Air Time and Fewest Lateral G Forces

Which coasters, wooden and steel have the most vertical airtime, and the fewest lateral G forces? I'm compiling a list.

BILL

For wooden coasters I would have to say Shivering Timbers at Michigan's Adventure for both air and lateral G's. It's an air time machine!

For Air on a steel Coaster. I would still give that to Magnum at Cedar Point.

For really nasty laterals. Probably Mean Streak at CP for wood. Is there also a crap list? because that would be another way to describe it.

For fastest lateral G's. I would have to say the Beast at Kings Island.

For intense ejector air, my picks are actually both wood: El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure and Phoenix at Knoebels. I personally prefer the back right seat on Toro, and 1-2 on Phoenix. If they actually fix Skyrush's restraints (new at Hershey), both the laterals AND the airtime are sick.

bunky666 said:

I personally prefer the back right seat on Toro,

Good thing we haven't met up there. There'd be a fight. :)

Honorable mention might go to Behemoth at CW.

Most airtime and fewest laterals: anything that is a true out & back for a woodie, and for a steel coaster, any B&M hypercoaster except maybe Raging Bull.

I know row 3 is the coaster dork seat on Phoenix, but my son and I always take at least 1 lap in the back and laugh at the sight of everyone sequentially popping up in the air going over those bunny hops.

Most out and backs will fit the bill. Some of my favorites which have not yet been mentioned: Bizarro SFNE. Boulder Dash. Comet.

As far as steel goes, the coaster with the most extreme airtime and absolutely zero lateral G's? Green Lantern at SFMM. It's "insane." (Haha)

For the woodie with the fewest laterals, I would say Legend at Holiday World.

Juuuust kidding.

Mike Gallagher said:

bunky666 said:

I personally prefer the back right seat on Toro,

Good thing we haven't met up there. There'd be a fight. :)

Naw...I'd move over to the left for ya. :)

I haven't been on too many coasters, but:

Wooden (air time) = El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)

Steel (air time) = either Nitro (SFGA) or Millennium Force

I'm not sure about the fewest lateral g's...

I didn't find much air on MF. I'm pretty sure that wasn't the point of the ride anyway, but there almost every other Intamin hyper has more.

What seat were you in? And MF is my 2nd place for most air time, Nitro being 1st. Even though MF is an overall better ride. I haven't been on too many coasters yet, and I still need to ride more Hypercoasters.

On 3 separate trips I've probably ridden twice in front and 7 or 8 times in back. Didn't get anywhere near the air I get on any of the S:RoSes, Skyrush, NTG, or even the so-called over engineered B&M's like AC, Diamond Back, Goliath oG or Nitro. I'm not saying it's a bad ride. Far from it. It's in my top 10 steel, , but not for its airtime.

MF and I-305 are more like the Gios, IMO. While there is some airtime in the layouts, it is not the *point* of those rides, it's a pleasant addition.

Amazing to me that THIS many years later, nothing comes close to the extreme airtime of those original RoS rides....except maybe Toro. When I think about what the SFNE Supes did on my first (ERT) rides, it still makes me shake my head. Not surprising so many "hardcore" enthusiasts begged off - those forces were WAY unprecedented.

and, as a bonus, no laterals... ;~)

Seriously though, what rides have a lot of lateral forces - not many. Makes wooden coasters hard to maintain. The one good jolt on KG's Twister was removed. Herc was (thankfully) removed years ago. WG Cyclone's lateral jolts were (probably?) unintentional.

MF has very long, floater airtime on the drop and the two big hills. Not to speak for Andy or anyone else, but I think a lot of people think of airtime as more of the sudden forceful kind.

Jeff, yes, I think you're right. On my visits to Great Adventure, I always think, "they gotta get more rides with crazy airtime like El Toro", but then I ride Nitro and realize just how graceful and floating and LENGTHY the airtime is on that ride. While I love that short quick ejector air, there is something to be said (and not forgotten) about flying over a hill and having your butt out of the seat the whole way down the other side.

"Floater" air time is great, but I have to admit feeling that it's infinitely more effective on wooden coasters. On steel, gimme that crazy ejector /"abrupt" airtime.

Probably any B&M hyper has a good amount of floater air and not too many laterals like Apollo's Chariot. For insane airtime, I'd say (in order from most to least) El Toro, Shivering Timbers, and the Voyage. I haven't ridden Skyrush, but if you're making a list, I would go ahead and put that on there. For laterals, I'd say Millenium has the longest (ones where your body is tilted for like a whole 10 seconds) and Intimidator 305 has the quickest. I haven't ridden a ton of coasters with insane laterals though. A good mix would be El Toro. It has amazing laterals and insane stand-up air too.