Rollbacks

Has any one ever been on a rollback. Since there so rare.

No :-) I'm from Italy and I never went to the park...I will go this year!

Last season Rollbacks were NOT that rare.

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TTD rides =35, Time spent waiting for those rides= 51 hours.
MF=85

coasterguy76 said:
Last season Rollbacks were NOT that rare.
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TTD rides =35, Time spent waiting for those rides= 51 hours.
MF=85

Yea, You just had to know how to time it right. Go during the heat of the day, The sled will start overheating and almost every train has a rollback. But dont go too late because it will break down for 5 hours :) Thats my experience, I was about 4 people short of a rollback.

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- Dennis
When I die, They'll read this And say a genius wrote it.
2003 Count - TTD: 3 MF:18 WT: 30+
http://xtremecoasters.com/

i saw so many rollbacks last year BUT i was never on one. last year i was seated in the next car ready to go and the train in front of us rolled back. i was so close! haha. i am hoping for one this year.

I saw about a billion rollbacks last season and ended up being on three of them. They're better than the ride. The twist backward is really cool.

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2003 Raptor ride count: 246
Raptor Rules the Sky.
Environmental Services knows who I am!

Hello.

I was extremely lucky to get a rollback the only time I rode front seat. It was also dusk (around 7:00 Labor day weekend) after a 2 hour breakdown. Definately very thrilling. The best part? You get to go again!!!

Thers no way you have been on three rollbacks.

I saw a train roll back 2 straight times and then finally make it over...I wanted to be on that train.

Over the course of last summer, I can't imagine how many I saw. As employees we would see them all the time since we work there 6 out of 7 days a week.

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Will Foamy become the next Strong Bad? I guess we will find out...

Caution: Foamy isn't quite as "PC" as Strong Bad.

As Dustin LePla said, the best part of a rollback is you get to be launched again (Assuming it's not due to mechanical reasons). The overall experience can be had by riding Wicked Twister and sitting in the front portion of the train. The feeling really is no different.

From a ride op's perspective, rollbacks are an annoyance at best (when the last train of a dispatched pair rollsback), and a pain in the posterior every other time. Having to reposition trains manually gets olds really fast.

Your best bets for catching a rollback are to be on the first train: after morning test rides, after resuming operation from more than 30 minutes without a launch, after it has rained, just as the wind is starting to pick up, when it's cold and launch intervals are long, or when the previous 6 trains have all had relatively light weight people on them and your train has significantly heavier people. After spending more than 1000 hours working that ride, I can gaurantee that 90% of the time, under these circumstances, the train will roll back. There is a scientific reason behind this, but to explain it requires a full description of the hydraulic control system (I don't know if that information is restricted or not, so I'll err on the side of caution).

Final comment: I loved all four of my rollbacks, especially the last 2 on October 26th when the ride and Mother Nature decided to reward the crew by giving all test riders rollbacks. Made the stress of Dragster's growing pains last season all worth it.
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TTD '03 Crew
69 Launches - 65 Complete Circuits

Last season, in October, there was on evening that I was on 3 rollbacks in a row!! It was the red train, it was about 9:45 at night, and it was rather cold out. There were constant problems that night with rollbacks.....the cause....unknown?? However it was the coolest thing ever. It ended up taking us 4 launches to make it over the tophat......and the biggest station-arrival applause ever! After each failed attempt, they would come over the loudspeaker, and say "all ride ops attn: the trains will be moving in manual. So they backed us up to the edge of the station, and then forwards again to the sled. Then, after we rolled back, a host would then come out to the launch and ask if everything was ok and if anybody wanted to get off the train. What a bunch of troopers we had, because nobody wanted off! This one lady almost had it, but she hung in. That as the coolest night at CP I have ever had.

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"Welcome back Gemini riders, how was that ride!?!?!" 25 years of excellence!

I was on 5 rollbacks last year. The first time we pulled into the launch position and the wind really picked up and we rolled back. The other times were being on the first train out or the first train after they opened up another row of seats. I got a rollback on my 100th ride and it was just pure luck, it was not windy and it was not the first train out. So I guess having a bit of luck helps too:)
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Steve Sergent
MF: 267
TTD: 121 & 5 Rollbacks

Our train rolled back 2 straight times before we finally made it over. Yeah, it was cool, but no so cool since they don't do much good for the ride. I'd rather have an operating Dragster over one that has many rollbacks and breaks down alot.

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BUSH-CHENEY 2004
"Democrats talk about getting things done. Republicans get things done."

I have never seen a rollback, is there a video of one somewhere .

26 days before I can get there.

I have 2 videos of rollbacks: one is with people on the ride and the other one is during the testing last year...you can find one of them here: http://www.xtremecoasters.com/video.php

I want a Rollback SO bad, even though it means more down time. :( I was in the park in August and they had like 2 the whole afternoon and evening, lets hope for even less this year!

when top thrill was down because of the ride cable snapping or whatever the problem was i was there and saw them tesing it and it didn't roll back so how come they didn't open the stupid thing. the other thing that was bad was the day after we left the ride opened. i guss that's just my luck
*** This post was edited by coolfun5688 5/6/2004 6:22:47 PM ***

Whether or not a train rolls back is about 1/2000 of what the lauch control system cares about. Just because a train clears the tower doesn't mean everything is all right. Seeing a train go over testifies for one of the control parameters, what about the 1,999+ other parameters? The ride doesn't open until all parameters read within specification.
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TTD '03 Crew
69 Launches - 65 Complete Circuits

purdue university engineer

are you going to be on the oporator crew again or was one year enough?

also where you there when it broke down and if you were tell me what all the problems were about and why they took so long to fix
*** This post was edited by coolfun5688 5/6/2004 7:46:05 PM ***

coolfun5688: also where you there when it broke down and if you were tell me what all the problems were about and why they took so long to fix

They completely replaced the hydraulic launching mechanism last summer in order to attempt and fix the ride so it had more up time. In the end, I think it did work, It seemed to run alot better in August then the rest of the year.