Luke_A

Hope you all had an awesome time guys! Seen some of your tweets and it sounds like it was a great success! Wish I could've been there but today has been the busiest day I've had in a while and I just wasn't able to make it. Look forward to seeing some of you at the MoS meet!

eek double post. The new Zamperla Air Race arrived last night and is the trailer mounted Air Race 8.2 model. Opening date unknown as of yet, though it could be any day now seeing as it's trailer mounted. http://www.zamperla.com/en/zamperla-details-rides-air_race_8_tm The ride will seat 16 riders with 8 plane-themed arms and weighs 38 tonnes in total. Zamperla say the height restriction is 1.2M. Looking forward to finally experiencing one of these things in the UK! It is the first Air Race for the UK. Identical model to that of which was showcased by Zamperla at IAAPA, unsure if it is a new build or not though (it may be the IAAPA ride..?)

Oooft yes something like El Toro or T-Express sounds perfect. With absolute heaps of over the top intense ejector airtime... Mmm yes that's exactly what Thorpe is lacking!! I'm sure the public would love a wooden / possible prefab coaster. They're a big hit in the US and other countries so I don't see why a modern one wouldn't fit in here!

It looks a good ride, and I'm sure it will 'do the job' at pulling in the guests. Does look a little slow over that top hat though in both directions! That's the thing with Six Flags of late, they tend to only do the minimum necessary in order to bring the guests in and that's all that matters to them. I wouldn't really say they've always been like it because the days when they purchased multiple 3-train B&M's in all parks were different! The same happened at Discovery Kingdom with their Premier launch coaster, it only has 1 train but Premier did offer for it to have a slide-track station system, but Six Flags refused. Can't imagine the capacity is very good on Full Throttle either.

Unusual for me but I really like this at the moment! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXd2WxoOP5g EDIT: Why are videos so dodgy when embedding lately on the forums?

I think the spider shocked me more there.

I have a phobia of blood / severe cuts or gore. Haemophobia as it's known. I've known that I've had it ever since I had an incident when I was about 7 years old where I cracked my head open on a metal swing in a play park (ouch!!), this was the second time I'd done this as it also happened to me when I was 5. I still remember the incident with the swing to this day and let's just say it was rather messy... Had to have quite a few stitches one time then the other time they used surgical glue stuff. Since that event I've always either fainted, felt faint, had to sit down, or I get a really fast heartbeat & cold sweat, or my body reactions will space out where I'll feel like there's a delay between when my brain tells me to do something and when it actually happens, such as simply walking, hence the having to sit down thing whenever I see anything majorly bloody in person. Movies tend to be ok because I know it's not real. I can't do a thing about it and my body just reacts in that way! I couldn't even deal with dissection of some animal parts in Biology at GCSE, had to leave the room hahaha! I read up about it a while back and apparently this phobia is often caused by traumatic incidents which can occur in childhood, so there's the explanation! Don't think I have any ride - related phobias as such. I do however have a passion for the feeling you get as you fall from a height! (In safe ways of course, Lol)

All you lucky people finishing early this year I've got a full term right up until July! The world of education for me is a bit of a whirlwind right now. I've just finished all my AS levels, and have now started my A2 courses early, so that way when I start back in September I will have completed some units in some subjects already. AS results in August. Also got a week of work experience with a certain train operating company at the start of July, very much looking forward to that! Uni open days to visit over the coming months, first one on Thursday this week. Got 3 Universities in mind at the moment with 4 slightly varying but similar courses to decide from and 1 Apprenticeship separate from all that as another option. Hoping to go on to do either Transport Studies or Travel & Tourism Management. ... Very excited for what the future holds but a little nervous as it's all new with moving on etc etc!

Maybe this is a solution which could be implemented one day for those who find Saw: The Ride rough?? Image credit TPR.

Rode The Smiler for the first time yesterday. Overall I thought it was a damn good ride which feels pretty much perfect as a whole experience. I don't think there was anything I could fault with the theming apart from two or three of the screens on the Marmaliser which kept going all pink like there was a loose connection or something... Was intermittent though. Also the speakers in the single rider / fastrack queue line area are rather tinny and lacking in bass. With the theme sounding so good in other areas they could've done with a couple more bass bins around the area just to give it a bit more... oomph to it. I'd say it's now my no.2 UK coaster, as in my opinion Speed @ Oakwood has a stronger layout, Saw sits at no.3 (Gerstlauer lover I am). The Smiler is probably the best 'experience' you can get in the UK, but the combination of elements on Speed pleases me just that little bit more, I think it all boils down to the 'inversions aren't everything in a coaster' thing. It could've done with a nice couple of intense helixes and one of the airtime hills being a little more powerful. My favourite inversions were the inverted drops and the corkscrews at the end as well as the indoor inline twist. It also feels really great going up a vertical lift hill so soon after going through so many inversions, it's really rather dizzying! The cobra roll is a little rough as well as the final inversion which had some random jolt to it on my train, and there is a little rattle throughout the ride which is pretty much identical to what you experience on Speed: No Limits. The rattle didn't detract from the experience in my opinion though as roughness really doesn't bother me at all. Don't get me wrong though, FANTASTIC coaster which I think we are very lucky to have here in the UK, and I look forward very much to riding it again sometime soon. X-Sector is truly now a brilliant themed area and is class thrill ride territory. Now if only they'd rip out Submission and put something more modern in it's place. PS... The exit of The Smiler is absolutely incredible and if the ride doesn't leave you dizzy enough, you may need to make sure you hold onto the handrails on the way out. 9/10 - The Smiler

Tripsdrill's new Gerstlauer launched coaster 'KARACHO' is looking mighty fine! The coaster has been marketed as having the lap-bar trains and features a rolling LSM launch. All images thanks to Coasterfriends.de. Looks like a nice layout, and damn, it looks like it will have some good spots of airtime... And whilst I mention that, I really think that Gerstlauer could build a really good twisty hyper coaster sometime with nothing but a range of ejector hills and curvy twists and possibly a beyond vertical drop with the vertical lift too. On all of their coasters that I've ridden, the spots of airtime combined with the dinky little trains always end up being my favourite parts of their coaster designs.

So I've been following the Same Sex Marriage bill talks through the house of Lords over the past couple of days... And if I'm honest it's just really beyond me still why people who have views which were built upon from 20-60+ years ago are allowed to decide upon the ways in which the people of today and the future are allowed to live. I'm not saying everyone in the House of Lords has these views, because some do come across as very supportive with the SSM bill, but the ones who do object it come across as just being stuck in their ways and are simply incredibly resilient to any modern change. It still surprises me how stuck in our ways we are in the UK with so many things if I'm honest, yes it 'could be worse', but it could also be much better and more relaxed such as some of our Northern European friends, e.g, Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark etc. Everything from changes in bills such as marriage to the yay's & nay's of HS2 (I am for this too) causes so much debate here and I sometimes wonder why a more streamlined process has not been enforced yet. (And I'm going off topic now) But if it weren't for the people of our country deciding to build railways back in the day, we wouldn't have them now! Mini-rant over. PS, Stonewall UK [@StonewallUK on Twitter] (a very very good charity!!) has been providing some good coverage of the bill and have made it a bit more entertaining by creating this Bingo card below to cross off when watching the conversation in the House of Lords. Just a bit of fun, nothing offensive meant. :angel:

Oh gawd I did photography at GCSE and that involved a 10 hour exam, split up into two 5 hour sections. It dragged very much but it did feel good when you get in that last hour or two and feel like everything's been worthwhile... In terms of my A-Level exams I've done 5 and have 1 to go... Woo!

A very interesting article here by TowersTimes which explains one of the set backs for the project, and how the HSE was involved with dealing with errors made during the groundworks process. HSE report: http://www.hse.gov.uk/notices/notices/Notice_details.asp?SF=CN&SV=304321528 http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/news/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1369595511&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1,10,11& EDIT: This did make me laugh... hahaha oh dear!

They've updated the FAQ section on the website regarding The Smiler. I think they're embarrassing themselves a bit now with the use of the "over 50 rides and attractions" sentence... Just look, they've felt the need to tell us it three times in case you didn't already know! http://www.altontowers.com/the-smiler-faqs/

The whole project has been a mess. Yes it's looking quite good now; and I am very excited for it, but the way it has been carried out is not really what I would expect from a major professional company like Merlin..? They should have allowed extra, extra, extra time considering the scale of this project. Poor project planning in the aspect that they haven't allowed themselves enough free time to consider unprecedented events. Cedar Point left LOADS of free time for GateKeeper to ensure it was 100% perfect before opening. Just been thinking about the timeline of events... Surely from the experience they had with Saw (which had PLENTY of time to test, but still had problems when opening) should have made them think more in the planning process and timeline of construction milestones. Planning went in for SW7 in December 2011. Now, it was accepted shortly after and deconstruction of the Black Hole tent was slow having started right at the start of the season in Feb / March. It wasn't all deconstructed until June and even then they still had a big pile of rubble leftover in the middle of the site... The site clearly needed a large amount of excavation and this took a fair few months before any footers or concrete appeared, with October 2012 being when the concrete walls started going in around the pit of the Staffordshire knot. Just for comparison, Saw was track complete by late September in it's equivalent year! Track arrived November 2012 but didn't start to get put into place (excuding station track) until mid-December for the Staffordshire knot. Surely by now they should've known that it would not open for March... February 2013 and the first drop structure above the toilets gets constructed, track all completed mid-April. And now they set a second deadline of it opening in May and fail to meet that by more than 1 day too. I know it will open and it will (I'm sure) be a brilliant ride. It's just frustrating that they seem to have been and done a bit of the case of secondary school homework where you realise you've started too late with it and "oh ****" I can't finish it on time / it won't be up to a good enough standard. The project should have had more time to iron out problems, with space permitting for bad weather and delays in construction. I think even if the groundworks were to have gone to plan and the weather were to have been fine, they still wouldn't have opened it for March, nooo way. Sorry if this sounded a bit of a rant, but it is really as we're enthusiasts and naturally we should care about the way things like this are handled! I'm saying June is when we see it open if we want it open on full capacity anyway, there's been very little testing recently... Has there even been any testing on more than 2 trains yet?? Maybe there should have never been an opening date... I'm thinking it would have been better to do surprise soft openings instead.

The Alton Towers enthusiast community right now: "Unforeseen circumstances" With a schedule so tight and having only visibly started multiple - train testing over the past couple of days, I'm sure this WAS foreseen as being a possibility that the thing would not open for Thursday. If it were to have opened tomorrow I'm sure it would have received great praise for opening so soon after so little multiple train testing. Anyway. It will open soon nonetheless and it should be an awesome ride.

So it appears they have decided something has to happen to that dodgy support which was filled with bolts. Image from TTF.

Saw does run veryyy slowly on cooler days when the cars are empty, the speed of which they come off the MCBR is quite disappointing and slow with no riders. It's been quite windy today so I guess that's one of the potential causes!

I can't wait for the Air Race tbh, they look like great unique rides! Glad to have one coming to the UK. Brighton Pier just confirmed to me on Twitter than the Air Race will open "Sometime in June, with a precise opening date to be put up on Facebook soon."

Six Flags Great America's Batman: The Ride clone is now open and running backwards..! I wasn't aware the whole train was to be turned backwards! I think this could create a really cool / odd sensation on an inverted coaster. Image from TPR.

What a great topic! Here goes 10 of mine... 1.) Succeed with my A-Levels and either get an apprenticeship in the railway industry or go onto Uni. Since about the later side of me being 14 I have always had an interest in the railways of Britain and could see myself thoroughly enjoying a career in this sector, if the sky is the limit I'd love to be a train driver / operator, yes I love working with people too but I'm very good with my own company and would adore a job like this. Yes, call me a nerd, but this is a theme park forum we're on... 2.) Travel to the USA to visit New York City, this may happen as soon as February next year as I have a trip there with Sixth Form! It's still in the confirmation process though. 3.) (something most people seem to have..!) Meet that 'special someone' and move away somewhere nearer to London. I've lived in the same town all my life and I just want to move. Doesn't have to happen soon though. More important things to sort out first. 4.) Ride all 22 types of ride of which KMG manufacture. Yes, again, very nerdy I know, but I'm mad & CRAVE for these sorts of thrill machines ok? I'm not even 1/2 way there yet. Need to get to Germany & the Netherlands. 5.) Go on a trip around some of Europe's finest theme parks with some fellow enthusiasts. 6.) See Hardwell & Laidback Luke live. - My top two single DJ's. 7.) Go to Ultra Music Festival, Miami; for the whole 2 weekends. That festival is 100% my idea of heaven. 8.) Participate in something similar to Coasting for Kids at the Cedar Fair parks. I think it's something our parks here in the UK should do. Riding roller coasters for long periods of time all in the name of charity? It's an awesome idea!! 9.) Learn to drive. It's all about the freedom for me! 10.) Visit the Netherlands, of course without having ever been before I can't judge this yet but if I ever did move to Europe this looks to be the place. It's a country which for many reasons has always captivated me as being a generally nice place to go. - It's the home of most house / dutch electronic music. - Same-sex marriage has been legal since 2001. - The country has what seems to be a near perfect set up of government / welfare system, education system, and most people speak both Dutch as well as English let alone any extra languages! - The people seem so incredibly friendly in general. So laid back and accepting of everyone no matter what makes you different. - They have an incredible funfair / Kermis culture. I probably have more... But overall I would just generally love to travel, do well in life, take up the city lifestyle, meet great people... And take any opportunity I have to do anything which I enjoy if the chance comes up!

Well I was booked to be going to PortAventura on my holiday to Spain for a week this year. But it was booked by family who would rather go when it's cheaper abroad in term time instead of when it suits everyone... Which always causes trouble, and did again this time as I have exams on when I'm meant to be in Spain. So I can't go... But we're going to sort something out for later in the year around September / October time for another European trip to somewhere... Hurrah..! & boo!

Well like Ryan I am a HUGE Knife Party fan. The Haunted House EP leaked a couple of days ago and my favourite song is LRAD. In case you're thinking "LRAD!? wtf does that mean??" The song is thought to be named after the electronic weapon used which emits a very loud ear-damaging; deafening noise to make people flee from an area. It's a "minimal progressive house" song with a very prominent beat of a kick drum, I'm a massive fan of this blend of genres and I'm always on the look out for music in this sort of category. Showtek seem to be the kings here at the moment though. On the topic of Knife Party, I'm absolutely loving how they seem to be able to dip into every sort of sub-genre of electronic music in everything they do and still make it sound incredibly awesome..! Here's LRAD. Prepare yourself for about 4:06. Listen in HD for full effect. If you like that song you may also like this... I think the fact that it has almost 11 Million views shows how epic it is. Ha ha. I'm also in love with this at the moment too. Everything gets crazy and out of hand at 1:34 but you must listen to the build up & lyrics for that to be effective in my opinion.

Oh noes.