hotrodyoda

Y'all better be posting first reaction stuff for yo homeboy down in Nashville.

I'm excited to see Orion from the POV of The Beast's second lift and The Racer at night.

Shameless self plug warning. I started off on this project as just a generic Mack Impulse. Trying to come up with a name along the way, I decided to name it Flight Commander after the KI Flat (it's just a dope name, too). After I had the name, I wished that something like this would take Vortex's land. I didn't follow Vortex's terrain; nor did I try to fit it into the same plot size since it was an after thought. Nonetheless..... Enjoy?

Great. So now I'm just going to be refreshing the blog for the next 72hrs.

"Grandpa, what was the longest time you ever waited for a roller coaster?" "Well, Paul, let me tell you about 2020...."

I demand that we petition and boycott KI until they grow grass and plant every single tree and shrubbery that's visible in the ride announcement rendering. WHO'S WITH ME?!

While you're right, the additional mass that a fully-loaded train adds to the total mass of the train is just a small percentage. Say, you have a fully loaded train of 32 people at 200lb each. That's 6,400 lb on a train that when empty weighs 40k+. It's not going to drastically change the conservation of momentum, especially with how good modern lubrication is.

You'd almost rather them skip two rows at the end of the train to have the back one open.

Do we know that they'll be doing row assignments?

So, what row is everyone gonna try to grab for their first ride on Orion? I have a feeling the back row is gonna be the ticket, but it's hard to pass up a front-row first ride.

With the ugliest 'side curtains' ever on a super-tame ride. Sad that the accident happened, but the side curtains seem like a huge overreaction. Thankfully, those don't seem to be stock to the new train model.

So, how high is that kid sitting on the right side of the train?

Hopefully it is a backwards side again on Racer!

I get the whole business side of it, trust me. But this is also a theoretical ride that some one made in NL and posted to YouTube. Simply stating if I had the option, I'd pass in lieu of a different project.

I don't know if new trains a la Full Throttle would work well. FOF has too many abrupt changes in direction. The way you're snugged into the seats seems fairly critical to not making those transitions more jarring on an open torso.

Why do I have a feeling this would mean the demise of Invertigo and/or Congo River Falls? Pass on removing more roller coasters.

Yup, precisely. The job of connecting the two rides together was likely just a completely unnecessary headache. Huzzah! I didn't know this. I'm sure there were other contributing factors to making that change, but that doesn't surprise me whatsoever.

Some personal background here: I'm currently a student in a Mechatronics program down in TN. Mechatronics is basically a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering/motor control. So, can be directly applied to amusement park rides. Amusement park rides are controlled by Programmable Logic Controllers. The two biggest companies making this hardware are Siemens (German company) and Allen Bradley (American Company). PLCs, while computers, are specifically designed for industrial settings and are streamlined directly for that use. There's lots of different types of input/output modules that have certain wiring and programming requirements. So, the first hurdle would potentially be, do the two rides utilize the same companies hardware? If so, are they running the same model/level of PLC infrastructure? Just like any other computer hardware, advances in tech are made, and those updates are not necessarily easily compatible with one another. Then, if you've figured out a way to get around ALL OF THAT, you'd have to bring in a company like Irvine Ondrey Engineering to come and change the fundamental programming logic of the two rides and implement a new program, which costs money. Unfortunately raspberry pi's (which I love, and can be used in simple arduino projects to function as a mini PLC), can't just be plugged into the system and go. That said, a simple CCTV, and a 5 minute addition to ride-op training is by far the easiest and most logical way to go.

While it wouldn't be *that* difficult to link the two ride systems in such a way, ultimately, a CCTV setup is easier and much cheaper to execute.

Thats definitely the Son of Beast chain

I've thought about it and this statement appears to be correct.

This is GOLD. The Phantom Theater clips are spotless. So much nostalgia, I can't even begin. I'm gonna listen to the Maestro Ride Intro a million times today.

RIP Screechin' Eagle. The best stand-up in Ohio.

Nope. Lots of people file patents that never actually get put into production. I imagine that'll happen with this one.

Thanks, Walt! For curiosity, I timed the train from the midpoint at the top of the lift until it is on the brake-run. ~51 or 52 seconds. Really hoping that the ops are spectacular, this thing could eat people up with a constant 3 train op.