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- Newsgroups: rec.roller-coaster
- Path: sparky!uunet!pmafire!geoff
- From: geoff@pmafire.inel.gov (Geoff Allen)
- Message-ID: <1992Aug31.142933.6505@pmafire.inel.gov>
- Date: Mon, 31 Aug 92 14:29:33 GMT
- Organization: Roller Coaster fanatic with no hope for a cure
- Subject: Re: Drachen Fire at Busch Gardens, VA
- Summary:
- References: <4060@novavax.UUCP>
- Followup-To:
- Distribution: rec
- Organization: Roller Coaster fanatic with no hope for a cure
- Keywords: drachen fire
- Lines: 53
-
- grohol@novavax.UUCP (John Grohol) writes:
-
- >Six Flags Great Adventure
- >-------------------------
- >Their looping coaster, old as it is and recently tainted by a death
- >a few years back, is still one of the best implementations of a
- >loop-only coaster I've seen. "Lightening Loops" offers a very simple
- >premise: push you off one hill, go through the loop, and come to
- >a platform on the opposite side of the loop. Push you off *that*
- >platform *backwards* and you go through the loop backwards and end
- >up where you started. Quick. Easy. Thoroughly enjoyable! A backwards
- >loop is really quite an experience. We sat in the last car going
- >forward, the first going backward... and let me tell you, you never
- >forget that feeling of not knowing where that hill drops you off
- >into the loop until it's too late!!
-
- This ride is generically referred to as a shuttle loop, in this case
- done by Arrow Dynamics. And based on how much you liked it, I'll let
- you in on a secret:
-
- You really really really really want to ride a Schwarzkopf
- shuttle loop.
-
- Known locations of such a beast are:
-
- Six Flags Astroworld, in Houston, TX, where it's called
- Greezed Lightnin'
-
- Great America, in Santa Clara, CA, were it's called Tidal Wave
-
- and
-
- Knott's Berry Farm, in Buena Park, CA, where it's called
- Montezooma's Revenge.
-
- It's similar to the Lightning Loops, but there are no drops (so to
- speak). You go barrelling out of the station with some incredible
- accelleration, through a loop (and a nice, Schwarzkopf-designed loop,
- not a wimpy clothoid loop that gives you no extreme g's and leaves you
- upside down for only a short time), and up a steep incline. You go up
- the incline until you lose all your speed, stop, then start rolling
- backward. Back through the loop, back through the station, and up a
- similar incline, down that incline and stop.
-
- It only lasts 30 or 40 seconds, but oh, what a ride!!!
-
- Geoff ``I rode it once in the last seat with a *very* full bladder.
- Wow, what a ride!!!'' Allen
-
- --
- Geoff Allen \ Please remain seated and keep your hands and arms
- uunet!pmafire!geoff \ above your head at all times. Enjoy your ride.
- geoff@pmafire.inel.gov \
-