Tag: SBF Visa

Having a blast on Dynamite

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Preface

The last time, I have visited Freizeitpark Plohn, I was not at all impressed by its missing professionalism in some points. I had never issues paying with my Girocard (a German Debit Card) before and since there was not an ATM nearby, I had to drive to the nearby town of Lengenfeld just to get some cash and stand one more time in the queue before finally being able to pay my entrance ticket. This time, I tried to pay online and due to the system in use, it was not at all easy to do so on the phone. It took me several attempts – yet at the end, it worked.

Freizeitpark Plohn

With a good mood, I started my day at the new entrance area to the park, which is now situated right next to the water ride Fluch des Teutates. The Rafting by abc rides gets a good crowd during the first hours of operation, while the area close to the original entrance stays deserted for the most part of the day.

Drachenwirbel

Here we find the small SBF Visa spinning coaster Drachenwirbel. Like most of the installations in Germany, this also comes in the three-loop design, whereby upwards leading righthand curves always change into a downwards leading lefthand curve. Due to the change of direction, the cars quickly get into a rotation. After several laps the ride on the Drachenwirbel comes to an stop and we can exit the ride.

Dynamite

The second and largest addition to the park Freizeitpark Plohn in recent years is the Mack Rides Big Dipper Coaster Dynamite. The ride is situated for most part on the land of the former Silver Mine roller coaster and reuses parts of the queue. The coaster itself is a lot bigger and offers an interesting layout.

After climbing the ride’s lift, the coaster starts with a Dive Drop, whereby the car is slowly rotated around its own axis before it plunges to the ground. At full speed we now pass through a building which gives a great near miss and race over a bunny hop shortly thereafter. A steep curve now leads us upwards. After a more conventional drop, we then enter a righthand curve close to the ground. On a small hill we rapidly change direction before entering Dynamite’s loop. We then pass the ride’s entrance in a Zero-G Roll. Finally, we now circle around the HUSS Break Dance Westernrodeo before hitting the brakes.

Dynamite is a nice addition to the park. The Big Dipper offers a great, albeit short layout which offers a well-defined play of forces. There is only one issue: It does not have a good capacity. With a total of just two cars for up to eight people, the queue can get quite long. Especially, when only one of them is in operation and can only be loaded by a maximum of 4 people due to the Covid-19 regulations. Therefore, I only rode this Mack product once.

Pictures Freizeitpark Plohn

Closing Words

As the Saxonians did not really care about Covid and only a few respected the rules, I left the park early. Overall, I had a good visit to Freizeitpark Plohn. Yet, I was not overly impressed on how El Toro developed in recent years. This coaster is by far one of the roughest wooden coasters, I have been on and to my luck, I had to ride it twice in a row as the ride operation gave an encore. Apart of that, the park’s operations were good, and I am willing to come back once everything is back to normal.

 

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Freizeitpark Plohn

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.

 

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Skyline Park

Rushing through the Black Forest

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Tatzmania Löffingen

The history of the Tatzmania Löffingen animal and amusement park began in 2017, when the former Schwarzwaldpark was taken over by the Braun family. In order to separate it from the Steinwasen Park, which also belonged to the Braun family, it was decided to operate the park as a zoo instead of a wildlife park from now on. Both parks have a small selection of rides in common.

African Spin

While Steinwasen Park offers a small selection of exquisite rides, Tatzmania focuses on quantity from SBF Visa. The focus here is mainly on rides for smaller children, including the park’s first roller coaster: the African Spin.

The compact spinning coaster has a layout with three loops that merge into one another, so you are constantly alternating between upwards leading right turns and downwards leading left turns. The cars are spinning quite well – but the ride is not too wild. Rather, it becomes more tedious lap by lap, so that after the seventh lap at the latest, you really want to get off.

Gold Rusher

Fortunately, there is also a bobsled coaster from Gerstlauer at Tatzmania Löffingen. The compact roller coaster Gold Rusher is a fair bit wilder and can boast a multitude of drops and tight curves.

The ride on Gold Rusher begins quite leisurely. After the bar – for whatever reason – has been pressed down far too hard, we immediately enter a bend and then a small dip. After passing the maintenance hut, we approach the lift hill of the ride in a short right turn. Having barely reached the starting height of 16m, we immediately plunge down into a steep turn towards the ground. Far above it, however, we soon climb up again. After a short block brake, we go through two hairpin bends before a wide curve takes us into the next braking area. In another downhill helix we now come very close to the ground. We then gain height quite smoothly in a right-hand bend before we speed through a depression. Shortly afterwards, we pass through the next braking area. Now it’s over hill and dale, once across the ride. We first race through a left-hand bend before we are lifted out of our seats a little in a series of camelbacks. A final right turn leads us into the final brakes of the roller coaster.

The Gold Rusher is a really nice family coaster that seems tailor-made for the park. The ride is not too big and not too small either, which allows it to successfully entertain a large part of the family audience at Tatzmania Löffingen.

Papageienflug

Something I can’t think of on the next ride. The Papageienflug, formerly Eagle Fly, is – at least in theory – an interactive rollover carousel from SBF Visa, in which two smaller gondola arms whirl around a large boom. These are raised hydraulically at the start of the ride, which means that the ride is always at a very steep angle. Now, however, the riding position is – if you do nothing – very uncomfortable. So you use the small joystick, but it takes some time before the motor reacts. Now the gondola turns very slowly, which, superimposed on the ride’s motion, results in a very uncomfortable ride.

For several reasons, I highly doubt whether this ride is a joy to behold. On the one hand, the ride is hardly compatible with the family audience of the amusement park. On the other hand, at the time of its opening, the ride looked like two swastikas rotating in the air. Thanks to the modification, in which half of the gondolas were dismantled, this is no longer apparent today, but the negative publicity remains.

As an engineer, I also find it very hard to believe that none of the people in charge at SBF Visa were aware of this during the design of the ride. I also find it hard to believe that the distributor did not see this. I hope, narrow-mindedly at least, that some heads rolled and that the park operator got out of it with a good deal without any major damage.

None of this would have happened if they had relied on the tried and tested products from Gerstlauer. If they had, they would have a ride that was equally well received by every member of the family. Now you have a ride in the park that visitors ride – if at all – only once. Yay!

Pictures Tatzmania Löffingen

Conclusion Tatzmania Löffingen

Tatzmania Löffingen, you have potential. As a zoo, I actually liked you quite a bit, even if you still remind me very strongly of the former game park. The redesigned enclosures near the entrance are at least pretty well done. If you were to focus on quality instead of quantity in your amusement park section and could keep your monkeys in the enclosure, then there would be a reason to visit you more often.

 

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Tatzmania Löffingen