Tag: Art Engineering

A ride on Flotter Otto and Looping Alois

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Flotter Otto and Looping Alois

On my Easter trip this year, I used the afternoon entrance to Skyline Park to try out last year’s additions.

The larger of the two new rides still uses the station of the former Bob Racing attraction, but not the area around it. This is now largely unused and still gives an idea of the layout of the former bobkart track. The track of the new family coaster Flotter Otto runs parallel to the station building. At both ends you take a turn in a helix and that’s it. As many park visitors have commented, the ride is not a worthy replacement. However, it is a very good starter coaster for young children.

The second addition is the Looping Alois flat ride. Theoretically, you can control your flight, i.e. whether you go up, down and sideways. Unfortunately, the ride at Skyline Park is operated in automatic mode, which means that every passenger inevitably rolls over against their will. This is not unpleasant, but not very nice either. Without interactivity, the ride is simply not attractive to many visitors.

Pictures Skyline Park

Conclusion Skyline Park

Overall, the park makes a worse impression than on my last visit. Although there are more attractions, the paint is peeling in other places. This is particularly noticeable on the façade and some of the figures on the Geisterschlange dark ride, which are now simply weathered. The fisherman on Sky Rafting is also more off-putting than inviting, as are many of the decorations around the park. This is a shame as the park has a lot of potential.

 

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Skyline Park

Testing the Sky Dragster at Skyline Park

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Preface

It has been a while since I last visited Bad Wörishofen and its local amusement park. Back then I did a small internship at Gerstlauer Amusement Rides in nearby Münsterhausen and stayed with a friend for a while. Since then, Skyline Park has almost doubled in size and some interesting rides have come and gone.

Skyline Park

As Skyline Park is one of the few theme parks where a ride on the Funtime Slingshot is included in the admission price, I started my day in this area of the park. However, due to strong winds, the Sky Shot was not open on the day of my visit.

The nearby Caripro Gyroflyer Sky Rider also had some problems during its test run and had to be towed back to the station. The unique suspended spinning coaster did not operate at all for the remainder of my visit.

Sky Spin

With the queue for the Bob Racing bobkart track barely moving, we set off for the Sky Spin spinning coaster. I rode this Maurer SC2000 twice on my only visit to the Oktoberfest in Munich. Back then the ride was known as Cyber Space and was operated by the Kaiser family. Between 2003 and 2012 the ride was known as Whirlwind at Camelot Theme Park in England. After the park closed, the ride moved to Skyline Park in 2013 and has been entertaining riders ever since. Unfortunately, the ride has become quite jerky over time, which is a bit of a surprise when you compare it to other rides of its kind.

Sky Dragster

Passing the Schwarzkopf Wild Cat Nostalgische Achterbahn, which I was not allowed to ride as a single rider (probably because of the Covid-19 rules), we now come to another coaster made by Maurer. Skyline Park has a good relationship with the Munich-based manufacturer, so you can find two of their prototypes at the park. The first one was the SkyWheel and the second one is the Spike Coaster Sky Dragster.

The Sky Dragster is currently the only Spike Coaster in operation. Its design is a cross between a classic steeplechase coaster and a powered coaster, although the rider’s position is quite close to the track. The cars are powered directly by a cogwheel running on a rack mounted on the side of the track. Because of this configuration, there is no rollback, so the track can be twisted into all sorts of crazy manoeuvres – it is even possible to accelerate the car along a vertical section of track, which is otherwise quite difficult to achieve on conventional track designs. Just like a Wiegand bobkart track, the rider can control the speed of the car and a control system adjusts the distance between the cars as needed. In addition, everything is monitored by the system, which on the one hand provides a remarkably high level of safety, but on the other hand has caused a lot of problems in the coaster’s early seasons.

On the day of my visit, the coaster was running smoothly. The track at Skyline Park has a long straight out of the station before entering a horseshoe turn. This is immediately followed by a 360° right turn. Two double-up hills follow immediately after. On the other side of the track you enter a strangely banked uphill spiral. After a descent back to station level, you run through a very tight s-bend before reaching the station. A second round follows.

I really like the acceleration of the Spike Coaster. The system is much less sluggish compared to conventional powered coasters. The only thing I did not like too much was the slow speed of most of the elements on the Sky Dragster. I know this is done to limit the forces on the rider, but it is kind of funny to allow a system to have a high degree of flexibility in track design when you have to regulate it massively to do so. However, if your design is mostly straight, then this system is fine. So I am not surprised that the Spike Coaster is most likely to be found exclusively on cruise ships like the Carnaval Mardi Gras. For a theme park, the low capacity of the ride is not justifiable at all, unless you are Mirabilandia and want to make some extra money with your fast pass system.

Sky Circle and Wildwasser 3

In the same corner as the Sky Dragster is the Zamperla Turbo Force Sky Circle and the large transportable log flume Wildwasser 3 by Mack Rides. This is the park owner’s second transportable log flume to make its way to Skyline Park. The first one was the Pirateninsel, which has now found a new home at the Eiffelpark in Rhineland-Palatinate. Wildwasser 3 was the largest log flume to be found at a German amusement park and as a result has three drops, the first of which is backwards.

Allgäuflieger

Close to Wildwasser 3 is the world’s largest Star Flyer. The chain swing Allgäuflieger offers a wide view of open fields, the mountains and of course Skyline Park just below. Due to strong winds I had to cancel the ride.

High Fly

One ride that I voluntarily skipped was the large inverting pendulum ride High Fly by SBF Visa, as I had already been punctured by their restraints the day before on the Papageienflug at Tatzmania Löffingen and did not want to risk it again. The High Fly is currently the largest inverting pendulum ride in Germany, but this record could easily be broken if a park is interested.

Sky Rafting

The next ride on our way through the park is Sky Rafting, formerly known as Wild ‘n Wet. The transportable water ride by ART Engineering starts with a vertical lift. Once at the top, a long slide section begins. Due to the curvy layout, the boats start to rotate strongly. A short drop at the end of the slide comes as a bit of a surprise as no one in the boat knows who is going to get wet.

Kids Spin

Not quite as unpredictable, but still a bit spiky, is the small spinning coaster Kids Spin. The small coaster from SBF Visa has the well known 3 loop layout, where the right leading curves always lead into a left leading curve. Due to the constant change of curvature, the cars can get into a good spin. After several loops the train comes to a halt in the station and the cars have to be turned back into position manually before you can exit the ride.

Geisterschlange

Passing the big SkyWheel coaster, we take a look at the Geisterschlange ghost train. The old ride from showman Lehmann has found its retirement home at Skyline Park. The ride is simply a beauty of a ghost train and it is nice to see it being preserved for the future in an amusement park like Skyline Park.

Zero Gravity

As the weather during my visit got worse and worse and heavy rain started to fall around lunch, let us now have a look into the only indoor attraction at Skyline Park. The hall opposite of the cute Baustellenfahrt once offered a motion simulator. It is now home to the Rotor Zero Gravity by SBF Visa. The Italian company gave the famous ride concept a new life by introducing translucent walls to the ride, where traditional rides feature a wooden barrel. To further increase the friction, the walls are also angled and feature a rather rough surface. The ride could therefore run slightly slower, but it does not. For minutes you are now pressed onto the wall, which becomes more and more exhausting over time. The light show is a plus, nevertheless, I was quite happy when the ride finally came to a stop.

Pictures Skyline Park

Closing Words

It was nice to return to Skyline Park after so many years. Unfortunately, due to the weather and the Covid-19 guidelines, I was not able to try every attraction I wanted to. However, I was very happy to have tried the new Sky Dragster coaster and to have spent some time on some of the classic rides before moving on earlier than expected.

 

What is your opinion about the novelties of Skyline Park and the Sky Dragster? Just write them in the comment field below the report or in our social media channels:

 

          

Skyline Park

Ba-a-a Express in the Harbo(u)r Street

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Off to Ireland

In fact, the Irish theming area was last year’s novelty and it would be more interesting to talk about this year’s novelty, but just like the newly designed children’s area with the Ba-a-a Express roller coaster, the new Voletarium flight simulator will not open until the high season. As usual, it’s a shame when new rides don’t open at the beginning of the season. However, we’re talking about Europa Park here, and we’ll soon find out that despite all the self-congratulation about being the best amusement park in the world, the negative touch of this advertising campaign is only of interest to the brains behind it; the rest of us already know that Europa Park is one of the best amusement parks in the world.

In contrast to other theme parks around the world, however, Rust is surprisingly down-to-earth when it comes to the design of the children’s area. In fact, they are surprisingly independent and do not rely on the licensing of small children’s rides, as is the case with the British population who are lured en masse into these areas (be it Paultons Park, Alton Towers or Drayton Manor). Instead, they trust in their own concept and allow the former children’s world to have an extensive themed area with lots of humour and wit. St Patrick can at least be satisfied, the Irish themed area is quite nice.

Ba-a-a Express

The main reason for visiting the park on this Easter Sunday was to ride the Ba-a-a Express, the park’s newest roller coaster. Designed and built by ART Engineering GmbH, with the tracks themselves bent by Mack Rides, this small ride is aimed primarily at the park’s younger visitors, whose introduction to roller coasters could previously only be on Pegasus or the Alpenexpress, or perhaps the Wild Mouse Matterhornblitz or the Schweizer Bobbahn.

The compact layout is quick to set up and just as easy to ride. After gaining a few metres of altitude in a right-hander with friction wheels, the track descends into a leisurely straight. This leads immediately into a left-hander, followed by an equally quick change of direction and the completion of the backward turn. This is followed by a short S-curve and then the station. All good things come in twos, so you cross the track once more before coming to a halt.

The Ba-a-a Express is a nice children’s coaster with a surprisingly comfortable train and an admittedly very interesting technology; the floor of the station is lowered on both sides before the train can leave, but the railings at the ends of the station are not folded away. I didn’t quite understand this, but I suspect it’s for maintenance reasons, as it doesn’t really seem to be relevant to safety. Well, for the target group the coaster is definitely more than adequate and parents will certainly enjoy the ride as well. Also, the design of the ride is quite fluffy.

Pictures Europa Park

 

What is your opinion about the Ba-a-a Express roller coaster? Just write them in the comment field below the report or in our social media channels:

 

     

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Europa Park