Top Gun :TJC's lift hill

Has anyone noticed the progressively louder and LOUDER lift hill through the years? It's so loud now that it drowns out the speakers of the jet engines.

In no way am I saying that it's SoB'esque in terms of annoyingly loud lifthills, but in comparison to other B&M inverts, it's very loud. Shouldn't they be relatively the same all around? Is there something going on I don't know about?

Raptor's seems to have gotten quite loud too, but it has five years on Top Gun:TJC.

The anti-rollbacks on B&M's have some sort of nylon pad inserted to cut down on the noise. As that pad wears out, the metal to metal contact increases and the ride becomes noisey. *** Edited 11/26/2003 3:41:36 PM UTC by JamesB***

Well, they must be rather easily replaceable because none of the oldest B:TRs seem to have this problem.

Looks like Parawinds needs to get on the stick.

Brain, as far as I'm concerned, if they keep the woodies running the way they were this year, TG:TJC can just stay loud, LOL. Considering the care given the woodies at the Paramount park in VA, I think Parawinds has the FAR superior maintenance dept.

The dragons have gotten loud the same way, as has Montu....perhaps it's something they'll take care of in the "off-season"....;)

Homey, I have noticed how incredibly loud the Jet Coaster's lift hill has become. You practically have to yell to the person next to you in order for them to hear you. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know that there were jet noises until you said it and I've been riding it now for the past two seasons ;)

The nylon pads (which I have never heard of) should be easy to replace, just slip it over the little metal piece, and it should be on its way.

You think TG's lift is loud? just wait until Stealth(or whatever they're gonna call it) get's going.

From my experience with Batwing's noisy lift(it's so loud you can't hear a thing in the queue)it looks like you're gonna have to either cover your ears or wear ear plugs when in the vicinity of that ride.

I don't know personally about Top Gun....but yes, I can't help but agree with Raptor....Every single row I've sat in....that lift hill is super loud...not clicking sound, but rather a CLANGING, I couldn't even talk to my friend sitting next to me...

Although I must say, the Original Batman at SFGAM is super quiet compared to Raptor, the clicking sound is more smooth, instead of obnoxiously annoying.

Just my .02,

BTW, has anyone ever been annoyed as much as me, when the park is closed for the season, or other times in the year, (break in between regular season, and Fright Fest) when the weather is absolutely beautiful but the park is not open.....grrr...

-Jeffro-

Batwing Fan:

SFA must've messed something up, because X-Flight's lift has been extremely quiet for the past two years.

And so was Stealth's, the last time I rode it. The ultimate cacaphony however is Zonga. For a park that has such tight ass noise restrictions I am suprised they let this fly.

I know what you mean Phantomtails...last season (02 not 03) Batwing's lift was still quiet but occasionally it would get noisy depending on which train was running.

The anti-rollbacks are designed so that they remain up (much like those on Intamin hypers) & only "drag" against the ratchet when the train is about to stop on the lift.

My best guess is that maintenance hasn't bothered trying to keep the anti-rollbacks in the up position & just allow it to drag on the lift making for a noisy ascent...let's see if that changes in 04 when & if they try to get the other train that's in storage to run.

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Homey G. said:
Well, they must be rather easily replaceable because none of the oldest B:TRs seem to have this problem.

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The lift on BTR at SFGAdv seems pretty loud to me.

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BATWING FAN SFA said:

The anti-rollbacks are designed so that they remain up (much like those on Intamin hypers) & only "drag" against the ratchet when the train is about to stop on the lift.

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I had never heard this. Do they use the EM technology the Intamin cable lifts use as well? I've never spotted a place for an extra wheel to run to generate the energy to lift the Anti-rollback, but I wasn't really looking.

person,

Have you ridden Top Gun and compared the two?

I'm pretty sure it just depends on when the park decides it wants to replace the worn pads on the anti-rollbacks. I've been on Montu and Dueling Dragons (and honestly, every inverted) where they were NOISY AS HELL (esp Dragons as there are two so close to each other) and the next day the maintenance staff had replaced the worn pads and both were silent.

Homey G,

I have never ridden Top Gun, so it may be louder than BTR. But BTR does seem much louder than any other invert I've been on.

Batwing's noisy lift hill is completely the fault of maintainence. In the nose of the train is a wheel that rides on those flat pannels in the middle of the lift, brakes, or station. This wheel powers a small generator that sends power to the whole train to literally "pick-up" the anti-roll backs. When their is no motion, the generator stops, and the 'roll backs drop back down.

Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure mechanics have their stuff together, and because of that, the generator works most of the time. If you heard it not working, it's because the system had been disabled for some reason. *** Edited 12/1/2003 12:03:16 PM UTC by Zero-G***