Batwing grand opening 6/16, ye of little faith

Once again accepting an inviatation from Mr. Sam Marks of Coaster Zombies and Coasterbuzz, I journeyed down to SFA to ride Batwing for the first public run. This time there were many other people including many ACE'rs and many of these people were from out of town. Well things didn't go according to plan. We walked back around 9am or so and we looked at the ride not moving. So we all got a mini ERT on S:ROS instead. The out-of-towners loved it and I once again heard a couple of "better than my hypercoaster at my park" comments which I enjoy a great deal. Well they started cycling Batwing and they cycled some more. Not seeing any progress most of us dispersed and either got lunch or went and rode Roar or S:ROS so we could stay close by. Dark clouds on the horizon. Very dark clouds. One person told me they were taking apart part of the other train in the station to compare it to the running train. I guess that's one of advatage of dual loading stations. Well they start cycling again but no time estimate. By this point most everyone who was in the tour group had left. Did I mention that we had torrential rains for most of the afternoon? After some work on the lift hill they got it running again and we were told 20 cycles without error to open it. So picture this, there are 11 very stupid people getting absolutely soaked waiting to see if it makes 20 trips without getting stuck on the lift. Remember they have to close lapbars everytime. At this point we don't even think the park is open because it's raining so hard and we don't see anything running from where we're standing. There's one guy in our group who's from Florida and he's determined he's staying all day till it opens. It makes 20 cycles! At 5:35pm we get the first public ride! The GP starts booking towards the ride and it runs two more times before getting stuck on the lift again. 2Hostyl a.k.a. Jeremy and I saw maintenance people climbing the lift again and we both decided to call it a day. I think we both got what we wanted out of the day which was to see the GP ride it for the first time. I've got to say there was a lot of screaming on their first ride, but everyone who got off ran back to get in line. A wise choice indeed.
FYI, since Tuesday they added banks of lockers near the ride for all your loose items. Also this is the only place to stay dry if a storm breaks out while you're in line.


*** This post was edited by Intamin Fan on 6/17/2001. *** *** This post was edited by Intamin Fan on 6/17/2001. ***

Come on, Vekoma! Don't you make working rides anymore? If I were Six Flags, I would be pretty upset with Vekoma this year. (major Deja Vu delays, and flying dutchmans that cannot stay open for longer than a few trians)

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"X" marks the spot in 2001!

The Batwing needs more test rides, the Flying Dutchman are technical complex coasters and these coasters needs alot of testing, at least 2 months. I think that the break downs will go down, after a few month.

Soggy I agree that it's frustrating, but not only Vekoma has had reliability problems. For example our Intamin made S:ROS gets stuck on the lift quite frequently. As we keep asking for more and more high-tech rides I think this will be our future. It almost makes you want to go back to the days before sensors and computers. I imagine the chains ran all day back then.

The Superman thing isn't an Intamin thing, it's the control system, which is probably programmed by someone else. Millennium Force has few, if any, control-related closures and its blocking system is far more complex than most coasters. I'd say it's not an Intamin thing.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Oh Intamin doesnt suggest to the park who should go the controls? (assuming of course that Intamin doesnt do it themselves). In any case, I-Fan was just saying that Vekoma rides arent the only ones to have problems (Volcano, Chiller, Hypersonic, etc...)
lata,
jeremy

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An SFBrat who is resigned to the fact that the world is filled with Six Flags Haters....it's tragic that they waste their lives like that

When I went to Magic Mountain for Riddler's Revenge's grand opening, the thing broke down four times during my would have been 20 minute wait. I waited for 2 hours to ride, and the line started just at the bottom of the stairs. I say the new rides just need a while to break in. Hopefully this thing is running well when I come to SFA!

OK, so Intamin Fan, you're telling me that it DID in fact open to the GP yesterday?!?! The lady told the people that were waiting at the little gated section the whole day (since 10:30!)that the ride would be closed to the GP. So I went off and did other things. I'm really really angry, that security woman should never have said this if it wasn't really closed to us. Remember when they let the GP into the ride queue? I was about 8 people back (the blonde girl in the blue sleeveless shirt). This means that I would have been on the second public train (the one behind you guys). I'm sorry if I misunderstood you and there really were no GP runs but if this is correct then I'm going to have to write SFA a letter.

Sure, there were about 2 or three GP runs that I saw. But mind you, that didn't happen till 5:30pm. At that point, they opened the gates and everyone was allowed to go back there.

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An SFBrat who is resigned to the fact that the world is filled with Six Flags Haters....it's tragic that they waste their lives like that

Yeah, I guess maybe there was no way that she would have known...but to say that it would definitely be closed for the whole day...I would have stuck around the Gotham City area had she not said that, lol. Oh well, going this weekend too so I'll just get on it then. Hopefully the kinks will have been worked out. Did you guys have fun (when you weren't getting soaked in the rain :()?

Surely People have to understand that These Vekoma Flying Coasters are very complex,and they are bound to brake down a lot the first couple of months of operation, I mean Look at the Control Panels, Look at the Trains, Its all heavily technologicly advanced, You cant expect them to build one of these rides and open it immediatly with no problems, It was bound to happen, I believe Stealth had major problems within the first few months of opening, but most problems have now been sorted. You Just Gotta Give the Parks a bit more time, I think its pathetic that Batwing has been open for just 1 Day and already people are complaining about it not running properly etc. X Flight has also been open for a month. All I say is, Give the Parks 2-3 months, and X Flight and Batwing will surely be running a lot better than they are at the moment.

Also this is a similar story with most other coasters too, I remember the First year when Oblivion Opened, It was Terrible, BreakDowns everyday, not opening half way through the day, sometimes not open at all, Slow Operations. Everyone hated it, But after the 1st year of operation, Oblivion was pretty much running to full capasity all day every day with very fewer breakdowns.

These things take Time, HAVE PATIENCE MY FRIENDS

I was also one of the Acer's to go to SFa to ride Batwing. The min ERT on Superman was great and I got three rides on it in about 10 minutes. It was not working all day. Rain pured down at 12:30 for awhile and all of the rides were shut down. Then, the rain ceased. After, some stupid park people let the GP go to the lines and join us. The security forced all of the GP to leave and some big security guard even tried to force us, the people allowed to stay, out of the lines. He screamed and pushed us until up one of the ride ops told the guard that we are allowed to be there. I talked coasters with many people and while the ride was still being tested, my father and I went on Minderaser, Roar, Wild One, and Joker's Jinx. I did not get to ride Face-Off because it got stuck on the bottom of the track after the 2nd inversion and short of the second hill in the "valley." At about 4:15, I waited on line for Superman: ROS, but while I was in the loading dock, rain and thunder came once again and all the rides were shut down. At one point in the day, the train of Batwing was was on its last test run, the 20th time, but it got stuck at the top of the lift, so the ride had to be tested 20 more times. At 4:30, my father and I left the park because it did not seem that Batwing was going to open that day due to the problems and the ever present heavy rains due to the tropical storm nearby. It really makes me mad that I find out that one hour later, the ride opened and I never got to ride it. I hope everyone who did get a chance had fun, and I will make sure that I get my chance real soon. Thank god I only live 30 minutes away from the park.
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Dave

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Dave

Stelth is fine now, still slow loading times but its fine! What they do is these "Vaulentary shutdowns" were they will accually stop the ride and cycle some trains through with the mechanics at the controls, it is not going to be easy to iron out the problems, PGA had to completly redo Stelth's electrical circuts and maybe even computers in the off season. When your in a flying dutchman's trains, just look down at all the controls and boxes there are, its amazing!

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Steel top 5
1.S:TE
2.Stelth
3.B:TR
4. Riddler's Revenge
5. Goliath

Dave I hate to rub salt in your wounds, but, Two Face was operating with riders later when we left and the bad weather had subsided. BTW it was nice to meet you and your father. I hope to see you at the park soon.
Contrary to what some might think, we had a great time waiting out in the rain. And we didn't just talk about coasters. In fact I remember many of us talking about WWF wrestling for a while. I think it was our collective positive karma that opened the ride and we were pulling for the guy from Florida who had waited all day without a bathroom break to ride. I felt really scared for the guys working on the lift in the thunderstorm, but that just shows that you the determination to open this ride.

Ok call me naive but why oh why do parks even think of opening a new ride that has not been fully tested to the point of being as close to bullet-proof as possible. (Oh of course, to bring in the bucks!). Regardless of the complexity of the ride or system, test, test and test again! Test all aspects. I know we and the GP always "chomp at the bit" when a new coaster is close to being finished, and more so if the season has begun. But I feel for the folks who experience the disappointments as catalogued above. I know I simply hate it when an established ride is down, for any reason. A new one that "is ready" but isn't working? Even more unforgivable.

New rides often have problems. Just look at Hypersonic XLC opening day. From what I hear they're still not running four trains. These new rides are extremely hi-tech and complex. Sometimes you can test all you want but things still happen.

OK, I was meant to write this in my last post, BUT

What is this thing with 20 Full Test Runs before the Coaster opens, I have never heard anything like it, Normally, its about 5 Full Test Runs and then they let you On, I think I saw X-Flight complete about 5 Full Test Runs when I went and then they let us ride it, so I cant understand why on Batwing its gotta be 20 Full Test Runs, yet its not the same for X-Flight, Thats just plain WEIRD MAN. Or is it because this is just a temporary thing because the ride has only just opened????? Still Weird though.

It had to run 20 before it was opened to *ANY* of the general public. That was a ONE TIME thing. I think now is they have a problem 3 is the magic number.
lata,
jeremy
--who also had "twenty" questions (horrible pun...) :)

I believe the reason they ran it twenty times is to try to avoid dissapointment. There's nothing worse than opening a ride and then having to shuffle everyone back out of line because it breaks down. By the way the ride was just turned over to the park on Friday night from Vekoma. Maybe those guys should have stayed for one more day.