Hades @ Big Chiefs

Before you ask, yes, I had permission to go inside Mt Olympus and take pics this weekend. No, that is not a blank check for anyone to go inside anytime they want. Please respect the parks and do not trespass.

http://photobucket.com/albums/v295/raventtd/

There it is. Way more Hades pics than you could possibly want. Some shots inside the park were difficult to get due to shooting thru supports and trees that screwed up the focus. I did not trust myself with my new digital camera so I took some pics with a disposable. If some of those come out better I will post them later. Maybe without auto-focus a few more shots will come out.

Hades Layout:

Hades has an interesting pre-lift sequence. Assuming that the base of the lift and the station are pointed at 12:00, you drop sharp out of the station in that direction, turn right and go up into a double down pointed at about 4:00. That drops into a turnaround (right) that leads into a sharp small bunny hop pointed at about 11:30 and then a dip under a tight head-chopper and then a banked left turn into the lift. The banked turn goes directly into the lift. There is no flat section in front of the lift.

The lift, tunnel, turnaround, tunnel, and return hill over Zeus is all pretty obvious. In case someone has not been following things closely, on the turnaround you go up that big side, turn right, and over the smaller hill and drop back in the tunnel.

After the return hill over Zeus (which looks amazing), you go up into another hill that turns right on the way down. That drop/turn goes over the pre-lift sequence. You then keep turning right in a large half circle consisting of two speed hills headed back toward the lift supports. You go thru the lift supports, into a left hand three-quarters helix up into the break run.

The line goes thru the supports and up stairs inside the footprint. The stairs outside the footprint near Zeus are for the exit.

From the looks of the speed hills, and the climb in the final helix, I would imagine that the ride will maintain pretty good speed. There are several spots that look like great airtime. The return hill over Zeus looks more impressive in person than in the pics. I tried to get several shots of that from many angles. I believe there is a bit of a double up coming out of the tunnel the first time. It is kind of hard to tell how much the track levels out before it goes into the big climb, but if it is any, there should be great air as there would have to be a ton of speed to get all the way up that hill. The double down before the lift does not look impressive, but the bunny hop after it looks like it might have some air. Of course we have to ride it first to be sure. The layout is complete and there are no over-banked turns outside the tunnel, so if there are any, they are inside. The tracking outside the tunnel seemed to be complete although with the snow I could not tell if they have the metal strips down yet. From what I could see inside the tunnel, they still need to track inside there.

If anyone from Mt Olympus is reading this, I want to say thank you for letting me come take pics, and that I think your ride looks awesome. I’m sure I will be down there several times this summer.

If anyone is trying to view the pics using dial up, I must apologize. I uploaded them individually so that they would not be shrunk down, and there are a ton of them. Many of them are similar so you don’t have to view them all. I tried to weed out the ones that did not come out well at all, but I probably missed some.

The photos are in reverse order from their numbering sequence and the order I took them, but if you look at photos 156-166 in numerical order, I got shots from the base of the return hill over Zeus all around the wooded part in order. Each photo should start with the end of the last photo in it so you can see everything in that part in order.

Photo 226 is Atlantis and 227-232 are Cyclops.

Some of these pics like this one

http://photobucket.com/albums/v295/raventtd/?action=view¤t=100_0155.jpg

are just jaw dropping. This thing must look huge in person.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/raventtd/100_0155.jpg

If you want to link to an individual pic, right click on it and get the link from properties. *** Edited 1/24/2005 4:57:47 PM UTC by RavenTTD***

Ah, sorry about that. Anyways, I find those sorts of things always look bigger in person, especially when you're right underneath the structure like you were there. Is there any word on exactly what is going to be going on in those tunnels? How far is the turnaround from the first drop, do you think? It looks like its loooooong.

I don't know what is inside the tunnels other than there has to be at least one turn of 90* to the left or multiple turns that add up to that, and there seems to be some type of "hop" on the first exit. (Track from a lower level comes up a bit, levels out and then goes up into the turnaround.) There are rumors of an overbanked turn in the tunnel. If I had to guess on tunnel length, it would be about 800-900 feet each way, but I don't know. Here is a pic that shows the first drop and the turnaround so you can get an idea.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/raventtd/100_0033.jpg

Yes, the first hill does look huge in person, especially when you are right under it. The lift part looks especially long since it is going up hill. (The land slopes up as you go up so it is longer than it would be for another lift of that height.)

Tunnel was reported as 750ft. I believe it was on the GG site.

The Mt. Olympus website just confirmed that there will be at least one 90 degree turn in the tunnel, probably two. Also says it wil hit speeds of 70 mph.

http://www.mtolympusthemepark.com/index_flash.html

I love the map...but it says the first hill is 160' with a 140' drop. Those numbers are not what we heard before and if they were the right ones, wouldn't they be backwards?

Yeah, for some reason, I think the 160 and 140 got reversed. If it is going underground, wouldn't the drop be a higher number than the height? Regardless, now that I know what it looks like, I will make my way out to this park eventually.

And I guess the argument about how there isn't enough room in the tunnels for 2 tracks can be sqashed now? It does looke like that is the case here (not stirring anything up, just givin moosh his due and all;)).

Regardless, I envy (invy?) all of you that get to the Dells for Avalanch and Hades this year.

Both look amazing, I just hope that Hades turns out to be.

The 160 ft thing is the elevation difference. The ride is 136' high with a 140' drop.

From what I have gathered, the bottom of the lift hill is about 20 feet lower than the bottom of the first drop, as the lift hill climbs up a hill itself. Really looking forward to this one!

It does go up a hill, but the number just did not match what was released before. However, the figures at the Mount Olympus site are also on the Gravity Group site and RCDB, so I would assume they are correct. I still don't see how a 140' drop hits 70mph though.

Yeah, after looking on rcdb, it said that would be the elevation difference. Drop is 140', height is around 136'.

I can comment on the proposed speed at the bottom of the first drop. WARNING: Matt's going into engineer mode!

To simplify things, I just ignored friction (heat, mechanical and any air/wind resistance) and assumed the train will not have any initial speed at the top of the lift hill.
I used an energy balance of P1 + K1 = P2 + K2:
(Potential Energy + Kinetic Energy) at the top of the hill = (Potential Energy + Kinetic Energy) at the bottom of the hill, where:
P + K = mgh + 0.5mV^2.

My answer comes out to 65mph.

Since the train will have an initial velocity at the top of the lift (about 5 mph I'd guess), the train should go a little faster than 65mph, even with friction added into the equation. I haven't used any of the physics I forgot (I mean learned) in college for about five years, but I think this is a reasonable calculation.

Make it a great day! :)

Fanboy Geek!!!!!!! Run away!!!!!!!

Actually, Matt... I'm just jealous as hell. :)

What happened to the 154' drop height? It looked like the drop goes close to 20' below ground into the tunnel.

I guess the 154 was the overall drop and that has been changed to 160. It is hard to gage the height of the lift and stuff since the land keep sloping up. The tunnel seems a lot deeper on the far end. In fact, I would not be surprised if your ears popped. Well, maybe a little. ;)

Thanks for the math there Matt.

No fanboy here, but being a geek is another thing. :)

By the way, my calculation was based on a drop of 140 feet and 32.2 ft/s^2 for g (acceleration of gravity).

I just called the park to get some info so I could plan my first trip to the park and here is what I learned.

Hades will open Memorial Day weekend (the entire weekend, not just Memorial Day) at the latest, but the lady said if they have good weather in April it will open sooner. They open the coasters as soon as the weather is good. After Memorial Day it will be open daily.

The two day tickets must be used on consecutive days.

She was just told yesterday that they will have season passes, but the pricing is not out on that yet.

If you stay at their Treasure Island hotel, you get single day passes.

I guess when we get into April, I will have to watch the weekend forecasts for the Dells and call when it looks like Hades could possibly open. I can't wait!

Hades first drop enters on the right side of the tunnel but when it comes out on the other side of the lot its on the left side. When it goes back in its on the left side but when it exits the tunnel into the bunnyhill its on the right. This must mean there is a switch underground. One of the tracks must go over the other.