Last night MSNBC aired Investigate: Roller Coasters. Let me tell you that the show was much better than I would expect and had probably the best POVs of the night.
There were awsome POVs of:
-Top Gun at Paramount Great America
-Fujiyama
-Son of Beast
-Dueling Dragons
-Matterhorn
-Magnum XL 200
-Loch Ness Monster
-Big Bad Wolf
-Joker's Jinx
During the show they explained gravitational forces with the assistance of the Cedar Corkscrew.
What bugged me was how they measured Stealth and Texas Tornado for gravitational forces and used that as a standard to represent an average coaster's forces. Then Ed Markey got a few seconds in the spotlight to talk about how we're(meaning him and his possy) trying to keep the max down to 4 vertical g's.
Next they went into roller coaster accidents, where although Cedar Fair did a good job at telling the truth about coaster safety(kudos to Kenzel), Six Flags got put to shame. They started showing clips of when Demon@SFGAm's train came to a stop in the vertical loop, leaving 23 riders upside down for 14 hours. They also interview a family of 5, who had four of them on the cosater during it's fatall accident. One or two of the kids actually have some brain disorders now. Then Markey starting reading about how a coaster in New Jersey launched of its track in 1999, killing three people and injuring others. Both accidents, he read, were caused by the replacement of parts with less officent substitutes. He said that the regular wheels were replaced with warn infrareds, which lead to the train's bizzare action. Then the announcer qouted that MArkey said 4,000 people die on amusement rides each year. Thank you to Cedar Fair again for getting those facts straight.
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Some stupid responses in teh show:
We ask, "What makes people want to ride coasters again and again?"
One of their responses were "roller coasters simulate good sex and release the emotions from your g spot."
The crazy physics guy rode Top Gun at Carrowinds with a bunch of testings. After getting off of the ride the guy said, "Ok, that was top Gun, and NOW WHERE GONNA' GO CRUNCH SOME NUMBERP, oh I can't wait!"
Then they ask what was his favorite part of the ride and he responded, "Getting the final responses from the computer, I mean these are some nice readings.
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The part I really was interested in was when they went behing the seens at Arrow Dynamics. They talked to Head of Enginerring who explained the train systems on inverted coasters and also showed what their steel track comprised of. Only thing was that they were using their Arrowbatic coaster to show us. In the warehouse, thhere were people everywhere fabricating and assembling Arrowbatic track and then they showed us the trains. Now, I'm wondering what all that was about? I'm overjoyed to see the Arrowbatic, but what is all of this mean? Have they finally sold one? IT looked like it was in the early stage since the track was just now being put together. The trains, Arrow said, are also drstically changed to give a more snug fitting restraint system that riders can not loosen or try to get out of. Since it would take around to years to get this prototype up and running from the Arrow to the ? park, do you think that this is a Arrowbatic for 2003 since the show was tapped in 2001?
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Also, credits to this wonderful show also included:
Top Gun at Carrowinds
Mean Streak
Ghostrider
Stealth
Volcano
Raptor
Ninja
Collossus
Speed:The Ride
Revolution
Legend
Mantis
Riddler Revenge
Great Bear
Lightning Racer
V2
Shooting Star(defunct)
Old Pippin(semi-defunct)
Revere Lightining(decunct)
Some Kick(defucnt)
Coney Island Tunderbolt(defunct)
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Lake Compounce-So Fresh and So Clean Clean
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|| Jonathan Hawkins ||
http://www.starcoasters.com
Top Gun: TJC flights - Approx. 262 (76 in 2002)
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