Jeff in June

Jeff, if you still plan on visiting SFGAm in June than visit the coasters in the following order. 1. Whizzer= last coaster of its kind in the U.S.A. Schwartzkof racer.(I dont know if I spelled that right). After you ride this, please join me in the "Save the Whizzer"
2. Demon, cool looping coaster, decent theming with 2 inversions and 2 corkscrews, one of Arrows first looping coasters.
3.Viper, Six Flags only inhouse made coaster, wood cyclone twist type. A favorite.
4. Raging Bull, first B&M hypertwister steel beast. A cant miss.
5. American Eagle, tallest,fastest woodie when it opened in 1981, second fastest behind SOB.
6. Iron Wolf, B&M first coaster ever, tallest, fastest standup coaster when it debuted in 1990.
7, Spacely Sprockets Rockets, I was able to get on without a child so see if you can do it. Kiddie coaster.
8. Batman The Ride, first inverted coaster that is still intense. Ride this coaster and know that it was the first and it still has not aged. Good themeing and a B&M first of its kind masterpiece.
9. Shockwave,Arrow mega-looper, tallest and fastest steel looping coaster with the most inversions when it debuted in 1988. A rough ride but still worth experiencing. Judgeing by the pictures it reminds me of Steel Phantom but without the steep cliff.
Other rides of interest are the Colombia Carousal, from what I am told the tallest Merry-go-round in the world. Sky Whirl, the last remaining triple ferris wheel in the world, if you have your fiancee than you will enjoy this ride. The Fiddlers Fling, it is basically a Fun Machine on drugs, make sure your fiancee is on the inside of this ride. There is of course alot of other great rides and games so enjoy yourself. Let me know what day you will be there. Also post a trip report when you get back home.

*** This post was edited by Chitown on 4/14/2000. *** *** This post was edited by Chitown on 4/19/2000. ***

Personally, I don't recommend riding the Demon. Sorry Chitown, but a couple of weeks ago, i saw a documentary on Dateline where a wheel fell off and it stopped right in the second loop. The people were stuck for almost 2 hours. I thought the ride was fun when i rode it (apart from it beating the poop out of your head) but i don't think I'll be riding it again any time soon.
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Coast on--- coasterbuff--jc

Would you fly in an airplane? Some crash you know.
How about drive a car? Lots of accidents on the roads... 'Nuff said.

That accident happened two years ago. Theories as to why it happened say that a pin locking a nut onto a bolt that connects the rear wheel axel to the final coach was missing, probably an oversight in the rebuilding of the train. Arrow Dynamics developed a fix for the problem in the form of a safety bracket and almost all Arrow corkscrew trains, including the Demon at SFGAm have it. It is a safe ride.

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Scott W. Short
sshort@mediaone.net
http://welcome.to/midwestcoastercentral

Have it your way :)

The Demon getting stuck on the loop was a freak accident so its not worth saying that you shouldnt ride it. They built that coaster(Turn of the Century) back in 1976 and this was the first true problem that it has had. Using one accident in 24 years of operation is really stretching it. From what I am told the emergency brakes on the wheels locked up when obviously they shouldnt have.

By the way coasterbuffjc, it seems by your statement that you just learned about this accident and the fact that you learned about it from a documentary always makes the situation look worse than it really is. Trust the rest of the posts when we say it is safe. I have ridden about 20 times after the accident and there is no difference.

Try to tell that to the people who were on the ride when it happened. I don't think they would make it any worse than it was. Sorry but hanging upside-down for over 2 hours isn't my idea of a fun day at the amusement park. I'm sure that the people who were on it would say the same. Don't you?

Coast on-- coasterbuff--jc :)

I agree with you on that standpoint but nothing in this world is 100% so there is always that risk even though it may be small of something happening. Personally since no one was seriously injured or killed than I dont have a problem riding it. But that is only my opinion.

Rollercoasters are the safest rides anywhere! I feel safer at the top of the Racer at PKI than I do on the tilt-a-whirl at my county fair. Now here is something to think about. A guy I go to college with works at PKI in the summer. A couple of seasons ago he was working the Cobra during early morning test runs when everyone in the area heard a loud crash. It wasn't the Cobra, but it was Top Gun, He said the whole damn train came off the tracks and smashed into the little ravene below. He swore on his mother that this happened! I still ride Top Gun to this day. It's safe or they'd take it down. Amusement parks aren't out to kill you.