I got to ride the Edge again! (well, sort of...)

tillenterprises · Post by **tillenterprises** » Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:44 am

I took advantage of my Six Flags season passes to take the family down to Texas over Easter and go to Fiesta Texas and Six Flags over Texas. I was most excited to ride Wildcatter at SFOT- I told my 9 year old son all about the Edge at Great America, and it was awesome being able to experience the ride again with him(he loved it, by the way)! It was almost emotional to see it running again, as Edge was and always will be one of my favorite rides. I know they had Wildcatter for sale last year, but decided to keep it at least another year, and am I glad for that! They also seem to keep the ride well maintained- the paint looked pretty fresh, and with the one exception of the "clunk" of when the car engages the lift tower, the ride was extremely smooth- even the part where it backs up and down to the loading platform! It also ran consistently all weekend with no breakdowns! I know SFMM still has their Freefall ride, too, but I can't speak for that one, having never been there, so for all of you who never had a chance to ride Edge, or want to ride it again, I recommend heading to SFOT in Arlington ASAP! Yes, I rode the 300+ foot tall Superman drop tower over there and I like the Giant Drop, but Edge-type 1st generation freefalls offers a totally unique ride experience, unlike anything else out there! Almost 40 years old and I still love this ride!

SFGAmfreak4life · Post by **SFGAmfreak4life** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:12 pm

Demon Drop at Cedar Point is great and I like the first generation free falls the most. I love Cedar Point and I think everyone should make a trip there at least once. Ohio isn't that far and the drive is worth it to go to a great park.

tillenterprises · Post by **tillenterprises** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 2:43 pm

SFGAmfreak4life wrote:Demon Drop at Cedar Point is great and I like the first generation free falls the most. I love Cedar Point and I think everyone should make a trip there at least once. Ohio isn't that far and the drive is worth it to go to a great park.

I know that Demon Drop is at Cedar Point is still for sale, so who knows how much longer it will be there.

that_guy · Post by **that_guy** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:27 pm

SFGAmfreak4life wrote:Ohio isn't that far and the drive is worth it to go to a great park.

lol, for the Gurnee folk at least

that_guy · Post by **that_guy** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 4:20 pm

Speaking of Wildcatter:

http://sb1.thefifthnetwork.com/VCMS/Pla ... lId=ID0EXF

...Another Intamin First Generation leaves with a bang.

Angry_Gumball · Post by **Angry_Gumball** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:52 pm

Wow...that was kinda...sad...and weird. It's like they just took it out of it's own misery. Would it have been too problematic to dismantle it and relocate it?

RandyV · Post by **RandyV** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:58 am

Given that other parks can't seem sell off their first gen free-falls, it was unlikely worth the time or money to properly dismantle and store it. Blasting it and selling the steel for scrap was probably cheaper and easier.

That was sad to watch.

I'm hoping to take my daughter on a first-gen free-fall next year (she'll be 7 then), provided there is still one to ride somewhere. I've told her about Great America and the Edge and she's interested in riding one because that's what Dad used to ride.

redfishpaw · Post by **redfishpaw** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:24 pm

Interesting video clip, to bad they felt that they had to destroy it. I wonder why people in the clip were cheering at the end, they probably are just stupid. I'll pass on the parks replacement coaster. Thanks for sharing.

tillenterprises · Post by **tillenterprises** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 10:40 pm

Boy, this has been a hot topic for me! Fortunately, I got to go to SFOT in April and rode it several times with my son, who had heard all about how great the Edge was from me. The weather was crappy, windy, cold, and even a few snow flurries, but the Wildcatter ran nonstop during the two days we were there. I was even thinking about how great and smooth the ride was running for being so old. When I learned they were going to tear it down for yet another spinning coaster that we can ride anytime at the Mall of America, I was ticked!

I called and e-mailed Six Flags, posted messages on the SFOT message boards, where I was basically called an idiot by the site administrator, even though many members shared my anger. I even contacted a couple smaller amusement parks to beg them to save this ride. I LOVE these first gen freefalls, and sadly, it looks like they will be lost to the history books. If you love them like I do, please contact Six Flags and Cedar Point and let them know how you feel about them keeping the last two in the country (at MM and CP) up and running! The modern drop/launch towers are fun, too, but there's no experience anywhere like the first generation freefalls. I loved SFOT for this reason that they seemed to care about preserving classic rides while adding new, state of the art rides. Not anymore...