Discovery Channel -- Building Tatsu

Friendly reminder...tonight at 7 pm CST. :)

Don't miss it my fellow coaster nerds. It really is awsome and you will be glade you didn't. I'm disappointed with myself for not recording the program when a rainy crapy day rolls in. Prepare to be amazed by the sheir size and power this thing has. Really Really cool!

After watching the show (I'm still watching), I have a few questions:

1. Tatsu covers 1.2 miles of track in 48 seconds? That's pretty fast. RCDB says that it is 3600' of track. Not 1.2 miles.

2. Was that a Linksys wireless router that I saw in the computer room?

3. Finally, I would like to know where I can get a copy of this "manual" that shows you how to build a roller coaster. ;)

Very good show. I really enjoyed the part where it talked about tuning the computer, etc.

I nearly had a heartattack when the head guy wanted the park to dispatch three trains, with one leaving every 40 seconds...wishful thinking.

I can't wait to ride the coaster and now I'll be a little more appreciative when I do.

Very interesting perspective from the unsung heroes of the coaster, the actual builders/construction workers. Great show!

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Willh51 said:

I nearly had a heartattack when the head guy wanted the park to dispatch three trains, with one leaving every 40 seconds...wishful thinking.

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lol....not quite the 4-5 minute dispatches I saw in mid-June :)

I can't wait to watch it tonight, never seen it before. I've been on tatsu 4 times, it's one of the best rides i've ever been on. My favorite part is the huge pretzel loop, it's crazy.

I missed this show is there a show time on sometime durnign the day any time soon?

^ Check the link provided in the first post.

I love these kind of shows. They make me feel extremely smart:] hah. I mean, they're kind of a joke. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them, but somethings are just completely incorrect. For a small example. The Labeling. They can't even say pretzel loop, it's just "The Loop." Besides that, from what i have seen so far is pretty much an amazing show. I really enjoy shows like this and coasters. *** Edited 1/4/2007 5:21:01 AM UTC by Codis7Magodis***

I just watched it today not even knowing it was going to be on!

I was just watching Mythbusters and sfter it the show just started playing!

It was interesting to hear about switching wheels based on hardness to control the speed as the engineers/techs were concerned about the ride running even a few seconds faster than the calculated design speed.

I always assumed that they'd just simply be satisfied with getting the train to successfuly complete the curcuit without a rollback/valley along the way rather than overall speed.

Another area of interest is in the first test runs....did anyone notice that,like the KK show on NGC a few months back the first test runs on Tatsu were conducted at night simply to keep "spies" in the enthusiast community away? & the situation with the pretzel loop was rather bizarre...as the lower section of track couldn't be placed due to the footer being too large so they had to cut a recessed channel into it in order to get it in there.

You would figure that they would've made not of how big the footers needed to be & where they needed to be placed so as to allow proper track clearances but I guess they goofed on that one.

The whole spies thing sounded a little bit far-fetched. They always make these programs sound all dramatic....pfft.

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I always assumed that they'd just simply be satisfied with getting the train to successfuly complete the curcuit without a rollback/valley along the way rather than overall speed.

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Well, aside from the obvious timing issues - wouldn't it stand to reason that if the train is finishing the course in 41 seconds instead of the planned 49 that it's running much faster than anticipated. A train running through the elements faster than planned also exerts higher forces on the riders than planned.

Pretzel loops are already pretty intense - I doubt it's a good idea to have the train taking an element like that 16% faster than planned.

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Geewhzz said:
They always make these programs sound all dramatic....pfft.

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Yeah, no joke. On multiple occasions, they called Tatsu "the most outrageous creation ever built" and claimed "no one will ever build anything better".

Haha...I literally laughed out loud when the one guy said "No one will ever build anything better". I love watching these shows but thats the only thing that drives me nuts...trying to make everything sound like a bigger deal than it is.

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Pretzel loops are already pretty intense - I doubt it's a good idea to have the train taking an element like that 16% faster than planned.

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I agree. I think that the pretzels on S:UF at SFGAm and SFGAdv are plenty forceful. The one on Tatsu was actually too much, IMO. It pressed my head against the headrest and shook it back and forth--this was probably my least favorite part of the ride.

Other than that, it's the best flyer around--hands down.

Good call Gonch....how could I have forgotten that higher speeds produce an increased G-load?

Not only is that uncomfortable for the riders but it does tend to put more stress/wear & tear on the trains,structure & track as well.

I really enjoyed the show, except it seemed like they talked about the "deadline" a little too much.

I agree that some of the 'hype' about the deadline was a little overdramatic, but, that's TV. Otherwise, I thought it was a rather well done show. We know all about Walter and Claude, but it was really nice to see a show about the guys that get up there in harnesses a couple hundred feet off the ground.

I also was really surprised at the speed situation. The thing must have been haulin' during testing. Didn't MF have it's wheels changed after the first year? I thought I remember hearing something about that...or is my memory faulty?

I agree that Tatsu is by and far the best flyer, but, for some reason, I really wasn't 'wowed'. Don't get me wrong, I like the ride, and I am guessing most of the GP really adore it.