Gazza

I think though the fact the MW pass is so much cheaper that the money you would save using the wider DW discounts would not equal that price difference.

That and the fact launching the ride to 240km/h in half a second would be a more powerful launch than TTD

Ok, remember that the freefall car is moved by cables, which are attached to the bottom and top of the car. To hold it at the top all they would do is stop pumping any air in or out of the central cylinder. Thus the cables wont be hauled up or down and the car will just sit there. (its a bit like when a lift stops at the top floor, the motors stop and the lift is just held there) Now, for falling faster than gravity the car is simply yanked down by the cables rather than just falling at its own pace. Try this: if you have blinds/curtains that use a drawstring attach a peice of tape to the drawstring, the tape represents the freefall car. now quickly pull down on the drawstring and the tape will move down, but notice that its not gravity doing this but you pulling. Its the same thing with the spaceshot, its the cables pulling down, not gravity.

Here is an alternate explaination which i feel is a bit clearer than the above of how magnetic brakes work, its the nth time I have posted this, but alas... For starters, you have two paralel magnets placed a little bit apart, with the north side of one magnet facing the south side of the other. That makes a magnetic field exist between them. Now, when you move a length of conductor (Eg a wire, or in this case the copper brake fin on bottom of the car) through a magnetic field a current is created in the conductor. (Generators actually work by this principle, since coils of wire spin around in a magnetic field, since the coils are rotating, they are moving, and thats why you get current from a generator) So in this case, because the copper brake fin goes in between the pair of magnets you get a current in the fin. NOTE THAT BECAUSE THE BRAKE FIN IS MADE OF COPPER IT IS NOT ATTRACTED TO THE MAGNETS (since only very few metals can be attracted to magnets, like iron for example) Since the copper fin has a current flowing through it (yes current does flow) the copper fin acts like an electromagnet. (It is like when you wind coils of wire around a nail, and then let current flow through the coils by hooking it up to a battery, you make an electromagnet) Because of the direction of the current in the fin, the electromagnetic field created actually opposes the magnetic field from the pair of magnets mentioned at the start. Because these fields are opposing each other the train is forced to slow down. Just with the above explaination, i adapted it from something else, so it really refers to one where the copper fin is attached to the vehicle, but superman has the copper fins on the track. In reality there is little difference as one is moving relative to the other.

Just on that, can you feel if there is metal in the bottom of the rafts?

Geeze, if i were you I would be pushing bloody hard to get a visit to IOA, its probably my favourite theme park, and hey you cant go wrong with 3 B&M coasters in the same park..... Maybe just say something like "We could just to SW here in Australia", or maybe show her a picture of dueling dragons to help with the convincing.

They are usually initially built somewhere on the "Mortgage Belt", and from there they just start popping up at shopping centers (For example a store at Melbourne Central opened today) I must say its a good stratergy though, those little donuts seem to cause mania. The first store in vic generated 2 hr lines for weeks after opening, and continues to be popular. I have to wonder though, if a WVTP park opened a store would people visit just so they could get donuts?

Wait, i thought you had inside knowlege or something. Are you posting up what is known to be true, or what you think is true? As for the proximity sensors, i had thought that the green LEDs on them were just indicator lights, or do the LEDs play an active role in the system (Eg is the sensor system optical)

Ohhhh, so this is why public liability insurance is so expensive .......

An interesting point, but its basically banking on WnW not doing anything while WWW sort of "catches up" with its attraction stock. One of WWWs major claims at the moment is that it is "home to all 4 of the worlds hottest slides".Now presently WnW has 1 of them, but it isnt too unfathomable that WnW might go ahead and match what WWW has. They certainly have the space, something WWW is going to have difficulty with. And with the theming, can someone sort of describe the sort of things there? And is it sort of a hapazard approach where they have basically gotten everything they can to do with the beach and scattered it around, or have they been more realistic in trying to create a convincing beach environment? If its close to MW standards then that is definitley promising, maybe MLT have learned how to theme . Its good though they have made the effort, WnW doesnt really theme anymore, which for me is dissapointing, the fact WWW have done it well makes up for the fewer number of attractions.

I thought about that too, but I think it ultimatley comes down to the tight spot it is in. Either that or simply minimising the outlay for the ride. I wonder though if it would work out cheaper to simply staff BWSS at a higher level to keep things flowing nicley rather than building an extra tower?

Just on the lack of a timing system on BRO, I emailed the park asking about ticketing a little while back, but at the same time asked wether the ride would have a timer. The answer I got was that they are looking at putting one in. I must say though that I never thought of yelling out false starts

But see what benefit would that bring? It would do nothing to cut running costs.

Nah nah mate, you're welcome, anytime....

I was wondering about them, intially I was happy that they had opted not to use them as all they really do is turn a 4 person ride into a 2 person ride, which of course leads to longer lines. And anyway, two groups of 2 can join to make 4. But Myk, have they replaced the entire supply of rafts with whirly wheels, or can you still go in a 4 person cloverleaf?

As always Rabid, wonderful photos. I like that first shot, its just nicely balanced. And welcome to R-C <3coasters, but just a tip, im not trying to be mean or anything, but run your posts through a spell check and avoid abbreviations like '2' instead of 'to' as they make it hard to read.

Its a pretty routine calculation though, the sort of thing you can drum out in less than a minute. I guess I was just interested in working out what the go was (which has been done ) Welcome aboard though, its always good when we get some park employees joining in the conversation. Better get used to people talking about the minutae of theme parks and rides though

Well, its not really steam, but rather water vapour. The droplets are so small any wetness is negligible, and anyway blasting along at 100 km/h is fairly effective at drying any remaining water away. But, its odd because the steam has a smell that reminds me of the sterilisation systems used in food production, maybe there is a little side effect here and each run through the circut leaves those trains free of germs

Build them the normal way, but remember that you need enough space below since the trains hang below the track so you cant just build a path straight under, drop it down a few units. Just click on the square beside the coaster with the path tool running, click on the pin icon and then use the options that appear to build the stairs. Click on the theming button, then from the set of buttons that appear click the 3rd from the bottom (It has a picture of a billboard with a burger and drink on it). A menu appears from which you can pick your own images for you signs. (So just make an image file of your sign with whatever program you use (MS Paint?) and put it in the my pictures folder before you play RCT3 and it will be there ready for you to use.

For those of you who have seen the ride, have we got a 12 or a 16 passenger gondola. I would have thought by the time i started rambling about magnetic fields it would have been apparent

I would imagine so, park maps never seem to show all the small details, and IMO it is these details that make a rides' theming great. A couple of other things I noticed, the queue looks to have industrial style cable fencing, and the ride seems to have a viewing area around the back with Bat vehicles (Good recycling there!)

I completely disagree with DWs actions in this case. However, i think their reasoning is the fact coaster websites dont have nearly the same impact as the other forms of more wide audience media that are invited to media launches. While a report in a newspaper could get quite a few new customers in, a coaster site review wont really help given the fact the parks actions are often known about months in advance, and the readers of these sites would visit regardless. You could also consider the fact that coaster sites will report no matter what (often out of their own pocket), and hence there is no need to invite them specifically. Still, i think its mean spirited on DWs part, they are blocking out their special interest group, and even if they arent some lucrative market coaster site owners should still get an invite out of goodwill given the fact that readers of these sites are keen to get a first look at their latest attractions. Think about it in terms of say cars, or maybe computer games. Both these industries have trade events, media previews, and of course associated media outlets and websites (Think Wheels magazine, or gamespot.com respectivley), now while these are both niche markets, it would be unthinkable for Wheels magazine to be barred from the Motor Show or gamespot.com being denied media access to E3. I feel its a similar situation here, hopefully commonsense will prevail.

Thanks for that So, is a 'Right Hander' one of those waves where it doesnt break all at once, but sort of along the wave, with one end breaking while the next bit along is still curling over and so on?

Well, it does take a bit of digging to find where they have all the terms and conditions. Plus, there is still no excuse for you being rude.

Yes, a Humpback or Blue whale would go down well