Attraction Iron Gwazi

[netdvn]

So insane is how I'd describe this ride.

Rode about four times. Lines were super long so I couldn't get as many rides in as I hoped. Lines still moved quick though. 100-120 mins all day, but averaged 75-90 mins per ride. Twice toward the back and twice toward the front

The air is definitely much stronger toward the front but the ride flows better in the back letting you take the elements in a little more. The ride absolutely hauls ass throughout. The ride never lets you catch your breath.

While everyone raves about the death roll, I prefer the wave turn above the station.

Is it better than Pantheon? Yes! Is it better than Velocicoaster? Definitely yes. Gwazi is my favorite coaster in Florida at the moment.

 

[hyperrider]

In the past, my strategy at BGT has been to rope drop cheetah hunt, then cobras curse. For those that have been this year, does iron Gwazi change this strategy?

 

[I64 Trekker]

In the past, my strategy at BGT has been to rope drop cheetah hunt, then cobras curse. For those that have been this year, does iron Gwazi change this strategy?

I do the same and had the same question with a visit coming up next weekend.

To me it probably depends on whether or not Cheetah is back to using both stations. If not, that line gets long quick, given it is a family ride and the trains only hold 16 passengers (versus 24 on Iron Gwazi), and thus a no brainer.

As such at rope drop, doing Cheetah and Cobra first and then doing Iron Gwazi probably results in lower overall wait time once everybody has gotten over the newness of Iron Gwazi. But I am curious to see if Cheetah has seen a fall off in rope drop runners now that Iron Gwazi is open, and if it instead makes sense to do Iron Gwazi first.

 

[GoHokies87]

I do the same and had the same question with a visit coming up next weekend.

To me it probably depends on whether or not Cheetah is back to using both stations. If not, that line gets long quick, given it is a family ride and the trains only hold 16 passengers (versus 24 on Iron Gwazi), and thus a no brainer.

As such at rope drop, doing Cheetah and Cobra first and then doing Iron Gwazi probably results in lower overall wait time once everybody has gotten over the newness of Iron Gwazi. But I am curious to see if Cheetah has seen a fall off in rope drop runners now that Iron Gwazi is open, and if it instead makes sense to do Iron Gwazi first.

Capacity at iron gwazi is poor as well. The pouches take guests time to use and the transfer sequence adds 40 seconds to the dispatch time before the restraints even pop up. If you visit on a weekday cheetah hunt will probably only be using one station. The wait for it is pretty steady at 45-90 minutes regardless as the ops change based on the expected crowd leading to line all the time. Ultimately it come down to weather you prefer a ride on gwazi over a ride or two on cheetah hunt and cobras curse. You will probably have to wait a bit regardless. I will say that going from egypt to pantopia allows you to get on scorpion and sand serpent and falcons fury with minimal wait as well.

I would recommend either looping counter clockwise, or getting a ride in at Gwazi then looping counter clockwise.

 

[I64 Trekker]

Capacity at iron gwazi is poor as well. The pouches take guests time to use and the transfer sequence adds 40 seconds to the dispatch time before the restraints even pop up. If you visit on a weekday cheetah hunt will probably only be using one station. The wait for it is pretty steady at 45-90 minutes regardless as the ops change based on the expected crowd leading to line all the time. Ultimately it come down to weather you prefer a ride on gwazi over a ride or two on cheetah hunt and cobras curse. You will probably have to wait a bit regardless. I will say that going from egypt to pantopia allows you to get on scorpion and sand serpent and falcons fury with minimal wait as well.

I would recommend either looping counter clockwise, or getting a ride in at Gwazi then looping counter clockwise.

I know dispatch times were averaging 3 minutes on the first platinum preview day, so sounds like that hasn't improved much? If so, then it looks like an either or situation, and I will probably just focus on Iron Gwazi having ridden Cheetah Hunt dozens of times over the years.

As for clockwise/counterclockwise, I do agree that going counter-clockwise makes sense from Egypt given that you can usually get rides in on Cheetah, Cobra and Montu before Pantopia opens. I guess I will just substitute Iron Gwazi in then for both Cheeth and Cobra, hit Montu second, and then head to Pantopia.

 

[hyperrider]

I know dispatch times were averaging 3 minutes on the first platinum preview day, so sounds like that hasn't improved much? If so, then it looks like an either or situation, and I will probably just focus on Iron Gwazi having ridden Cheetah Hunt dozens of times over the years.

As for clockwise/counterclockwise, I do agree that going counter-clockwise makes sense from Egypt given that you can usually get rides in on Cheetah, Cobra and Montu before Pantopia opens. I guess I will just substitute Iron Gwazi in then for both Cheeth and Cobra, hit Montu second, and then head to Pantopia.

Were it just me, I would take this same approach. However, I will be with a couple that has never been, so all rides will be equal priority. I think that's gonna lean me into the standard approach of Egypt first...

 

[Zachary]

I know dispatch times were averaging 3 minutes on the first platinum preview day, so sounds like that hasn't improved much?

No, even with the ops "hustling," it is still dire. Iron Gwazi is just gonna be a capacity disaster it seems like.

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[I64 Trekker]

No, even with the ops "hustling," it is still dire. Iron Gwazi is just gonna be a capacity disaster it seems like.

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So pretty much on par with Cheetah using 1 station, where dispatch time is around 2 minutes from my observations, and that is being generous. That results in 480 pph (60 / 2 X 8 rows X 2 seats pet row).

 

[warfelg]

Honestly, this is a very RMC problem on the 4 I've been on. They don't really seem to design the station capabilities for better dispatch times. Especially when the blocks aren't really designed for multiple trains to be on the course at once; so dispatch is effected by the time for the train to clear the course.

 

[ControlsEE]

I'm just wondering why it take almost a minute to park and start loading a train. It's a 2 seater! Open the gates as soon as the last riders stand up! This ain't Griffon, who, IMO, had the worst train setup for dispatches. 10 seats AND floorless just make everything go slower.

 

[GoHokies87]

I'm just wondering why it take almost a minute to park and start loading a train. It's a 2 seater! Open the gates as soon as the last riders stand up! This ain't Griffon, who, IMO, had the worst train setup for dispatches. 10 seats AND floorless just make everything go slower.

It's mostly the transfer sequence. It ramps down in 3-4 stages to the point it is moving painfully slow before parking. It seems they are using very basic code that doesnt use pid loops in any meaningful way, just slow it down enough that it never overshoots. I'm certain at least 10-20 seconds could be saved if they had a better way to control the transfer without slowing it down.

 

[I305Evan]

Does IG not have any sort of multi-move because Twisted does, so RMC is definitely capable of doing it? When they programmed Twisted, Cedar Fair required IOE/ RMC to have at least one physical brake closed in between any trains. If a train is fully parked behind the station, the brakes will open (with the exception of the brake inbetween each train) and drives will engage as soon as the train in the station begins to move. But, the converted RMC's have a real hard time entering the station because the station is still sloped downwards. While Twisted was being programmed, it rained one day during testing and the train pretty much didn't slow down and only stopped via the brakes and not the drive tires causing it to overpark. After that they added a "rain mode" to further slow down the train.

 

[ControlsEE]

It's mostly the transfer sequence. It ramps down in 3-4 stages to the point it is moving painfully slow before parking. It seems they are using very basic code that doesnt use pid loops in any meaningful way, just slow it down enough that it never overshoots. I'm certain at least 10-20 seconds could be saved if they had a better way to control the transfer without slowing it down.

Gotcha. Probably is due to what happened to SteVe on opening weekend. PID loops really wouldn't help, as there are no analog position sensors, only digital prox sensors. In reality, the ramp times on the VFD's for the tires and the positions where it starts slowing down need to be adjusted.

 

[GoHokies87]

Gotcha. Probably is due to what happened to SteVe on opening weekend. PID loops really wouldn't help, as there are no analog position sensors, only digital prox sensors. In reality, the ramp times on the VFD's for the tires and the positions where it starts slowing down need to be adjusted.

certainly using analog position sensors wouldn't be the hardest thing to add. I'm not familiar with control systems on coasters but being familiar with controls in general I can think of a couple simple ways to pull it off.

This whole discussion has be wondering who does RMC's controls.

 

[I305Evan]

This whole discussion has be wondering who does RMC's controls.

For the most part, Irvine Ondrey Engineering. The Six Flags RMC's were programmed in-house by Six Flags.

 

[ControlsEE]

certainly using analog position sensors wouldn't be the hardest thing to add. I'm not familiar with control systems on coasters but being familiar with controls in general I can think of a couple simple ways to pull it off.

This whole discussion has be wondering who does RMC's controls.

I'm not too sure about that. Maybe a laser distance sensor, but otherwise I can't think of how that would be done. Most rides have a set of slow down prox's and a set of stopped prox's for train placement. Still doesn't need to have multiple speed steps IMO.

IOE has a contract for all RMC rides except SF parks. Short side story, I only know this because I was having dinner with them when they got the call from Fred saying they would be signing an exclusivity contract with them.

 

[Unagi]

IOE has a contract for all RMC rides except SF parks. Short side story, I only know this because I was having dinner with them when they got the call from Fred saying they would be signing an exclusivity contract with them.

Consign did the controls for Iron Gwazi. IOE has done the controls for all the Raptors in the SF parks but the other RMC coasters have been down in-house.

 

[ControlsEE]

Consign did the controls for Iron Gwazi. IOE has done the controls for all the Raptors in the SF parks but the other RMC coasters have been down in-house.

Well IG is news to me. I could have sworn I talked to Brian about IG, but I guess not. If Consign did do that, then there is EVEN LESS of an excuse for IG's parking sequence. They should have that sequence down and they don't have the excuse of "the last major RMC convert we programmed had a minor crash due to a software bug, so we are playing it safe." I did know about the Raptors being IOE.

 

[Unagi]

Well IG is news to me. I could have sworn I talked to Brian about IG, but I guess not. If Consign did do that, then there is EVEN LESS of an excuse for IG's parking sequence. They should have that sequence down and they don't have the excuse of "the last major RMC convert we programmed had a minor crash due to a software bug, so we are playing it safe." I did know about the Raptors being IOE.

IOE bid for the Iron Gwazi controls but the park went with Consign.

And as far as Consign goes, it's not a surprise there are issues with Iron Gwazi. They lost their B&M exclusivity contract over the Valravn fiasco.

 

[I305Evan]

Looking back, it makes sense because IOE typically doesn't layout their panels like they are on IG- you can see the transfer panel in this video

Consign has done pretty much all of the coasters as BGT with the exception of Cheetah Hunt so the park probably felt it was best to keep it the same. But Consign is probably playing it safe after Valravn bumped in the station.