PKD 10/13 XLC comments

Ive posted a trip report before about PKD, but I havent been able to get to my home park since July due to alot of travel for work ( WITHDRAWALS, TRUST ME). And it was my first spin on Hypersonic XLC since they modified the trains and made their adjustments. So basically I just wanted to comment on that.

First off, the launch has gotten extremely...QUIET. It used to just ROAR when it was launched, now its a much quieter hiss , i'm not sure exactly what they did to it, but im sure im not the only one that has noticed the lack of noise it has now. You used to have to nearly hold your ears in the queue when it was launched. The new head restraints?? DO AWAY WITH EM.....To me it didnt give that totally free feeling that the old headrests used to have, and the shoulder pads that extend beside you make for some pretty harsh shoulderbanging when you take that banked turn coming off of the tower,especially for a tall rider like myself (im almost 6'3''). It's still my baby, but surprisingly i only rode it twice that day. Even though the lines were short ,because of the weather, i didnt feel like enduring the shoulder banging. Any thoughts from anybody else who rode it this season after it was modified?

I never rode it before it was modified, but I found my ride on HXLC to be extremely smooth and extremely fun. I had a great time on it.

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Jman
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Skipping the rides & the whole experience for you, I want to get right to it;), how was PKD this weekend? Were people tense & such? We were planning a trip there for our Fear Fest, & we're thinking about driving to PKI instead, well, just because.

I'm pretty sure the park provides a safe place(PLEASE people skip the 'you've let terror win by not going BS'), but how was it? With all that's going on, that's a spooky stretch of travel to say the least.

I wouldn't worry about the DC sniper at PKD. It's too far out of his territory. However, SFA, seems to be within his territory.

I wouldn't be so sure about that PointMan,the sniper has been bouncing all over the northern VA/DC /MD map like a ping pong ball on steroids and unfourtunately it'll be likely that he may just move south of the spottsylvania area and perhaps target the area around PKD.

Hopefully I'm wrong & this guy will just change his tactics or just stop alltogether,as is I'm sure most are aware that yet another shooting in northern VA occurred just last night.

The crowds were very very minimal....we went to hypersonic first thing at 1030 and waited about 5 minutes to board the train. Later in the day we waited about 30 minutes to ride it. We rode Volcano 4 different times with the longest wait being 20 minutes, and the Flight of Fear was virtually a walk on with maybe a 2 or 3 train wait in the queue, as were the rest of the coasters.

Point Man, it's tough to watch this news & see some of the places we've been associated with this current violence. Spotsylvania, Fredricksburg, Massaponnax, is an awesome nice place that we love to stay at while we go to PKD. A nice place to end up vacating after riding all day, much better than (no offense) downtown Richmond or anything.
It's all too unfortunate. It has to be slightly uneasy up there at the least.

SO! How is thier Halloween stuff, with that few people around, I'm sure you had a look-see?

I went to PKD for the 1st time this season and I loved the park and Hypersonic but I thought it was too short. You also mentioned FOF being a walk on and you acted surprised but I was at the park 3 days and I never waited more then 2 trains and the same goes for 2 of my friends but they were only there for 1 day.

*** This post was edited by medusafanatic on 10/16/2002. ***

I agree P_C_R. When I was in the USAF, I lived in Forestville, MD for a year. I loved the area and I would gladly move to Virginia if the opportunity presents itself.

I agree. Hypersonic is the quitest launch I have ever heard. I also enjoyed it Post-Mod.

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-Sean

*** This post was edited by SFgadvMAN on 10/16/2002. ***

Does a frequent visitor know of it's reliability since the mod? (Not just "I heard....")

I have not been there since the day it opened. I snagged three rides, 2 in the back, and one in the front, and LOVED. I just wish Dodonpa had been open when I was st Fujikyu :(

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- Peabody

I was there mid Agust for 3 days and it was closed for 2 and a half. According to the employees it has been very reliable and that was the first major breakdown they had since the ride was put back in operation.

i sound surprised??? gee u must be related to miss cleo if u can hear how i sound across cyberspace medusafanatic :) Anyways, Hypersonic ran reliably the entire day on sunday, and the ride ops told me it had been running reliably every day ( except for that august breakdown i suppose).

I don't think I'd go as far as to say Hypersonic is anything near a quite launch.
All I can say is that it's a miracle we squeezed in two rides last year when we did. This season, it was quite easy to get on, it had just opened up & was going down several times a day for about 30 minutes to an hour. From every TR I've read, it looks like they've let 8 people in for every train passing every day. As if it's been open most days since is a mystery, but it looks like it may have.

As for comparing the ride experience, last year I thought it was BOSS. The ripping over the vertical tower was insane, with "thruster2K" air. When watching it test earlier this season while it was still "closed", it looked like it was cresting the hill at a much faster rate. We were excited, then the soft cage mod headrests came, she opened up, then it was different. Watching testing at that point, the cars floated up top. You can feel some degree of hesitation up there, & from the backseat, the floater/climb was much greater, but still, no rip over the top, not as intense "thruster2K" air. It's a great experience, still, I just can't tell what was more intense, nor can I figure what's happened on the tower. IF the brakes are slowing down ascending trains, it sure doesn't feel like they're grabbing, you know?

There are supposed to be other mods & new trains from Interactive Rides next season, right? I thought that's what the deal was. It'd be like having three different Hypersonics three yeears in a row.

I rode it back in the end of June, and those seats hurt!, all I remember from my only ride on it was the insane G force going up the tower, then enough time to look around at the top before we slowly but surely fineshed cresting the top of the tower, I let my hands go up,and it felt like heavon, but when we hit the turn it felt like I dove right down into hell, becuase it hit the turn so hard it threw my body from side to side with-in the seating area, and I think I felt my spine got riped out of place then but back, it was very smooth,but the transitions where very bad. I wish they would have made a longer ride, if I can also kinda remember, I think the lapbars kinda hurt my chins too, but nothing major just enough to notice. At the time I rode it it was very loud!, I remember the girls at the photo section wore ear plugs,and they claimed that the plugs wherent even enough, and I would belive them too.

I never found the after tower part to be that bad. I'm fairly tall & very skinny, but it didn't toss me left & right. I do know the whipping motion occurs, though, as on one of our rides, I was the only person visible in the on-ride photo. It was like everybody fell off but me, you know;)? It'were creepy! But I liked the pop before being slammed into those brakes, I'll live with the short ride's intensity. The seats, feel like hell until you're moving. SOB's trains had the same flaw, IMHO, the bottom of the seat has the padding shaped where there's like a lumbar support pad that's been placed at the top of the seat, allowing the bottom of your back to be able to feel like it could slide back a little, with the bulk of the padding placed higher, it doesn't help when you'd like to sit straight up, makes it feel all wrong.

about Peabody's question....being a PKD homer, i can tell you that indeed it has a lot more uptime. at first, they were still getting used to the new, smaller chassis but every thing seems to be working great now:) ive even seen them run 3 trains! i think next season we will see some awesome performance from XLC!!

Tim, who misses his home park terribly (away at college in Philadelphia) anyone in Richmond VA go ride Grizzly for me :(

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