King Chaos replaced power divethat_guy wrote:No Veritical Velocity is in Yankee Harbor (or whatever it is now?) The Edge was is Orleans place and replaced by Power Dive, but I am still confused, what replaced Power Dive?
Gurnee Edge Photos - Dialup beware!
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redfishpaw
- Tidal Wave
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Last edited by redfishpaw on Mon Oct 31, 2005 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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twixmix0303
- Yankee Clipper
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Would someone who has ridden SF Magic Mountain's Superman the Escape describe how it is similar and different from MGA's The Edge? If you don't know much about Superman the Escape, read about it here. I've often thought the concept was similar to The Edge..., but much more thrilling!
http://www.thrillride.com/Superman/Superman.html
http://www.thrillride.com/Superman/Superman.html
Dive Info
There's been some talk about Power Dive so let me clear some of it up because it was the first unit I worked at in '89. I won't share what our nickname for it, coined by the immortal Jim Hartke was!!
When I started at Dive in '89 it was the second year for the ride. There wasn't any sound anywhere initially -- not in the queues and not for the ride itself. A couple of months into the '89 season they brought these huge speaker cabinets in and installed them down in the pit (only maintenance was allowed down in the pit) and thus began the afterburner noises and whooshes the thing made. While delighted at first the crew quickly tired at the repetitive nature of it and the volume. Eventually some "drivers" would just turn the sound off since that was possible since you didn't want it running when testing in the morning, communicating with people in the pit, etc.
Dive was also the host of the most despised innovation to come to the park -- the taped instructions. When the box was put in with the buttons at Dive a sad day had come to pass indeed, fortunately it came after I had transferred out of the unit and I was still free to get warned for "mic abuse" over at Shockwave. That box was hated though as it felt like it trampled on THE coolest thing of being a ride op -- gettin to use the mic and do the "spiel". It was so hated before too long it had a name -- STU was emblazoned on it with the detailed explanation of "Stupid Talking Unit" underneath. STU would soon spread his evil seed throughout the park. I think the "Danger Zone" music got put in a while later, maybe even around the time they put STU in.
Now, the beloved restraints, I loved them, they were very nice frames! From the male perspective you had to know the trick, just put your knees up to hold the bar up while the air system is lowering them. After that is complete you can push the bar down to a comfortable level manually. Of course, ride ops would not let you do that (unless you were crew of course).
Dive was popular for people getting sick but not too bad. The funny thing I found out about GI ("guest illness" was the proper park term for taking the ride down to clean up vomit) at Dive was that it stayed in the row usually! One would expect it to go flying to the other side of the jet when they did it but that almost never happened, folks sitting in the same row were not usually so lucky.
Of course, our main duty was ejecting spitters from the park. If you were caught spitting on Dive you would usually be ejected and for whatever reason people LOVED to spit on that ride.
Finally, there was a very popular break area there and you could see one of the main "backstage" areas there. The break area was just behind the fence and was a popular smokers hangout (I didn't smoke then). You couldn't fool around too much there because right across the way was the long dark stairway up to the Operations office and nothing was more fun that screwing around in the break area only to see your Sup come walking out the door to see you.
When I started at Dive in '89 it was the second year for the ride. There wasn't any sound anywhere initially -- not in the queues and not for the ride itself. A couple of months into the '89 season they brought these huge speaker cabinets in and installed them down in the pit (only maintenance was allowed down in the pit) and thus began the afterburner noises and whooshes the thing made. While delighted at first the crew quickly tired at the repetitive nature of it and the volume. Eventually some "drivers" would just turn the sound off since that was possible since you didn't want it running when testing in the morning, communicating with people in the pit, etc.
Dive was also the host of the most despised innovation to come to the park -- the taped instructions. When the box was put in with the buttons at Dive a sad day had come to pass indeed, fortunately it came after I had transferred out of the unit and I was still free to get warned for "mic abuse" over at Shockwave. That box was hated though as it felt like it trampled on THE coolest thing of being a ride op -- gettin to use the mic and do the "spiel". It was so hated before too long it had a name -- STU was emblazoned on it with the detailed explanation of "Stupid Talking Unit" underneath. STU would soon spread his evil seed throughout the park. I think the "Danger Zone" music got put in a while later, maybe even around the time they put STU in.
Now, the beloved restraints, I loved them, they were very nice frames! From the male perspective you had to know the trick, just put your knees up to hold the bar up while the air system is lowering them. After that is complete you can push the bar down to a comfortable level manually. Of course, ride ops would not let you do that (unless you were crew of course).
Dive was popular for people getting sick but not too bad. The funny thing I found out about GI ("guest illness" was the proper park term for taking the ride down to clean up vomit) at Dive was that it stayed in the row usually! One would expect it to go flying to the other side of the jet when they did it but that almost never happened, folks sitting in the same row were not usually so lucky.
Of course, our main duty was ejecting spitters from the park. If you were caught spitting on Dive you would usually be ejected and for whatever reason people LOVED to spit on that ride.
Finally, there was a very popular break area there and you could see one of the main "backstage" areas there. The break area was just behind the fence and was a popular smokers hangout (I didn't smoke then). You couldn't fool around too much there because right across the way was the long dark stairway up to the Operations office and nothing was more fun that screwing around in the break area only to see your Sup come walking out the door to see you.
Guy Finley
aka "Bill" Finley
SFGAm Employee 1988 - 1992
aka "Bill" Finley
SFGAm Employee 1988 - 1992
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SFGAmfreak4life
- Willard's Whizzer
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Gurnee waited until 1997 to add the next generation of Intamin free falls called Giant Drop.that_guy wrote:p.s. Why didn't the park put in another free fall ride, was their any other kind of free fall ride being made at the time?
I haven't ridden The Edge but I have been on Demon's Drop at Cedar Point. The only possible comparison is the backwards fall on Superman the Escape and the drop on the free fall. The drops have a little bit of the same feeling even though they are in different directions and end up in different positions.JW65 wrote:Would someone who has ridden SF Magic Mountain's Superman the Escape describe how it is similar and different from MGA's The Edge? If you don't know much about Superman the Escape, read about it here. I've often thought the concept was similar to The Edge..., but much more thrilling!
http://www.thrillride.com/Superman/Superman.html
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jonrev
- Tidal Wave
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Re: Dive Info
That's the one thing I remember from Power Dive are those wooshes. Does anyone by chance have sound files of those wooshes and noises the ride made?NotBill wrote:
When I started at Dive in '89 it was the second year for the ride. There wasn't any sound anywhere initially -- not in the queues and not for the ride itself. A couple of months into the '89 season they brought these huge speaker cabinets in and installed them down in the pit (only maintenance was allowed down in the pit) and thus began the afterburner noises and whooshes the thing made.
Gurnee Ride Op - 2007