DaptoFunlandGuy

I don't think you'll find cold hydraulics has anything to do with it. More likely its friction. What you need to remember is that these rides are calibrated extremely closely. When first installed, coaster trains come with a mix of polyurethane and nylon wheels. During testing, the manufacturer may trim the train by swapping some of these wheels out in different places in order to get the best performance, and the right speed. As wheels and track wear, maintenance may do modifications and adjustments in order to keep the train properly trimmed. Superman has run the rails for quite some time with little or no paint on the tractor (running) surface. Now that the entire track has got a completely new coat of paint, several things may be impacting the ride's ability to get over the top hat: increased thickness of track (only microns) means less 'play' between running and upstop wheels, more 'grab' and therefore more friction the painted surface itself most likely causes more friction to the wheels than a bare steel rail, and therefore more friction The wheel combination currently installed may be 'slow' wheels to compensate for the faster speeds achieved by the missing paint. They may need to change some wheels to the faster wheel materials to compensate. The winch system - having undergone over a decade of minor adjustments to keep the launch speed aligned has potentially been programmed to throw less power into the cable because of the speed of bare steel rails, and now needs to be reprogrammed. Remember - the launch system weighs the train in order to calculate the force required to get it over. So the ride is now weighing the train as it did several months ago, but not putting as much effort into the launch, because it is still calibrated to the fast running of bare steel.

I disagree - we've had initiatives like FoF, and whilst we might not have the same opportunity for public Q&A, we're fed enough insider and backstage information through 'official' leaks and unofficial sources through staff and what not. We've got more of an idea of a coaster that is a year away and hasn't even got footings yet than we do of a building \ store for which artists impressions, concepts, plans and designs have been available for months. but as usual we are probably going to have to agree to disagree. This was my first thought.

Link?

Or, buy the whole lot, build a bridge over the road, fence it in. then i have two words for you... Kickass Dark Ride.

Clearly their interest to engage with enthusiasts waned when they were asked to dig into their pockets. Its one reason why i'm no longer a passholder.

I found references to it here: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/218095 And it is indeed last year's coupon. The Shop-A-Docket website itself does not display any AW coupons at this time but the discussion forums still host the image of last year's coupon with the 'equal or lesser value' wording.

I think a Master's building is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too big for their needs. Hell, I don't even think MW would be able to utilise a space that size appropriately. Much of the maintenance is done on site with most rides. Those with removable ride vehicles - like coasters - may take the trains off site depending on what sort of maintenance bay the ride has. Wonderland's maintenance bay itself was probably a little bigger than an aldi, and twice as high. For AW, it would be like buying a Caterpillar 793F to crack a walnut.

It doesn't look new but I can honestly say I never saw them!!!

Not a spaceship... a Cessna. Although they don't deploy their 2cm resolution just for the hell of it - this will give you an idea of the resolution. This is my SES depot during the 2011 floods. The roof is used for training roof repair crews. The detail you can pick up is pretty impressive. Also - oblique imagery from sides - you may not be able to identify a peg if it's only an inch or two above ground from directly above, but the multiview option allows you to look at it from 4 different angles as well....

^You'd be surprised Skeet. Image below: top - random housing estate my wife's company built. You can clearly make out the plumbing points (missed the site pegs by a few weeks). Second pics - your pics of the pegs. bottom - original image posted by TPG (i think). I know they've scraped the block since TPGs image, but we should see some of the marker pegs return after the initial groundwork (assumption only). hopefully, Nearmap gets a shot whilst the marker stakes are in, casting a shadow and making it easier to see.

I've never been offered a sick bag on Mickeys Fun Wheel...

I'm waiting for Nearmap. lol... that could be a while.

You probably could, but i'm thinking if it's forceful enough, only those facing downwards would be inclined to stick their legs out - the people facing up likely have forces pushing their legs back..

Oh come on. Seriously? Why is everyone so hung up on whether the monorail will fit? Its easy to see them goofing on the truck in DD - they probably checked the height with the supplier, and the supplier didn't measure to the pipe, but do you honestly think for one moment that they've put all this into construction of the roof, and not even considered whether the monorail will fit? Be serious here. Please.

Well, maybe Movie World decided it was better to have a few more bolts holding things on their new ride...

I can see it being done easily, so long as the rolling stock had an upgrade - Sea World Resort still has a 'gate' inside the souvenir shop where tickets \ passes are scanned before guests can enter the monorail station, which is 'part of' sea world. Disney also managed to do it quite well with their monorail entering Disneyland Hotel. It would be quite easy to extend the track to the Casino, build a station that enters the 'hotel' section of the Casino, with ticketing \ gates installed at that end also - OR a slight rework of the SW 'in park' stations (there's only two) with park entry gates positioned inside the park, allowing people to 'tour' the park without actually entering it.

Connecting the spit to South Straddie has the same problems - it passes over the GC seaway, which is the primary entry path for ocean going vessels. a bridge over that would have the same problems. The broadwater isn't a river - but neither are the florida keys. It is a massive chokepoint down the GC highway, not only for access to the spit, but the GC strip itself. Having a major arterial bypass the landlocked GC HWY and offer a second entry point to Main Beach would really be a no brainer for me. ship traffic is obviously a problem, but I don't think a tunnel is viable - entry and exit points typically require a lot more space than a bridge. I'd love to see a drawbridge done up, with a nice viewing tower or similar, with walking and cycle paths along the length of the bridge also - think Houghton Highway \ Ted Smout Bridge.

The part I had read talked about a 'florida keys' style bridge. To me that meant: It would only need one segment tall enough for those boats moored in the Marina to fit under. The picture below is how I see it being built - attached to Smith Street, and crossing the channel - the image below - showing the whitewash from boats in the channel would be the only part that would need to be elevated high enough for the boats to pass under. At the narrowest point, that channel is about 130m wide. I'm no engineer, but i'm sure you can't do a span that wide without significant cost, but you probably can do something big enough to accommodate the boats berthed below. The alternative to building up so high (i'm not sure we'd host superyachts - but i've found some around 90m tall - so given we do see international boat shows etc at the marina, its probably not the right idea) would be a drawbridge style bridge - there are plenty of examples around, and done right, it in itself could become a tourist attraction...

I do like the suggestion of a bridge across the broadwater - hopefully connecting to Smith St intersection to bypass all that congestion.

Just as plausible a theory @Glubbo but: If a tour host honestly believes everyone in the group will keep it a secret 'just because' without getting people to sign something legally binding - they're an idiot. Truck driver might have no obligation, but someone at the park most definitely would have had to sign for them, and if they'd noticed, and cared, they'd have called \ radioed \ walked over to maintenance, told someone to grab some spraypaint and get on it immediately. The pics were up here for almost two days before I heard they'd been painted over. I doubt the builders were invovled in the statue thing - i believe they were out for the TVC shoot. If they were that tightly concerned about them being made public, they'd have had someone on scene to ensure it wouldn't happen. As for losing a person's trust - theres a difference. If I was, say - friends with a number of people who work in the park who have had, to some degree, involvement in one or both projects, and they'd in some manner inadvertently or intentionally dropped me a hint - there is no way in hell i'd ever breach that trust by repeating it anywhere. But if I or a friend of mine with no affiliation with the park happened to walk \ drive past the park and see something left out in the open, or if i were a paying member of the GP who happened to spot something, or hear something in the park said by someone in an official capacity, I wouldn't treat that information in the same way - I would consider it publicly available. Give or take there's been about 50 people through the Star tour by now - no way the park would be able to identify who 'leaked' the info if it were told to every group that attended. We've even seen them (apparently) engage in mis-information too - every person who attended FN auditions seems to be coming back with a slightly different version of which mazes are expected to be in the park... and that WOULD be an easy way to identify where the leak came from. Especially as so many of them appear to be wrong.

I know @Brad2912 - it wasn't intended to be a dig at you, it happens, was just pointing to why the additional post wasn't 'unnecessary' because it added to yours, rather than duplicated.

So discussion has got me thinking: We've seen a lot of info come out lately from VRTP under the guise of "secret info" as well as "inadvertent reveals" Eg: Star Tour guests have discussed on here about things they were told, that they were asked not to share. Remembering of course, that these guests are not asked to sign an NDA, and of course also remember that the most sure fire way to get a rumor spread is to start by telling people 'don't tell anyone, but...' We've also seen the park do numerous 'inadvertent reveals' : DD theming \ characters were "accidentally" left exposed in view of the public. Greg Yong was actually surprised they hadn't been posted on Parkz when commenting to a friend of mine - and sure enough, soon after, they were posted. MACK crates appeared on site, right next to public access areas, left in full view of anyone who was interested - and they remained that way for a couple of days after they were delivered, before someone spraypainted over the logos. It seems to me that VRTP may be doing this intentionally. Leaving info out just long enough to make sure someone got a picture of it, and then "hiding" it to try and make it seem like it's meant to be a secret. I think @djrappa is on the money here - the parks have kept ride plans secret for a long time in the past, only revealing info when they were ready, and we've long criticised them for that - for not starting the hype train earlier with controlled leaks of information. Could this be their attempt at doing just that, while making it look like it was just an 'oops' ? By intentionally shutting the gate after it has bolted, it only fuels the fire further - making it look like we found out something we weren't supposed to know... so - if we see something in park, or are told something in an official capacity (such as Star Tour or UTT) - unless you're signing an NDA - are we really bound to keep anything secret? Should we? Or is that being fed to us as a means to get the info out? discuss.

Ok - firstly - if a post contains almost identical photos to a previous post, you can't really call it an 'update' can you? Secondly - we check the forum for new content, we do want to see photo updates, but when photos aren't 'updates' its understandable. TBH - TPG rarely if ever does this - she even goes so far as to hold back posting photos when she knows others already have photos to post, so that she doesn't 'steal their thunder'. I tell you - she'd never make a good journalist, but she writes a hell of a blog. Frankly - TPG added some photos of spaces not seen previously - such as the hoarding on main street which weren't in Brad's original post. She also had the finished stairs. (and her photos were right way up too!). I personally don't see anything wrong with TPG's post, but there are countless others who do double post shit that has already been posted, without adding anything new, and in some cases - they even take the photos from the same angle - like they're trying to copy what others have done - but end up doing it half-assed and poorly. THAT is the kind of stuff that shits me.

Won't be able to until next weekend, but sure thing! (I doubt much will have changed so it will look like i took them today)

The instructions for the film shoot were very clear not to wear any branded clothing. My first thoughts were that they were only for the ride operator to monitor riders, as i'm sure there will be an op able to see each end, but your explanation is plausible too - as for how the end seats will be filmed - we haven't seen the spear return yet, have we? Maybe that has a camera on it too?