Coaster Mistakes

I have looked at coasters such as Ultra Twister at Six Flags Astroworld and at Nagashima Spaland. Also Oblivion. They are all really close to a 90 degree drop. Like Ultra Twister is 87 degrees, why not just make a full 90 degree or did they intend to but the measurements where off?

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Number 1 And Only Cedar Point

It is very hard to support a 90 degrees drop. Only ride like Batman and Robin: the Chiller and Mr. Freeze with top hat inversions, Superman: the escape (and other shuttles with 90 degrees inclines at the end), and TA2K can have vertical inclines and declines.

This is because they can support it it down the back where there is no other track. But with Oblivion and Ultra Twister is would be very difficult to support.
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What is life without geniuses?

Measurements off? I don't think so. I was reading in some construction trade a story on Mantis that indicated that the margin for error in placing footers was less than an inch. It's a precise science, not a guessing game.

Why would it be hard to support a 90 degree drop? You make that claim based on what? Three fewer degrees makes it easier to support? Dear God, Giovanola wants to build a coaster that goes beyond 90.

Please, if you're going to make statements like that, qualify them with some reasoning.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Geez Jeff. Why are you getting all hot and bothered over things YOU know. Some of these people don't know what YOU know. There are no dumb questions, except for the ones left unsaid.

Yeah but if you don't know something for sure don't go out and say it like you do.

Okay so why go for 87 degrees, why not just go str8 down?

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Number 1 And Only Cedar Point

(Man, I hope Giovanola doesn't build one of those things at 98º... I think we've all heard enough about them. ;))

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How dare you vanquish the Steel Phantom without his consent? Fear the Phantom's Revenge. *** This post was edited by Lynch on 12/4/2000. ***

SFOFOREVER: I'm not hot and bothered about anything, and it has nothing to do with what I know. Genius says that it would be "hard to support" such a drop, but is not qualified to make that statement and didn't support it.

I don't have all of the answers, but I find it astounding that Joe Enthusiast can second guess very clever engineers who build $15 million rides.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

I really don't know if this would work, because I'm not an engineer, but couldn't the spine of the track actually serve as some sort of support on a 90-degree drop, if it was made of solid steel or if it was filled with something?

90-degree free-standing drops... two words for you: Impulse Coaster.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Rather confusing hey? I reckon its not a problem, just look at Superman the Escape. Don't forget that the train would freefall & weigh nothing! Its weird how Oblivion has a small number of THIN supports for the turn & drop. Its track is massive, imagine using it for a mega looper!
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Coasters - The Ultimate Creation!

That's right, I forgot about the Impulse coasters.

I think that the length we have gotten in coaster technology is far enough that we can over come a little structural problem that proably isn't a problem at all. I would leave this problem up to the designers, they can handle it. My solution, just get a vertical support right next to the drop and extend little support bars out to the track to stablize it. Look at some of the Intamin coasters, very few supports and they have little rods coming out to stablize track.

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Coasters- a little slice of heaven

Okay kids get out your protractors. You are telling me there going to be more stress on a track laid at 87 degrees that 90 degress?

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Number 1 And Only Cedar Point *** This post was edited by Jephry on 12/4/2000. ***

"But if it goes straight down then the track is in the the same spot so if the supports would fall on the track. They have found ways to support it though. But it requires a lot of space."

That first sentence isn't even coherent. What are you talking about? CoasterGod is right... if it's going straight down, the track is little more than a guide. That's why the supports on Impulse Coasters only go up as far as the top of the curve.

Other examples are rides like Premier's Speed. It has a tower that doesn't have a much larger footprint than your average radio tower, and supports the track up one side.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Both of those don't connect to any track though. It gets more compicated when verticle track connects to other track because of it pulling it down and compicating the supporting.

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What is life without geniuses?

I don't think so. I bet that MForce could've been set at 90 instead of 80. This prob. didn't happen as corporate heads are a nervous lot! Another reason is MForce is not tall enough as note how the lift hill curve has a huge diameter. This is to keep the neg. G's to a minimum due to a long train. U don't wanna fly off head first down that drop do u? MForce's lifthill supports the drop.

The topic should be the forces when going over a drop!

More pointers; freefall rides are essentially vertical rollercoasters - Hah! That'll crucify the 'supports falling on each other' quote! What about elevators that run on the outside of buildings?

Come on! Why are we arguing over this?? Hypersonic XLC has this 90 deg thing by the balls from the looks of it!! ;-) It'll be a blast to ride. I envy the ppl who got to ride the prototype.

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Coasters - The Ultimate Creation!

All Jephry wanted to know is why these 3 coasters didn't just hit 90 degrees, they were very close to it

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Number 1 And Only Cedar Point

Oooh yeah. Need to read the fine print in the first message. Then again the 'topic' may be different from the first message.

Well, my best guess is the corporate peeps were too chicken to allow it! I like to think the measurements were off! Like hey, the ground slopes at 3 degrees. :-)

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Coasters - The Ultimate Creation!

I'm alittle confused at what coaster god was trying to say about MF. I understand corporate heads would get worried, which I don't understand. Why do the negative g's need to be kept down, and for the record, you wouldn't fly out head first.

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Coasters- a little slice of heaven *** This post was edited by Craig the Coaster Freak on 12/5/2000. ***