Lightning Rod: Launched RMC Coming to Dollywood!

[Paradox]

tiepilot35 wrote:

Management teams only make the smart decision to upgrade roller coasters that are complete trash.

Cyclone wasn't trash until SFNE started to let it go.

[Coasterkidmwm]

tiepilot35 wrote:

Dang, I tossed out a little bait and you guys bit, HARD.

August 4th and it still isn't open. At this point, they might as well call it quits and try again next year .

Yay rcking04, he DID ride it! You can check out his Trip Report!

Out at Dollywood today, and LR is open!

Where are you? I'm he CC official trip crew is all here today at Dollywood, lol.

[Oscar]

Manic Monte wrote:

Out at Dollywood today, and LR is open!

We're at Dollywood right now. We rode it in the.morning. so awesome!you should meet up with us. Want to?

[Coasterkidmwm]

I'm jealous :/ . Glad it's open though, must be heartbreaking to see it sitting idly closed for so long and not be able to ride it!

^AKA my life. 2 trips this year and haven't seen the thing move once.

[Oscar]

CoasterMac305 wrote:

^AKA my life. 2 trips this year and haven't seen the thing move once.

Come now. Lightning Rod is open and we're in queue now for it. Meet us too while you're at it XD

[Oscar]

Lightning Rod is now closed. RIP

[Coasterkidmwm]

Lol poor thing.

This is torture. I'm not *too* far away from Dollywood, and I've been wanting to go again, but I decided to wait until Lightning Rod is actually open.

[Coasterkidmwm]

That's probably a smart decision. Even waiting until next year might be the best idea in case this is a patchwork fix like when Intimidator 305 became Intrimidator temporarily before the first turn was reprofiled.

[Oscar]

Lightning Rod opened up again and is running just 1 train. It's going a lot faster than in the morning.

Sounds like Lightning Rod is officially open and out of technical rehearsal.
http://www.local8now.com/content/news/L ... 57321.html

[Dirk_Ermen]

Paradox wrote:

I hate the whole RMC craze in general. Every RMC reuses the same elements and people insta-orgasm whenever one gets announced, but how many are going to be built before people realize it's the same elements just copied and pasted in different ways and sequences. People seem to believe that a wooden coaster can't be good anymore when in reality some wooden coasters are better than steel coasters.

This pretty much. With my recent US tour I've ridden a bunch more RMC's and my verdict still stands. The biggest load of those are just show ponies with their fancy weird track shapings, but the thrill I got out of those elements were zero. Out of all the ones I've ridden now, I think Outlaw Run was the only one being actual good and Storm Chaser was the only one that was pure fun, up to the weird double up and down and hella-slow-way-too-far-banked-turn. (Aka. End of the ride)

I've only ridden joker, and honestly the rattle completely ruined the ride. But trying to look past it, the inversions didn't really do much, and the positive G's were rather weak. The airtime however was pretty good, I wouldn't define it as ejector in any sense but it was still very fun.

[Mr. Freeze]

As for ejector airtime moments, thats really all ntg is at this point

Yahoo! Glad you guys got to ride it.

I like how the things you guys complain about coasters /not/ doing are gimmicks for RMC coasters.

It's like as if ejector air, tight transitions, and speeding through inversions is a terrible thing to you all now.

Get off your high horse. RMC coasters are doing exactly what you always wanted other designers to do.

[Coasterkidmwm]

I think the main complaint is that you hear they're like a Jesus-incarnation (so you expect Maverick levels of whips and air), and then you ride one and they're....not. I've only been on Goliath at SFGAm, which I've heard is the worst one by 10 miles, but the air in the second to the back seat wasn't too great, and it wasn't particularly whippy. Batman: The Ride is more whippy than that was.

It definitely wasn't a bad ride and when I've been on it after it has "warmed up" among other things to really let it shine to its full potential I can't see how it wouldn't be the best or second best ride in the park, but it's not the Jesus-incarnation they're all made out to be.

And in other news, I'm very happy this sucker is out of rehearsal so that another park buys one and tries to out-do this ride!

No complaint and that quad down seems to be the LR's strongest point!

My 2 favorite steel coasters happen to be RMCs, and the last thing I like them for is the gimmicks. I found that between the airtime, the hangtime and the pace at which I was assaulted with elements really made Wicked Cyclone one of the most exceptional steel coasters out there. Storm Chaser is just pure fun with every hill having crazy ejector and all 4 twisting hills having some cool little jabs of laterals.

Outlaw Run, on the other hand, makes me kind of agree because the gimmicky elements like the "sideways airtime hill" aren't as crazy as people say. I'm not even sure what makes it so special. It's not like it's not good, it just doesn't really ride differently than any other coaster. However, I think that the pacing is far more consistent throughout the ride than the other two (SC and WC both had odd pauses at certain parts) even though the pace is overall slower.

I could see me not enjoying Goliath, Twisted Colossus, NTG or Iron Rattler as much though since they seem to move at a much less rapid pace than the ones I've been on.

Dirk_Ermen wrote:

Storm Chaser was the only one that was pure fun, up to the weird double up and down and hella-slow-way-too-far-banked-turn. (Aka. End of the ride)

It's funny because when I rode, I got laterals going up that turn. It also hit the brake run at a way faster speed than the initial POVs. It probably wasn't running that well for you while you were there.

As for Lightning Rod, yay for no bad news thing that pops up!