BoddaH1994

Ok, so I was born in 1983 so HB was in one of its many primes when I was at that "cartoon watching" age... and I still don't know who many of the characters are. Heck, until this year, I thought a lot of them were just made up. It's time for HB to go.

Uh you got that backwards. Centripetal force is real. It is latin for Center Seeking. It is a force that accelerates an object inward toward the center of a circle. Centrifugal force is the one that is used for convenience - but does not actually exist. There is no such thing as Centrifugal force. But there is Centripetal force. Centripetal force is what keeps you pushed down into your seat in a loop. INERTIA is what would keep the cars from flopping over. The cars tend to move in a straight line, but the track forces them to follow a bent path. So INTERTIA forces the cars outward, but the force acting against INERTIA is the CENTRIPETAL force... Centrifugal force is an imaginary concept used to make things make more sense. Oh jeeze... we always get the science buffs on here. I think we can all agree that if TG were made longer and with inversions, it would quickly take the trophy as being the best ride in the park. To me, that whole swinging sensation really keeps me on edge, although I've ridden the ride countless times.

I think the projectors are fine how they are, I'm just wondering when Screen 4, after a three year absense will make its return?! I like the look and feel of the Feasthaus as is. It kind of seems like the central hub, or even broadcast studio, of QTV.

That link has been in our history section for a while, but it's definitely worth looking at more than once. I miss the Maestro!

I just got this e-mail from Brian Neal, a friend of PKICentral and local ACE representitive: Fall Freakout was a fantastic event last year and we look forward to the same this year. If you have coaster-lover friends and family WITHOUT passes, this is a great opportunity to both show them the park, and let them see the backstage areas, all of which is at a price that is lower than the normal admission of $44.99. This is a required event. Ryan

Let's clear some things up: PKIC, since the beginning, has always have very successful meeting days on the last day the park is open for the season, and the tradition will of course live on this year. You can estimate that there will be between 10 and 50 people there on average. I know that's kind of a spread, but it's really hard to say. Everyone is both welcome and encouraged to attend. Not only is it a great time, but it's a good way to build the community. People who have met in person can really have a better understanding of eachother on the forums. I can't swear to this yet, but a PKIC Winterfest meetup is likely to happen too. Further details on all of that will be available once the date draws nearer. I don't know why you asked this in this thread, but the announced rides to be open for Wintefest are the carousel, the HBL carousel, and a "Christmas-ized" SDATHC.

They also neglect the fact that PKI brings in a crazy amount of money to their community. They were never FoF queues. I remember the first year it was open in 96 when the line queued all the way through the hanger, through the queues outside of the station, through some makeshift queues in front of the hanger, and finally ended up near the Zephyr. I'm sure it got longer, but that's when I rode it. lol They flight team did in fact offer tours to Cincinnati, Dayton, and around PKI for the first few years. I remember it costing a pretty penny, but I'm not sure what the exact amount was. I think going to Dayton was in the realm of $90 per person or so. In its last year or two of operation, they limitied it to just flights around PKI, which I think were $45 per person. It wasn't exactly the msot tempting offer, but now that it's gone I wish I had taken advantage of it. Ryan

LoL... good stuff. The company that did the helicopter tours was based out of Louisville, KY if I remember correctly. There were many factors in its demise from PKI including low ridership and local residents complaining about the noise.

You're more than welcome to show up to the PKIC 3rd annual End of Season meetup which is held every year on the last day of the season. this sounds cool, do alot of people come? We've had about 6 official meeting days in our nearly 3 year history, the first one had only 8 people, but we've had as many as 50. It's really a great time.

You're more than welcome to show up to the PKIC 3rd annual End of Season meetup which is held every year on the last day of the season.

Now here's the question: Was the plant tunnel moved to it's current spot, or was it just shortened with the end blocked off?

Yeah, I'm one of those people who gets the mid-season blues. Like, between the 4th of July and the beginning of Fearfest. I suppose it always seems like the season is so young and then we're preparing for the end. One the other hand, once we have that whole month of September off I seem to have more acceptance and just look forward to the next season. It's always kind of a bummer, but at least we have Wintefest this year too, plus being a seasonal park makes sure that I don't get burnt out on the place and makes spring that much sweeter.

The fact that they built the drum before the ride was actually stated by a PKI official during the FoF tour at Fall Freakout last year. He said that there was some delay with the track, and they couldn't hold up construction in order to wait for the track, so they went ahead with the building first. They were forced to use new, more innovative methods to construct the ride within the building.

There has been a lot of talk about the special effects of Top Gun recently, mainly the area under the station. One thing that seems to have been forgotten was a really neat effect in which whenver a train would pull into or leave the station, it would do so in a cloud of smoke/fog. I had totally forgetten about this until the other day when I rode it and noticed open-ended PVC pips sticking up through the station.

I think 20 years is kind of a stretch. I mean, I would definitely agree with 5 years, but who knows what 2025 will bring. If you look at the history of PKI, they seem do go on kicks, or spurts.. Talest, Fastest, Longest, Only 1999 - Drop Zone - Tallest Gyro Drop in the world 2000 - SOB - Tallest, fastest, only looping woody in the world 2001 - Reptar - World's first inverted kiddy coaster Then the themed rides 2002 - Tomb Raider 2003 - SDATHC 2004 - Crocodile Dundee's Waterpark Resort 2005 - The Italian Job Stunt Track Granted, almost any enthusiast can swear that they'll be adding themed attractions for a long time to come, but there could come a point when there just aren't any more to add. If you think about it, what can they possibly do? It would be nearly impossible to retro-fit most flat rides into themed rides like Tomb Raider, and any themed coaster would be same old, same old with IJ. My personal prediction is that we'll see areas gutted and rethemed over the next several years. I mean, everyone and their grandma knows about NC next year, but what about after that? It's very likely that we'll get a new coaster in 2007 in my opinion. This is simply based on the fact that 2007 rumors have been circulating for over a year now, and it's just a little convenient that ACE's CoasterConn happens to be at PKI that year. I think that a coaster won't be all though. PKI has lept into the realm of being a world-class park which causes them to walk a thin tightrope between unimaginable success and blatant failure, and being the type of park that they are they'll almost always fail... at least from one outsider's standard or another. I think that in 2007 there will be some sort of coaster that is integrated into a whole new area. That would correlate with their intentions to extend the average visitor's stay from 6 to 8 hours. Simply put, if there's more to do, people will stay longer. I think this will happen regardless of how much money Viacom is willing to pump into the park, what will ride on it will be if this will be whether this is a magnificant expansion which will solidify PKI's spot on the map, or will be a cheezy expansion that will deteriorate over the course of 6 months. Beyond that, I think that entire areas will be revamped and renamed. This will give the patronage a feeling of a whole new experience, whether is really is or it is just an illusion brought on by renaming rides and slapping on a new coat of paint. Of course, it's not like they can just cyclically go around the park renaming areas, so the future of this park is really up in the air... Ryan

You likely won't find the exact photos you're looking for since they constructed the building before the track.

Ew... that's difficult to say. I think Labor Day will be crowded, but not exceptionally bad since PKI doesn't have anything special going on to my knowledge.

I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express, but ironically, I am wearing nothing but a towel. j/k To more or less sum it up, it's possible on some rides, not on others. You can go back and forth about comfort and the "freefall" feeling, but when it comes down to it, safety is always in front of pleasure.

The fishtailing is always on, you have to really look for it though. It makes the ride a lot smoother its just very subtle. The only time you can really feel it working is during the swerving through the cop cars at the bottom of the hill. The helicopter doesnt go up and down for a reason. The stair effect wont work because it goes to fast and would be impossible to slow down at that point. The sound doesnt work because of all the vandalism, and that is the only reason the sound doesnt work. So if you want to complain about the sound, dont blame the staff. It's odd how you accuse people of complaining, when you're making excuses for the park, which is just as bad. Granted, I think IJ is a great ride the way it is, but I don't blame people for wondering why effects never really existed when they were either a part of the press release and/or announced by marketing. If PKI wants to be the Disney of the midwest, they should concentrate on innovate ways to solve problems instead of innovative ways to get out of them.

**Please follow ToS and respect the thoughts and opinions of others**

With most coasters, it is the natural forces themselves that keep you in the car, not so much the lap bar. In fact, if you look at the history of coaster ride injuries, a good portion of them have occurred when a train has rolled back within a loop, which I think is a result the forces doing things to both the rider and the train that it wasn't designed to do. Keep in mind that most of this occurred several decades ago when safety restraints weren't what they are now. Could the Arrow trains be retrofitted? I'm guessing yes, but as PKIBeast said, it wouldn't be cost effective to do so. They really couldn't market it as a new ride, and I doubt it causes the level of damage to the head the FoF once did.

Do you remember about 10 years ago when people used to reproduce the old "Taste Great... Less Filling" Miller commercial? That used to own.

You're actually absolutely right. Have you ever noticed that the first thing Jeff says at any of the press conference is that all of the information is available of PKI.com? When they update the site, more than likely, the new pages are there already, they just rename them to make your browser to default to that page. With that, you can uncover a lot of secrets by exploring around PKI.com. If you noticed this is a NC expansion that is clearly about Carowinds, yet is on PKI's root directory. Obviously they can't just change names, but they can whipe all of the info and stull use the template. Cool find! Ryan

I thought you only saved $1 on Winterfest tickets...

I heard that from a guy who said he was really good friends with the glassblower's son's friend.