Cypress Gardens - Starliner: The Lift Hill Has Risen

It'll draw me from Los Angeles, too...I missed Miracle Strip by mere months.

Not sure if this has been covered, but do they plan to paint in the accent colors, like the red ledgers, or are they going to leave it all white? Just curious. I'm sure the color scheme is the least of their concerns right now. :)

Not sure on the color of the ledgers and track. I forgot to ask last week. Will ask this week. I hope they do something as it is pretty bright.

Sorry I should have specified General Public as in people traveling across contry, not coaster enthusiast that will travel the country for a single coaster. :)

Don't underestimate the GP. This is going to be a new wooden coaster for most Floridians in the southern panhandle. I'd be willing to bet even those who rode it at Miracle Strip won't do the math and realize it's the same ride. Heck, I speak to native Los Angelinos who have no idea Knotts has a wooden coaster, lol!

Given the right marketing and promotion I can see this giving first-timers -- especially teens -- a reason to visit, thus giving the park a nice boost in attendence.

*** Edited 6/6/2007 1:48:10 AM UTC by Mamoosh***

Oh we know what ya meant...just showing our support. :) I'm not sure I would make a special trip out there JUST for this coaster, especially considering I was just there in February, but there is PLENTY of other goodies in Florida to bring me back again and again. :)

Looks like the Starliner has finally topped off. She really is a thing of beauty. She's now the third tallest attraction in the park and will open as the fastest and longest coaster in the park. Central Florida get ready for a Classic Woodie you won't soon forget!

http://cypressgardens.homeip.net/search.php?SearchTerms=Starliner%20Construction

So now I'm gonna have to deal with these two delinquents in Utah *and* in FL?

Oh the humanity... ;)

Moosh, there is some marketing effort by the park that pushes the idea of "oldest coaster in FL". I know, it's not *sexy*, but at least they're mentioning the history of the ride...

Any word on why the curved station is being replaced by a more standard design? It's a shame that the curved station is becoming a thing of the past (although CoasterDynamix tried to reverse that with their Comet model.)

I bet it's so they can use squeeze brakes in the station, instead of skid brakes.

Good point... and probably right. In that case, it would have been nice if they rebuilt the ride with the old station anyway, just to retain the original look. But regardless, I'm still happy as can be about this ride getting rebuilt.

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Mamoosh said:
I'd be willing to bet even those who rode it at Miracle Strip won't do the math and realize it's the same ride.

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5 will get you 10 someone will visit CG "To ride their NEW Roller Coaster" and they'll say something like "This reminds me of the one they used to have in Panama City, too bad they tore it down!" Not even realising it's the same ride.

Answer my Prayers, Overbook my next Flight!

LOL, new trains, new station, new brakes, new lumber....sure am glad they're "re-building Starliner". :)

Hehe, most of the changes are necessitated by the need to insure it (and certify it) as a new ride. I doubt it'll be any safer, but as long as the park's insurer tells them "it'll cost X dollars more if you run skid brakes", then the decision becomes MUCH clearer...

"Oh, you wanted hand-operated brakes"? That's gonna cost you... ;)

I do not <3 insurance companies... LOL!
*** Edited 6/6/2007 7:07:03 PM UTC by rollergator***

Reminds me of what I thought when I first saw the Little Dipper being rebuilt at Little A-Merrick-A. It looked as though the original wood was being used to hold the new wood in place while it was being bolted together!

Update: 30% of the drop after the lift is done according to Greg. He'll post pictures later.

So Bill....new credit? ;)

UPDATE! Starliner's Grand Reopening is set for June 30th. Read the Article Here:

http://www.cypressgardens.com/press_releases/2007/06/start_the_countdown_cypress_gardens_set_to_open_starliner_at.php

It says that Starliner reaches speeds up to 70 MPH! Those are some crazy speeds considering it's only an out and back coaster.

Great news, I'll try and be there that night.

I had heard *well-founded rumors* that it might be tweaked a little to make it an even wilder ride. The drop seems to have grown from 65' to 67', and the increased banking on the turnaround means a faster run home. Nice work... :)

I'm still hopeful the tunnel will get re-built. But I'm wondering about the physics of a 67' drop work out with "speeds of up to 70mph". Either the they've added a launch, the *up to* wording is critical, or that figure includes a strong tailwind...

Matt....no. Like I care, I got a solid out-n-back closer than Atlanta or Ft. Lauderdale... :)

AND you have Gwazi! I hate you!;)

By the way, I would estimate the top speed to be more like 45mph...without doing the actual calculation, but there is NO way it's even above 55mph, let alone 70!

With most older wooden coasters, it is possible to estimate the height (and the differential drop) by counting ribbon boards. These are the "ladder rungs" of the structure which span the outside of the structure, from bent to bent. In most cases, they are vertically six feet apart.

If one goes way back, John Miller was building rides with a 12' spacing between ribbon boards. Presumably this was strong enough to support the ride's forces (although this also dates to before or about the time of Miller's invention of the safety upstop system, so forces were more gentle then); but apparently it was decided that a 6' spacing would make it easier for workers and painters to clambor up and down the structure than the 12' spacing was, so the change was effected to the 6' spacing.

Some (many?) of the rides built by Fred Church had a 5' spacing for ribbon boards. This system also used a different internal structure - the boards which span from leg to leg on each given bent - from "normal", so the expense of more ribbon boards was "given back" by the cheaper internal structure of the bent. (Not that Church was particularly concerned with the stability of his structures - but that's another subject!). Anyhow, the odd, 5' spacing is one reason that one might find two different heights offered for, say, the Rye Aeroplane. The heights differ by a factor of 6:5. To arrive at the taller, incorrect figure, somebody counted ribbon boards and incorrectly multiplied by six.

Arcane bit of data for historians: the "normal" internal bracing system of boards from post to post of a given bent was "invented" by PTC's Frank Hoover. When he started building, the post-to-post bracing system consisted of horizontal boards every six feet, with an "X" brace of two diagonal boards in between the six foot spacing. At his insistence, one diagonal of the "X" was deleted, leaving behind a still-strong, but less expensive single diagonal between the horizontals. The degree of satisfaction Frank - and his wife as well! - took from announcing his authorship of this change suggested to me that he must have had to take a great deal of emotional crap from fellow builders before he was proven correct about the suitability of the approach.

As far as the subject of top speed: in general, it's a simple formula which might intimidate the math-phobic, but even a dedicated coaster-geek-math-phobe should be able to buddy-up to the concept. Take the hieght of the first drop and multiply by 64.4 (twice the acceleration due to gravity, which is 32.2 feet per second per second). Take the square root of it and you have the speed, in feet per second. Ballpark conversion? 60 mph equals 88 feet per second (think: all the digits of the seven-segment display are lit). That's roughly 3-to-2.

John