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Thread: Amusement rides

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    Default Amusement rides

    From the Space tourism thread... What are the world's best amusement rides.

    Now I have ridden my fair share of rollercoasters and thrill rides. What are the best rides or things you can do?

    Bungee Jumping I think still holds the title. The sheer terror of jumping off something with only a rubber band is hard to beat.

    The gentle version of that is indoor skydiving. I've never jumped out of a plane, but I probably have equivalent jump time of about 100 jumps for the time I've spent in vertical wind tunnels, and I'm no expert in the tunnel. I can stay on the air column and some basic steering. It's fun but not thrilling for me.
    I better jump our of a plane some time, preferably not my own.


    OK... thrill rides. I can't think of any one rollercoaster which stands out over all others these days. There are lots of good ones.
    But I'm up for recommendations.

    Probably the most memorable ride I have been on is the Gardians of the Galaxy ride at Disneyland. This is an augmented reality ride with a lot of micro gravity.
    I think it's my current #1 ride.


    I compare it with the Kennedy Space Center's Space shuttle simulator which they claim is the closest thing to a real shuttle launch. The old people and retarded kids seem to appreciate it, I was bitterly disappointed with the effort. The NASA car park was more exciting. But then, I don't got to Kennedy for amusement rides. I expected an educational ride and it wasn't either educational or amusing.

    I do like mountain coasters and my quest is to find bigger and faster ones.
    Smokey Mountain Alpine Coaster was fun.


    There are also a few roller gliders which are like zip lines X mountain coasters. For some reason I've not found these to be as much fun even though they a bit more scary.

    NZ has it's own super fun luge.

    I wanna see luge racing, that shit would be awesome.

    You can also Zorb in NZ. Though this is a disturbing ride for us older people.
    My son made me take him on the Gravitron about 10 years ago. Yeah, sure, a bit of a boring ride for me as a young adult.
    But as an older person, oh... this is not an old persons ride. Spinning is now something unpleasant. He thought it was fun, that made it worth my discomfort particularly after I got off. I'm sure the grass was not this soft before I got on the ride. Oh, that's my legs.

    I took him to Dreamworld about that time .... which ride do you want to go on first? "Big Drop Dad!" Oh for fvcks sake, can't we start with something a bit gentler? I like the ride but I also hate it too because it makes me react instinctively as if I'm flying a paraglider, but it pulls negative G's so my response is predictable but controlled terror. (which makes it a good ride).

    I need more... what other rides do the adrenaline junkies know about?
    Yes I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.

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    I'd have a go at just about anything, but, unfortunately the riskiest thing I ever did was get married.
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    The best amusement rides I had as a kid, well I was 15, was flying gliders.
    This was not any old glider towed by a Cessna or something but you got winched up with what seemed like a kilometre long steel cable powered with a strong heavy anchored truck motor.
    At some stage you are going up at a 45˚ or more angle with a fair bit of centrifugal force, so when it unclips at the apogee you get another decent boost upwards, definitely high enough to catch thermic updrafts and go much higher on good days.
    I was also allowed to fly the thing myself but still too young to complete proper training and get a certificate.

    I was very determined to join the German Airforce but wasn't accepted as flight crew because I wore glasses.
    Out of protest I became a conscientious objector doing alternative government service which ended up for me at least getting early experience with computers in the mid 1970's.

    I never liked amusement park rides, with things just going nowhere around in circles or up and down without my control.
    I did like go cart racing as a kid.
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 26-07-21 at 12:39 AM.
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    I don't like them.. LOL It was mid 70's, the ride was the Mad Mouse at Luna Park Melbourne... Scared the bejesus out of me!
    Never went passed the Go-Karts after that.

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    I actually surprised my second son when we went to movie world on Goldie a few years back (both of us were adults). He was expecting me to wimp out on some of the rides. Nah! they were ok but nothing worth writing home about!
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    Go carts are the most fun, the proper ones not the basic tourist jobs...

    Been on a couple of good roller coasters, new York new York in Vegas and a roller coaster in Singapore that went over the side of a cliff.

    Cable car to sentosa was pretty good too.

    usages.kangaroos.sound

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    Still have my Virage Racing License from the Virage GoKart track in Miami. Those carts were powerful and you would get all bruised up slamming around in the seat.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Uncle Fester View Post
    The best amusement rides I had as a kid, well I was 15, was flying gliders.
    This was not any old glider towed by a Cessna or something but you got winched up with what seemed like a kilometre long steel cable powered with a strong heavy anchored truck motor.
    .
    I do this with Hang Gliders. There are different ways to winch a glider. The that gives the most exciting ride to the sky is a static tow line.
    1000ft of rope or cable. A car is used for the tow. It gets moving and the rope has a bit of elastic in it, so you have to run until the wing has enough lift to prevent you tripping over. At which point the wing pitches up and the sky gets close real quick. The climb is fast. Real fast. The closest thing to it is an old Boeing 727 take off.
    After about 30 seconds your now starting to level out at the top and pick up air speed.
    If the tow line breaks or the weak link breaks, the glider instantly stalls and you're in space shuttle landing mode, nose down to get airspeed, lift and control for landing.
    If all goes well and your on top, kick the release and the wing tries to stall or it "pops" and you get couple of seconds of micro gravity while things equalise out and you fly away.

    The other fast ride to the sky is hooking into a 7up thermal in a paraglider. Especially if you pick it up at tree height.
    I got one just as I flew over a tree in a last attempt before having to land and up I went. It was so strong I didn't even bother to turn. I just pushed into it and it lifted me up and backwards and the vario was screaming.
    7m/s is about 25ft per second. Within a minute I'm climbing through 1000ft, in 5 minutes I'm over 5000ft and still going up fast in a 30 degree bank just holding it. after 15 minutes I top out at just over 12,000ft over Mt Kaputar watching sailplanes fly underneath me heading back to Lake Keepit.
    Yes I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.

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    Yeah, hang gliders sound nice.
    Problem with me was that I was too busy becoming a geek(that much later turned into a business) but unfortunately I only realised what I missed out on in life AFTER I somehow managed to get married and have kids.
    So it was no hang gliders, Cessna lessons(even though today I can easily afford), no motor bikes allowed and now my wife wont even allow me to ride my E-bikes anymore after the husband of somebody she knows got permanent brain damage from a pushbike accident.

    So when it comes hopefully to my ultimate amusement ride in 10 years , I will just tell her I want to go to that Kennedy Space sim(thanks for the hint), while I shout her a trip to see her rellos in the Philippines or another UK trip, whatever she wants.
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    Tell you missus that you know someone who got permanent brain damage sitting stationary at a police road block!!! (Yep - that was me!)
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    I'd tell your wife that you've organised a trip to Manilla.
    When you get there (Manilla NSW) you can learn to Paraglide. Make up for all those years you missed flying.
    these days my paraglider has better performance (other than air speed) than my older hang glider.
    And they're pretty safe. think safer thank hang gliders these days and there's a reason the old men of hang gliding eventually have to give up their hang gliders and they admit defeat and try out paragliding as some kind of sad compromise. It's then they realise they have been denying themselves an equivallent form of flying that is a bloody good compromise.
    I still love hang gliding, you're a bird. Paragliding is like flying a couch. It takes me 20-30 minutes to set up and pack up my hang glider. It takes me 3 minutes for the paraglider.

    You need to rough up ya mrs a bit fester Tell her that it's so safe, you want her to learn to fly too. Or she can nominate one of the children to learn in her place.
    Here... let this video soak into your blood.

    Or flying in a competition gaggle like this ... most of the pilots in this gaggle are novice low hour pilots.

    Or this video... this guy's hyperlapse videos are awesome.
    They're also really educational for other pliots.
    Yes I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.

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    Quote Originally Posted by trash View Post
    I'd tell your wife that you've organised a trip to Manilla.
    No way. She would be thinking I am looking for other women.
    I would have to wait until SHE goes to HER Manilla and then betray her with paragliding lessons.
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