American Eagle construction vid

[marcos]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXPEH7L3cgM

[jimmy gimbels]

Great video. Too bad Six Flags has done a less than stellar job of maintaining the coaster. Oil and grease stains on struts. Peeling paint everywhere. Red and blue paint almost faded away. No racing trains since 6 Flags usually runs only one train. Oh, how I miss the Marriott days.

[RandyV]

So awesome. I remember going to the park on a school trip back in '81 and then waiting in line 3.5 hours to ride the Eagle with a friend so we could have bragging rights. At the time I remember the ride just being so massive.

It is a shame they don't take better care of her these days.

Randy

[CoasterComet]

Rode red today - flying like a bat out of hell.

The ride could still be a top ride, with a little tlc, closer entrance, etc. etc...

AE is maintained LIGHT YEARS better than most other SF parks' woodies (GA cyclone comes to mind, so many...)

Let all the paint fall off - it doesn't make sense to spend the money on paint when it can now be used on other aspects of the ride - I don't think the new wood required paint.

[marcos]

Great video. Too bad Six Flags has done a less than stellar job of maintaining the coaster. Oil and grease stains on struts. Peeling paint everywhere. Red and blue paint almost faded away. No racing trains since 6 Flags usually runs only one train. Oh, how I miss the Marriott days.

No doubt that Six Flags' attention to detail is severely lacking, but AE looks pretty good compared to others I have seen at Six Flags parks. Screamin' Eagle at SFStL looks horrible. I rode it the weekend before last, and 2/3 of the ride looks really, really, bad and weathered, to the point some parts have only 10% paint remaining. The remaining 1/3 is freshly painted, and the park has closed the ride for a month to finish painting it, supposedly, in time for its 35th birthday in early June.


-Mark

[marcos]

Rode red today - flying like a bat out of hell.

The ride could still be a top ride, with a little tlc, closer entrance, etc. etc...

AE is maintained LIGHT YEARS better than most other SF parks' woodies (GA cyclone comes to mind, so many...)

Let all the paint fall off - it doesn't make sense to spend the money on paint when it can now be used on other aspects of the ride - I don't think the new wood required paint.

The trains raced most of the weekend...that is, two red trains and one blue train. Initially it was just the red trains, then they started running a single blue train. I was told by a couple different people there the second blue train still hasn't come out of the maintenance shop, and it was "a miracle" the second red train was ready for the weekend. I would have thought with the extra late Opening Day this year that these things would have been ready by now, but I guess not. (Superman was also missing its second train the whole weekend, and Raging Bulls' third train isn't quite ready yet. Whizzer had two of its three trains.)

Blue was a really smooth airtime machine, and I didn't see it lose to red a single time. So, I don't know if the Blue side got some retracking or what, but it was really nice.

Red was fun, too, just rougher. I got stuck on it at the brake run. Maintenance came out and had us freed in about seven minutes. You should have heard the whiners complaining and asking for free stuff, heh.

As much as I'd love to have both appearance and a nice ride, I agree, keep the ride running the way it should be first, then worry about paint. No doubt it could still be a top woodie.


-Mark

[marcos]

As of last weekend, this video is being played in its entirety in queues throughout the park. In-between commercials, pop music videos, and other Six Flags advertising, it repeats every 10-15 minutes.

In this picture, you can actually see it playing on a monitor in Raging Bulls' queue, with Eagle in the background:
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8546/img0653jv.jpg


-Mark