 hours up north to the better version! Still a really fun ride no doubt though, especially on a hot day.

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^ that's what SFFT did for the shoot for the Joker Pendulum (which I got to participate in).

they started up the swings (think it's called Super Villain Swings these days) and split the folks there for the shoot among the two rides, so they could get both moving in the shots.

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2 hours ago, coasterbill said:

Eh... Superman being closed would totally be a dealbreaker for me on SFA. It's not that great of a park and it's clearly the best thing there.

I actually found Superman to be fairly dull. . it was one and done with me on my visit.

several flats (Rodeo & in particular the Scrambler) were running good programs I thought tho.   In terms of Coasters?   my favorite was Joker's Jinx, and I also thought Wild One, and (gasp) Ragin Cajun were very good.

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15 hours ago, coasterbill said:

Eh... Superman being closed would totally be a dealbreaker for me on SFA. It's not that great of a park and it's clearly the best thing there.

Honestly, yeah thats what we're thinking. We're gonna go with our fingers crossed and hope it's open. If not, we'll give most of the non-SLC coasters a quick run then move on to our hotel. I haven't been since the painful stand-up was converted to a probably-painful floorless so there's that lol.

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On 5/21/2021 at 12:56 AM, xVicesAndVirtues said:

If not, we'll give most of the non-SLC coasters a quick run then move on to our hotel. I haven't been since the painful stand-up was converted to a probably-painful floorless so there's that lol.

Enjoy your visit! For minimizing risk of headaches:

Ride Firebird in the back, and Roar in the very front.

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The park was busy, like SFA crowded. There were lines; not used to that. Crowded like, we ate at Chop Six.  

WO, JJ, and HQ all down. We gave up on HQ reopening and closing. It is going to be a solid add though,  

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Yeah HQ has been going up and down consistently nearly every day, they sometimes just park a maintenance truck next to it so they don't have to keep driving back ha. But it It is really surprising how crowded the park is this year, it was a great decision by them to open early.

^Wild One went down two or three times, probably for about two hours total, but was open most of the day. Must have had some bad luck with timing.

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I never said thank you to those of you who replied with the status of Superman, so thanks guys, I really appreciate it!

We visited the park this past Friday 5/21 and had a decent visit. It was my first visit in about 5 years and my boyfriend's first visit to the park. Overall, operations ranged from slow to okay, employees were mostly friendly and seemed to be well-trained and doing their jobs.

We've just started to do a small amount of traveling again and from what we've seen thus far, the industry is really struggling on a lot of fronts. Given what we've seen this year, I have to honestly report that Six Flags America probably has the second-best operations we've seen outside of the Orlando-area parks, after Six Flags Great Adventure. I'm still debating if I really want to post our experience from this past weekend in the Busch Gardens Williamsburg thread, as operations and the general experience there were depressingly poor.

In all, I'm going to give some well-deserved props to Six Flags. The two parks we've visited this year are open and truly feel like they're prepared and ready for guests. Everything was running, all food and retail stores are open, and it just feels like they're trying. And we will visit and spend our money where effort is being made. Some photos:

 

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We got to the park about 45 minutes after opening on Friday night. As we walked towards the back, we hadn't seen a train sent yet, so we were relieved to see that the entrance was open.

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There we go!

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Okay, I'm still gonna call it like I see it. This "tetanus wall" is what guests stare at while waiting for the front row on their star attraction. Would it really kill you to run to Lowe's and get a sand blaster and paint sprayer, Six Flags?

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I remember this being described as "lipstick on a pig" when it was first repainted/converted into a floorless. They should have repainted Superman instead. The ear smashing is as real as it was when it was a stand-up. 

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After all these years, Wild One still delivers an excellent ride. We rode back car, middle bench, and got a smooth and decently airtime-filled ride. The barely-banked helix at the end of the ride is killer. This is a classic woodie that can hang with the rest.

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Where the airtime happens. Superman, despite it's paint-peeled trains, track, and station, was running great. I really wish they'd give it some cosmetic love because after 21 years this coaster truly still delivers. I'd still consider it a top-15 or top-20 coaster. The layout is super funky but gives great sensation of speed, the laterals in the second helix are intense as hell, and the last 3 hills are orgasmic airtime, especially in the front.

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I got this great sunset shot as we were about to head out of the park. 8.thumb.jpg.3f6e0b62b6d6f1f4dbce03573c1d972e.jpg

Thanks for a fun day, Six Flags America! I don't know when we'll be back since Baltimore is a little bit out of the way for us, but this is a fun park to spend half a day at and if you haven't been on Superman, those early-2000s Intamin hypers totally destroy any of the redundant B&M models still being built every year. Maybe RMC Roar one day?

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Awesome TR! It really does seem like SFA is doing incredibly well this season. You should post the BGW one! Even great parks have a bad day sometimes and it would be interesting to hear what happened, even if it is negative. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I can’t find video anywhere else, but this can’t be normal: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdSWEfr5/

The structure of Harley Quinn is shaking quite violently... has anyone seen anything like this on any other Zamperla Doscoveries? This seems like something other than wind. Anyone at the park recently? This was posted on TikTok yesterday.

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^ I'd put $$ on one of the motors up top being installed backwards.

it happened at both SFFT (Joker) a couple of years ago and it shut down the other versions of the ride while Six Flags checked them out (more than one of them actually burned out the motors as some of them HAD been installed wrong).

with the whole mess of the pandemic?  It wouldn't surprise me if one of the motors on top of Harley got installed backwards, resulting in what's in the video.


OR - the video has been manipulated to make people think there's an issue.   The SFA site doesn't show it's not operating. . so could be manipulated video.

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I'm sure they will fix the ride, I'm a bit more offended by the fact their landscaping is so bad in that video at a ride that opened a month ago. Why not take a bit of pride in your first new "big ride" in a number of years? There are weeds there 2 feet tall.

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I just created an account to post this! I just saw the TikTok .. never seen this before on a giant frisbee .. have seen the terrifying video of the Ohio state fair accident which is nowhere near the Zamperlas... but definitely a little odd to see. I’m sure it‘s real video, you can see the people bouncing in their seats!

6 hours ago, bert425 said:

^ I'd put $$ on one of the motors up top being installed backwards.

it happened at both SFFT (Joker) a couple of years ago and it shut down the other versions of the ride while Six Flags checked them out (more than one of them actually burned out the motors as some of them HAD been installed wrong).

with the whole mess of the pandemic?  It wouldn't surprise me if one of the motors on top of Harley got installed backwards, resulting in what's in the video.


OR - the video has been manipulated to make people think there's an issue.   The SFA site doesn't show it's not operating. . so could be manipulated video.

Can you talk more about what installing a motor backwards is like? Does it effect the ride’s cycle, and are they able to operate for a long time with a backwards motor? Super interested

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Yeah, it's not a motor installed backwards (reversed polarity).  If it was, that would happen on every cycle, and when they tried to run it, the two motors would be working against each other and the arm wouldn't move very much and the structure would shake itself apart like shown in the video.  I have to think that even Six Flags would have found that a suitable reason to not open the ride.

The way the support is flexing/torquing like that leads me to believe that the motor on that side only is not turning off when it should, and is fighting against the holding brake on the other side that holds the arm in place while its in load/unload mode.  But that's just my theory.

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15 hours ago, disownedpear said:

Why would the motor being installed backwards not be evident during testing?

when they discovered the issue while getting ready to open Joker at SFFT (they actually burned out the motor, which is how they realized it, I believe) - they shut down all of this ride type across the chain, and if recalling correctly, they found more than one other version where they had to correct, as it was incorrect there too.  

so the rides ran with the motors installed incorrectly, but not as well as they should have.

 

at least that's my recollection.

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^That is almost more reason to believe it is NOT a backward motor. Six Flags has what, seven of these rides that have opened before SFA’s? You’d think they would have learned to check the motors by now, especially with the extra year. 
 

That type of deflection is not great for the structure and should definitely be addressed. It didn’t look too far off from hitting resonance and tearing itself apart. 

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^ the bit of more info I saw on it today , I'm inclined to think what Mike says is more correct:    the holding brake is on, and the motor on the opposite side is not turning off.

so certainly sounds like a motor problem. . . tho I'm not a mechanic, nor there, so I'm just guessing too.

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