SKYRUSH - Hershey Park 2012

Wow. I was not expecting those first two hills to be that insane. I'm definitely excited to ride that this year.

Damn Hershey company can't open it by the 23rd

I thought it was a cable lift not a hydraulic launch.. holy crap

Skyrush >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Leviathan.

*Skyrush>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>anything

That train really does get flung over the crest. I like that this seems to have the pacing of I305 without the incredibly abrupt roll transitions and with more airtime.

I'm sure I'll get to ride this at some point, but I already blew my travel budget on tickets to Canada. I've been waiting for a B&M giga too long to pass that one up. Skyrush looks great and watching test runs definitely has me itching to ride it, but (for me at least) it's not an event in the way Leviathan is. Also, detractors of Leviathan's length should look to Skyrush's ride time =P

New testing video up on Hershey's Facebook page! This looks fantastic. Hershey has seriously got it going on now with Storm Runner and Skyrush at the same place, damn!

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. That is some fast shiit.

Boring, bump it up a good 20 mph.

POV!!!!!!

From their facebook page.

http://video.ak.fbcdn.net/cfs-ak-ash4/v ... 867531e4f0

POV!!!!!!

From their facebook page.

http://video.ak.fbcdn.net/cfs-ak-ash4/v ... 867531e4f0

[hyyyper]

There is only so little you can tell from a POV but it really seems tame. Almost every element and transition is drawn out. It just seems so different than I305 or EGF, but I'm only speculating.

^Don't forget about the winged seats being a reason to keep the transitions a little slower.

That airtime is freaking crazy, regardless.

It's blazing along the course so I don't think it will feel drawn out at all. I think Intamin/Hersheypark wanted the restraints to be lap bars as opposed to the OTSRs that proved troublesome on I305, so between that and the wide trains they had to slow the rotations some. Honestly, I thought I305 would have been infinitely better with lapbars and a bit slower transitions, even though that does take away some of the most unique features. Worth it for overall ride quality, though.

On Skyrush, when you don't have banking transitions, you have very high forces both positive and negative, and extremely fast pacing. I can't be mad at that lol. It's one of the few rides that makes me think the park and designers said: "ok. We have X space, and with that we want to make the absolute best possible ride," as opposed to "ok guys lets put a roller coaster here and call it a day." Voyage is another example of that for me, and the effort really shows.

Originally posted by dcs221

It's blazing along the course so I don't think it will feel drawn out at all. I think Intamin/Hersheypark wanted the restraints to be lap bars as opposed to the OTSRs that proved troublesome on I305, so between that and the wide trains they had to slow the rotations some. Honestly, I thought I305 would have been infinitely better with lapbars and a bit slower transitions, even though that does take away some of the most unique features. Worth it for overall ride quality, though.

On Skyrush, when you don't have banking transitions, you have very high forces both positive and negative, and extremely fast pacing. I can't be mad at that lol. It's one of the few rides that makes me think the park and designers said: "ok. We have X space, and with that we want to make the absolute best possible ride," as opposed to "ok guys lets put a roller coaster here and call it a day." Voyage is another example of that for me, and the effort really shows.

Which is exactly why I think this ride may debut very high in the polls much like Voyage did. I have a feeling Hershey may have an absolute hit on their hands.

The slower transitions didn't strike me in any way as detrimental to the ride. Even without the OSTRs on rides like Intimidator and Maverick, I imagine they would still be uncomfortable (for me, at least). Those super fast transitions are just meh IMO. Skyrush just looks solid overall with such a tight layout and some great looking airtime, with really awesome restraints as a bonus.

OH MY GOD being far away from a roller coaster like SkyRush defines the parameters of the phrase "fcuk my life."

Side note...you know what ride has way more drawn out banking transitions? Bizarro SFNE. Guess where that is on the polls lol.

I personally loved the fast rotations on I305...I think they're just as exciting as strong airtime, but more unique. I just think the restraints were so uncomfortable that between the strong negatives and smooth but quick laterals, it was a little difficult to enjoy them after a few rides.

This will be sick. I haven't been to Hershey since Storm Runner's opening, I might have to make the trip this summer.

Im not sure i like the way the first drop radius gets larger right as the lift ends, and then gets tighter again on the way down. It seems less graceful and almost like an unintentional yank/pump downwards. Other than that this looks like an incredible ride and the pacing is just insane.

[hyyyper]

Originally posted by dcs221

Side note...you know what ride has way more drawn out banking transitions? Bizarro SFNE. Guess where that is on the polls lol.

I did not find that ride to have anything special [:)]. I hope I can make it states-side in the near future to prove myself wrong though.

Here is a post from Spoony52 at allamericanthrills that got the chance to ride Skyrush for filming.

WooHoo! Had the opportunity to ride Skyrush today (5/23) as part of the Commercial Shoot! There were probably about 60 "extras" called, plus two "families" of professional actors. The pros needed makeup; I guess I did not. The "pros" were only used in the first two rows for all of the rides with the "camera-on-board" and for about half the rides with shooting trackside- I'd estimate for those runs the film crew had about 4 cameras that they moved to various locations around the circuit. After an early arrival(6:30 AM), we were escorted to Looper Famous Famiglia restaurant. I could tell by the gasps that some of the group had never even seen the lift hill before. The film crew completed alignment and testing of the on-board camera and made a few test runs before the first groups of riders boarded about 9 AM. My first ride was on the second trip. OMG! SUPER intense and the airtime/negative Gs have to be experienced to be believed. Words cannot do it justice. They advertise 5 airtime hills, but it's SEVEN, including the lift hill, on which the trains fly (18 MPH) to the top! The winged seats are fabulous, and offer a dramatically different ride than the interior seats. Interestingly, the "ejector" airtime is just about the same no matter where you sit on the train. Front row middle is the smoothest, and rear row wings are downright MEAN- in a great way! Of course, for commercial filming, hands had to stay on the grab bars for the whole ride (safety is #1), but until I ride Saturday and give it a try, I don't know how much I'll be lettin' go anyway. The film crew called it "a wrap" about 12:30; I finished with 11 rides. Many of the participants wimped out after 2 or 3; surprised by that intensity, they were. We also got to see the Memorial Plaque to the late Frank O'Connell that HE&R dedicated with his family the previous night. Without his vision, we would probably NOT have Skyrush to be thankful for this summer. What a class move by Hershey to place that in his memory. DON'T MISS this coaster, surely to be one of the hot rides at any park this summer.

Sorry about the length of this post, but it's all necessary:

On Tuesday, May 15th, I had attended an informational session on ?????????Skyrush: Behind the Scenes????????? presented by Kent Bachman at the Hershey Country Club. Intamin/IntaRide ?????????turned over the keys????????? to HP that day, and Kent was on the first ride with humans! As he told me- ?????????words cannot describe it?????????. He was on a wing seat, and said he was holding on pretty tight!. Some of his more important comments clarified some things we?????????d been wondering about, and he also shared some new info, some of it from the accelerometers and/or Fred the crash test dummy. I took notes and think I have it all correct:
?????????The ?????????advertised????????? ride height of 200????????? is the actual drop; the 212????????? (from the permit) is to the creek floor.
?????????Max g-force = just under 5.0 at bottom of first drop. (smile for the camera)
?????????Max NEGATIVE g-force is -2.0! Now that's some airtime!
?????????Although published stats say 5 airtime hills, the data recorder shows 7, including the rear of the train over the lift hill, just as we suspected.
?????????Max speed has been 76.3 MPH, also at bottom of first drop. This is just outside the planned envelope?????????.he said they MAY (his words) trim it just a shade to 76.0
?????????Ride time start of lift to return: 63 seconds
?????????Each train weighs 16 tons, empty.
?????????I loved this one: 1.5 BILLION scan points were catalogued of all the existing rides, structures, terrain, etc. prior to starting design layouts
?????????Also as suspected, the two mis-painted cross braces on the south tower were just that, a mistake. They will eventually be blue. LOL
?????????300 cubic yards of concrete are at the bottom of the lift hill at the station. That?????????s 48 standard concrete-mixer trucks full.
?????????There will be no light beacon at the top of lift hill because of its proximity to the Kissing Tower.
?????????The mini-pile footers vary in depth from 30????????? to 130?????????; Skyrush has 173 support columns for the track; in comparison, Bear has 196, for a coaster 800????????? shorter. This was mainly possible due to the double-spine truss design of the track and was an important factor in keeping the costs down.
?????????And this surprising one????????? and I specifically asked to make sure I heard correctly: If you are over 6?????????5????????? tall, you will NOT be permitted to ride. There will be a guide stick for the ops that has the minimum 54????????? and the maximum 77?????????. It has nothing to do with arm reach, but rather the average length of the lower leg from knee to (pointed) toes, which I guess due to the train/seat configuration, could catch on something. That?????????ll upset some folks, but not as much as if they had half their foot hacked off.

Okay, so I went to Hershey yesterday on a school trip, and it started to thunderstorm at about 12:30, so we only got to hit Fahrenheit and Stormrunner before we left. Skyrush was up and running for the commercial shoot, and holy poop, that is a ***y beast. Definitely going back in a couple weeks to ride it!

EDIT: When was the automatic curse-filter added?

Just under 5G? Max negative -2?! Holy siht!!

I get more and more excited to ride this the more often I hear about it. Damn.

Saturday...I will win.