I first rode it when I was around 8, pretty good but it lashed my neck back and forth on the loops because I didn't keep my head back. Right now, it's a really solid Arrow Looper and it's a must ride every time I go to BGW (unless my neck hurts like hell or i have a headache)
I think the reason why it is so smooth is arrow really used longer and more gentle transitions. It seems that in the early days when this was more experimental They were treating it with the respect that they needed to in taking their time for the transitions. I think what hurt them later on is they start to shortcut things and they got careless on the transitions.
“Please don’t turn the video off” comment on Viper getting an honorable mention is a perfect example of what makes Air Time Thrills such a phenomenal Coaster Enthusiast
It absolutely baffling to me how Canyon Blaster is all around a smooth ride. I rode it a couple weeks ago during a heatwave on the west coast, and when I rode it, the transition between the second Loop and corkscrews absolutely banged my neck around, other than that the ride was FOR THE MOST PART, pretty smooth.
Its hauling so much during that time it makes sense that itd be a little rough there on the transition. I hate to advicate for trims, but it probably needs one there
yeah, now today we have stupid names like "loop coaster" "wonder woman coaster" "jersey devil coaster" like then it was the big thing of a new "ride" that became the star attractions of parks. Today they think we are dumb and don't know what is and isn't a coaster lol (though ik the gp doesn't sometimes XD).
@@oneandonlysound3453 Six Flags has always had dumb naming conventions. Talking about any superhero-themed ride gets confusing because every Six Flags park reuses the same names. Then came the issue of calling the superloops "coasters," which was embarrassing, but no one was really surprised because it's Six Flags. Jersey Devil would have been a fantastic name if they didn't tack "coaster" at the end of it. Kinda ruins the vibe.
The Boomerang at Weiner Prater in Austria has got LAP BARS and it's such a fun experience. So many old arrow/vekomas could be enhanced by simply not having those huge collar restraints- the parisian Space Mountain improved significantly when they switched to vest restrains too!
Even though it's 2 decades old, phantom's revenge is the smoothest coaster I've ridden. Same with Phoenix. The ride is 75 years old and is smoother than most steel coasters
Well with Wooden coasters it's all about maintenance and Knoebels literally retracts Phoenix every year. They own their own lumber yard so they get lumber at whole sale price
@@thrillshaveabeard Kennywood: Yes, we are gonna use some glorified mystical tools we found at the bottom of the ravine and make a coaster genie retrack the coasters for us everyday! Manager: Wait, where did the coaster genie come from? Kennywood: From the mystical tools we found at the ravine? Manager: Yeah, but what ritual did you use to summon the genie? Kennywood: Listen, I need you to get ALL THE Way of my back for the genie summoning! Manager: OK, I'm gonna get off of that thing!
I made my first visit to Kennywood earlier this month and was expecting to get beat up because of all the older/classic coasters, but was pleasantly surprised at how smooth and well maintained they all seemed to be. Wish I could have made it a little earlier before they took out several of their historic flatrides...
I agree, Viper was surprisingly smooth when I rode it in 2015. I was queued for X2 with Bronze flash pass and rode it like 5 times in a row as there's never really a queue. It was really enjoyable.
I got to ride The Lochness Monster way back in ‘94 or ‘95 ...certainly a memorable experience. Of course The Big Bad Wolf took the cake and I really liked the wooden coaster Grizzly (?) as well. I sure would like to make another trip to BGWV someday as there are so many more coasters there to enjoy now. great video as always. Thank You 😎💯✨
Viper, I can see, but Demon? Corkscrew at Valleyfair is a similar model ride, but it is butter smooth. Demon is rough. I still enjoy it, but calling it smooth is a stretch
I know it's a brand new GCI, but Mystic Timbers really impressed me with how smooth it is. I love when wooden coasters make it a fun sort of defensive riding rather than trying to not get beaten up
Grizzly shocked me this year with how smooth it was! As for Loch Ness(same trip) I felt the one rough spot was the transitions into the loops other than that glass smooth.
I 1000% agree on Canyon Blaster, I went to ride it thinking "Oh another arrow looper here we go" and came off impressed! Ended up getting multiple laps because not only is it smooth, but it's the best-paced arrow looper I've ridden!
I went to Kennywood for the first time last week and couldn’t agree more about their rides. Those old woodies were unbelievably smooth. And Phantoms Revenge is a top 5 coaster for me!
KW is my home park and feel lucky to have a great collection of coasters, old and new, that don't give u head aches! Jack rabbit is over 100 years old and smooth!
canyon blaster's one of my favorite coasters and honestly yeah, i was also surprised by how smooth it was. at the time it was the oldest coaster i had ever ridden, so i was expecting it to at least show its age... but it's probably one of my favorite thrill rides i've ever been on, especially considering(other than the end)it was REALLY smooth
I also remember Canyon Blaster being surprisingly smooth for an Arrow looper. I was pleasantly surprised by the Santa Cruz Giant Dipper as well (but definitely NOT the San Diego one).
I've been on Giant Dipper in Santa Cruz, and I remember thinking it was going to be rough just because of how old it is, but the park does maintain it really well, so it ended up being a lot smoother than I was expecting. Also a pretty fun ride, despite it's relatively short height.
Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It's almost 100 years old at this point as well (and located next to a corrosive body of water) but the boardwalk maintains it so meticulously that you would never know it.
I expect steel coasters to be smooth, but I like a little roughness from wooden coasters. Not bone jarring, teeth rattling bumps, just a little rattle, which adds to the ride experience. BTW, The Beast is the smoothest wooden I have ever been on.😎
Nessie is so good, it was my first ever coaster and it's been giving me great rides ever since. There's a bit of jankiness here and there, especially where it had to be rewelded, but it's so much smoother than Alpengeist, which is a whole 19 years newer.
Kennywood is my home park and I’ve marathoned phantom 12 times at once when no one was in line and it was and always has been glass smooth. The back seat is so intense with that ejector at the end. Thanks for putting it and thunderbolt on the list :)
Boulder Dash front row ride was surprisingly very smooth for an out of control, 60 mph terrain wood coaster with so many pops and sustained floater moments. Butter smooth compared to Wildcat next door which tried to kill me lol
Agree with all the coasters you mentioned that I've also ridden, which is most of them. One I've said has gotten smoother as of late too is Racer 75 (Rebel Yell) at Kings Dominion. If you stop at Lake Winnie, Cannon Ball is on my list of surprisingly smooth coasters too.
I think peoples height/weight is a big factor in ride experience, especially with OTS restraints. I recently rode Corkscrew at Silverwood in the back and it wasn't bad at all considering it was Arrow's first Corkscrew
And best of all, sidewinder got rethemed to jolly ranchers and was beautifully decorated! And although comet has somewhat of a rattle, it adds to the experience!
Viper at Great America is an underrated coaster. It has some good airtime and going through the support structure provides some good head chopper elements. The only thing going against it is the PTC trains. I'd like to see them get some Millennium Flyers or Timberliners on it.
Energylandia (Poland) has a new SLC with the new vekoma trains. Having walibi Holland as my home park, which has the very first SLC ever built (design even contains some weird kinks removed from future installments) which is rough as hell, the one in Energylandia caught me by surprise by how smooth it was.
I don't know how many times I've said this, but I rode Viper in 2019 and LOVED it, even though I'm short. It's at least a top seven in the park after TC, X2, Riddler's Revenge, Tatsu, Full Throttle and Superman Escape from Krypton. As for Cyclone at Luna Beach: whilst most coaster enthusiasts on CZcams today have never ridden it, it looks to me like the best roller coaster ever built when it was built in 1927. I 2014 when I was merely a latent coaster enthusiast, my aunt took me to Luna Beach to ride the cyclone because her 2nd home was in Brooklyn. Unfortunately: it was a week day in September, so when we were riding the subway there, neither of us realized that everything was closed, due to it being a weekday in September. It's extra intriguing because in 2014 I merely a latent coaster enthusiast who wasn't even trying to ride coasters, yet my aunt tried to take me there to ride The Cyclone, which I still have not yet ridden to this day and very much hope to ride! (That says a lot about my Aunt, especially considering she's had a stoke since then, but I don't wanna make you sad.) Phantom's Revenge has the biggest single increase in DROP in 1991 (when it was known as Steel Phantom) over the coaster with the biggest drop before it: MAX XL-200 with a drop of 194.7'. That means that Steel Phantom was the 1st TRUE hyper coaster when it opened in 1991 with a drop of 220' and a max speed of 85 miles an hour, beating out Max XL-200 by 11 MPH. The last thing I wanna mention is that some enthusiasts will claim some coasters at Kennywood other people don't like are still smooth. To that I can say that everyone seem to think Phantom's Revenge is surprisingly smooth, and either other people (or some of the same people) also seem to think the old wooden coasters are also not only smooth, but even smoother. Having never been there myself, what else can I say, (other than I really wanna ride Phantom's Revenge?). Thanks for posting this, Chris, you bring well thought out entertainment for people with at least half decent brains who may also be going though a hard time. I loved this video, Thanks for posing! Keep up the great work and much love.
When I first started riding Canobie Lake Park's Yankee Cannonball, it was fairly rattly as you'd expect from a woodie installed in 1936. Several years ago, though, it got a major overhaul and since then it has been practically glass-smooth. Some enthusiasts complain that that work also robbed it of force and call it ruined, but I don't really think so--and I do think the change has kept it a very popular ride with the general public.
I missed Sidewinder this past Saturday. Would’ve ridden it as the last ride of the day, but I wanted my brother to get on his first looping coaster. Good to know it’s not a headache. I’d also say out of all the woodies I’ve ridden, Wild One is my all time favorite. Definitely a smooth, fun floater machine.
I just went to holiday world the other day, and people had said that legend had been running great in recent years. I’ve had my ups and downs with legend, and hearing that it had been running great, me and my friend had no hesitation waiting for the back seat. The first half of the ride was alright, but it was the second half that through me through a blinder. Everybody knows about the pot hole at the bottom of the turn around, and I was expecting that. But it was during the helix that really hurt. Me and my friend jokingly said we hated each other for doing this while we were in the tunnels. Then the final turn around into the station felt like I was riding on jagged rails. 😕 maybe I caught it on a bad day, because I’ve had good rides (and bad rides) on legend but this experience had to be a 3/10. And thats being generous cause the first half wasn’t really all that great.
Phantom's Revenge is a coaster that's definitely improved by its (let's be honest, almost nonexistent and borderline illegal) restraint. A seat belt and a pool noodle are all that are holding you in. If it still had the Arrow OTSR's it originally came with, that ejector barrage at the end would make you vomit before you hit the brakes.
I love Thunderbolt! I rode it for the first time back in August as my last ride of the night, and other than a bit of rattle going up the lift hill (and my dad went "ooogh" on the last turn), it was such a blast. As it was the end of the day, I got two great rides on it. Can't wait til next year!
Kennywood is my home park and I have been riding Thunderbolt for my whole life. It’s a good ride, but it is very rough. I can’t understand how anyone would think that it’s smooth.
Rode Wild One a few weeks ago and while maybe the my best rides ever on it, would not call it smooth. But while one of the most violent rides I have experienced, all the best way possible. No jackhammering, washboarding or nonsense, just hard ejective pops, train slamming back down to the track, laterals during airtime, the bumps skating over the top of the weak air hill, and of course the ridiculous helix.
I went on Viper (SFMM) a couple weeks ago, and fuck did my neck hurt afterwards. My dad was ready to leave after that ride, but I got him to go on one more after that. It was way more rough than my backwards 2014 ride on Batman.
7:33 no joke the only coaster to ever make me cry was when I rode the Giant Dipper at the San Diego beach. As a lil child and it being rough as all hell, it scared me both mentally and still to this day a lil bit physically on my leg too lol
Just got a back row ride on Magnum 45 minutes ago and WOW it was so smooth. The track work was very Arrow-esque, but the train ran on the track very smoothly, and not to mention the airtime HOLY CRAP. I've ridden Magnum quite a few times before, and every single one was really rough and uncomfortable, but after my latest ride this is a very solid #4 in the park as opposed to #8.
It all depends on where you ride, the third row of each car is to be avoided at all costs on Arrow coasters with three rows. That's why Gemini beat him up, he sat in the third row of a car
had the opposite experience at Kings Island a few weeks ago. The Beast has never been smooth but something's wrong with it this year, it nearly broke my spine. My ride in 2017 was nothing like that.
I visited Magic Mountain for the first time yesterday, and here’s my opinions on the coasters I was able to ride. Revolution - More fun than I expected, a nice and easy start to my day, good operations. Ninja - Underwhelming, but fun for what it had to offer. (Rode twice). West Coast Racers - My new favorite steel coaster. Smooth, exciting, and fun. My first dueling, launch, and möbius coaster. (Rode twice). Scream - Fun & smooth. Medusa is better (SFDK). My third ever B&M floor-less. Twisted Colossus - The second most intense coaster I’ve ever been on next to X2. I had fun but I wasn’t used to the restraints as I felt I was going to fly out of my seat. I got a headache afterwards, but otherwise it’s in my top 5. X2 - The most intense coaster I’ve ever ridden. I got a night ride without my glasses, so I really couldn’t see what was coming 😅. It was really fun and scary. My first 4th dimension coaster, winged coaster, and my first coaster (not launched) over 70 mph. I missed the others but will try and ride them next time I visit. Magic Mountain was really fun and lived up to expectations. Your channel helped me get here. AirTimeThrills helped to spark my passion for rollercoasters and I thank you for that.
0:53 yeah abt that…. When they renovated it to twister III I found it extremely rough. I believe it’s an issue with the newer style trains because I didn’t have that issue with twister II.
It cracks me up that you know a ride will “destroy” you and you give it more chances! You’re brave. If a ride hurts, I’m done with it for good. Did ride Mean Streak one last time tho when it was announced it was getting axed haha
Sometimes you don't even want smooth rides because I've found that rough ones make the ride more aggressive. A good example of this is Boss at Six Flags St Louis.
Viper is a crazy underrated coaster at Great America. If Raging Bull didn't give you the airtime you were expecting from a B&M hyper (and this is coming from a fan of that coaster), then look no further than the coaster that's right next to it. Viper is butter-smooth for a wooden coaster and has some of the best airtime a Cylone knockoff could possibly offer.
Literally everyone says Orion has a rattle and then there are the Ohio natives who can marathon banshee, Orion and diamondback without making one comment on the rattle😂
Kennywood has great ops now. Phantom never stacks and they are ready to dispatch when it’s going through the turnaround. Jack Rabbit dispatches in about 45 seconds. Sky Rocket dispatches in like 30 seconds. Only Steel Curtain has bad dispatches, but I hear they are doing better after my last trip.
That’s great to hear. It’s such a great, old-school park aside from past operations. I mean, I still loved the place even when the one-train ops on Phantom’s irritated me, but if they had great ops, a lot more people would love the park.
@@AirtimeThrills That did happen on some occasions. If you look at the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, they both ran 1 train. Steel Curtain valleyed in early test runs and they had to fix the 33 train and Phantom can only run 1 train in the rain. That day, it didn't matter since it wasn't busy.
Great to hear. My only visit to Kennywood had some awful ops. 1 train on Phantom on a Saturday... then they decided to add the 2nd train in the afternoon and had to stop operations for about 20 minutes to do all the opening checklists and test cycles on the 2nd train. Rather than doing it in the morning and having the 2nd train ready to go if needed.
The smoothest part of this video was saying that in your opinion Viper is pretty smooth. I disagree with you on it being smooth but will give you a thumbs up for being honest. ❤ 😄
I just rode Viper about 2 weeks ago and I was actually surprised at how fast it’s declined. I used to love Viper also but this last time it almost made me pass out because of how much it was throwing me around against the restraints and the side
I love how he talks about how smooth some of the wooden coasters are and the POV looks like it was filmed during an earthquake. I'd rather save the headache and just ride an RMC hybrid.
Funny, I was just at hershey park last month and comet beat the crap out of us and made some ungodly sound on the first drop. It's incredible how different rides can be just based on days or weeks without even accounting for maintenance
4:05 - the real irony of this is that I've ridden Anaconda 3 times this year (2 very front, 1 very back), and for some reason, it's nowhere near as tough as I remembered it being when I first rode it in 2014. It actually had a 30-minute line when I went to KD this past weekend.
Anaconda is a simple coaster to learn to ride defensively but it can be expensive on your head to learn. Nessie has more little bangs and jolts, and not much you can do for the spine-jarring bounce out the loops except avoid the (otherwise excellent) back rows.
I personally found the Timber Wolf to be less rough than Thunder Run, especially after they took the helix out of the TW. But I love both of those Dinn Corps. I'm biased though about which one is better, I grew up with the TW across the highway from my house. And I actually loved the helix unlike my cousin who I always tricked into riding on the left side of the car.
Loch Ness Monster is probably very smooth because the ride isn't pushed very hard. The ride has a very mine-train like layout with most of the elements relatively high up, and its interlocking loops being the only parts of the ride to exhibit significant amounts of force. The turns are relatively high up and thus taken relatively slow, so any jankiness in the transitions into those turns isn't as noticeable. In turn, the fact that the train isn't getting jerked around is also easier on the wheeltrucks.
I rode Nessie at Busch Gardens for my first time in 2004 and thought it was smooth then. Last week I finally got a chance to go back to Busch Gardens after 17 years and Nessie still wowed me with how smooth it is for 1. It’s age and 2. It being an Arrow. That park takes good care of their rides and a bunch of other things to say the least
I appreciate the shout out to Kennywood, my home park. The last few years have been rough as far as the park and operations. They’re going through a sort of a Renaissance in 2021 with people actually being used to welcome you on the rides instead of recordings… More employees… Two trains on coasters more often. Yes it is home, but like I said the last few years have been pretty bad, I’m glad they are trying to make a comeback. Phantoms revenge is a modern classic. I will disagree with Hoosier hurricane, The legend and Thunder Run. I have not been on The Legend since the re-track and I really just do not like thunder run. As far as Hoosier Hurricane, Hopefully I’ll get to go on that this summer since they fixed it up a bit.
Legend has been running better than it ever has. Yeah it has definite rough spots, but honestly It's still really enjoyable, and quite intense. Also as a side note, sitting on the left side of the train is more comfortable than the right side. I'd also like to acknowledge how smooth Raven is with the re-profile of the Lake Turn. It's a night and day difference from 2020 in terms of smoothness.
Maybe it was just the ride I got but I rode wild one in 2020 and I got bounced around a ton. And there was even a literal drop off the brake run where the track wasn’t aligned right.
There's a 100-year-old woodie at Tivoli Gardens in Denmark called Rutschebanen that is perfectly smooth. No coaster has aged quite like it.
Man's just casually been to Denmark
And it has great airtime.
To be fair, though, the coaster has been reworked quite a lot over the decades.
I wouldn’t know because I have never rode one but I think scenic railways are smooth because they put less stress on the track
That ride is amazing. Never been on one where they have a brake operator working on every train. That takes some real training.
Yeah I’ve heard it’s one of the best coasters in Denmark aswell. Yeah it’s aged very very well.
Canyon Blaster wouldn’t be exposed to rain or snow even without the dome. It’s pain living in Vegas
That sun is brutal tho
I live in Vegas
Loch Ness Monster has no business still being that good, and yet….
That was my first coaster as a kid in the mid 80s. A true masterpiece.
I first rode it when I was around 8, pretty good but it lashed my neck back and forth on the loops because I didn't keep my head back. Right now, it's a really solid Arrow Looper and it's a must ride every time I go to BGW (unless my neck hurts like hell or i have a headache)
I think the reason why it is so smooth is arrow really used longer and more gentle transitions. It seems that in the early days when this was more experimental They were treating it with the respect that they needed to in taking their time for the transitions. I think what hurt them later on is they start to shortcut things and they got careless on the transitions.
When your Monday is horrible and Airtime Thrills saves your day with a freshly baked coaster video
“Please don’t turn the video off” comment on Viper getting an honorable mention is a perfect example of what makes Air Time Thrills such a phenomenal Coaster Enthusiast
It absolutely baffling to me how Canyon Blaster is all around a smooth ride. I rode it a couple weeks ago during a heatwave on the west coast, and when I rode it, the transition between the second Loop and corkscrews absolutely banged my neck around, other than that the ride was FOR THE MOST PART, pretty smooth.
Its hauling so much during that time it makes sense that itd be a little rough there on the transition. I hate to advicate for trims, but it probably needs one there
@@AirtimeThrills i'm 100% inclined to agree
You know a roller coaster is old when it's just called "Roller Coaster"
yeah, now today we have stupid names like "loop coaster" "wonder woman coaster" "jersey devil coaster" like then it was the big thing of a new "ride" that became the star attractions of parks. Today they think we are dumb and don't know what is and isn't a coaster lol (though ik the gp doesn't sometimes XD).
@@oneandonlysound3453 Six Flags has always had dumb naming conventions. Talking about any superhero-themed ride gets confusing because every Six Flags park reuses the same names. Then came the issue of calling the superloops "coasters," which was embarrassing, but no one was really surprised because it's Six Flags. Jersey Devil would have been a fantastic name if they didn't tack "coaster" at the end of it. Kinda ruins the vibe.
The Boomerang at Weiner Prater in Austria has got LAP BARS and it's such a fun experience. So many old arrow/vekomas could be enhanced by simply not having those huge collar restraints- the parisian Space Mountain improved significantly when they switched to vest restrains too!
Legend was running even better this year than last year.
Even though it's 2 decades old, phantom's revenge is the smoothest coaster I've ridden. Same with Phoenix. The ride is 75 years old and is smoother than most steel coasters
Technically 3, even though only a lift hill.
Well with Wooden coasters it's all about maintenance and Knoebels literally retracts Phoenix every year. They own their own lumber yard so they get lumber at whole sale price
Wildcat was enjoyable even though I was expecting it to be terrible. It was quite rough but damn it’s underrated. Still way smoother than I thought.
same
So how hard is it going to maintain old wood coasters smooth?
Kennywood: Actually, it's going to be super easy, barely an inconvenience
Oh Really?!?
@@thrillshaveabeard Kennywood: Yes, we are gonna use some glorified mystical tools we found at the bottom of the ravine and make a coaster genie retrack the coasters for us everyday!
Manager: Wait, where did the coaster genie come from?
Kennywood: From the mystical tools we found at the ravine?
Manager: Yeah, but what ritual did you use to summon the genie?
Kennywood: Listen, I need you to get ALL THE Way of my back for the genie summoning!
Manager: OK, I'm gonna get off of that thing!
@@AlexandreSantos-yv2tj Wow wow wow wow....wow
HAHAHAH screen rant reference
It’s much easier to keep an old woodie smooth than an old steel coaster smooth, since it’s way easier to replace wood track
I made my first visit to Kennywood earlier this month and was expecting to get beat up because of all the older/classic coasters, but was pleasantly surprised at how smooth and well maintained they all seemed to be.
Wish I could have made it a little earlier before they took out several of their historic flatrides...
I rode Nemesis a few days ago and despite being 27 years old, it runs like a dream! Very smooth but more importantly it’s insanely intense
Honestly, for being in-house, The Beast is very smooth, almost as smooth as Mystic Timbers when I went in May.
I felt this way on Grizzly at King's Dominion back in 2019, I was blown away on how smooth she was and how much airtime she gave.
I’ve heard horror stories and idk if I was lucky or not that it was getting a retrack when I was at kd
Viper is awesome. Intense but not very rough, happy to see it getting some appreciation.
I agree, Viper was surprisingly smooth when I rode it in 2015. I was queued for X2 with Bronze flash pass and rode it like 5 times in a row as there's never really a queue. It was really enjoyable.
I got to ride The Lochness Monster way back in ‘94 or ‘95 ...certainly a memorable experience. Of course The Big Bad Wolf took the cake and I really liked the wooden coaster Grizzly (?) as well. I sure would like to make another trip to BGWV someday as there are so many more coasters there to enjoy now. great video as always. Thank You 😎💯✨
Demon and Viper at Six Flags Great America always surprise me how smooth they are! I re-rode both a few weeks ago and they went WAY up in my rankings!
For me, Viper always changes. One day it will be surprisingly smooth. Another day, it will be really rough. I don't know why this is.
:(
Viper, I can see, but Demon? Corkscrew at Valleyfair is a similar model ride, but it is butter smooth. Demon is rough. I still enjoy it, but calling it smooth is a stretch
The Carowinds Boomerang is the smoothest I have been on. I found Sidewinder gave me a headache
Tornado is smoother than some B&M hypers ngl. Makes me wish that arrow was still around to make more intense coasters like tornado
I know it's a brand new GCI, but Mystic Timbers really impressed me with how smooth it is. I love when wooden coasters make it a fun sort of defensive riding rather than trying to not get beaten up
I rode MT for the first time last week, and was shocked by the forceful laterals that DIDN'T bruise my ribcage. Very smooth for a wooden coaster!
@@karlanderson7436 Agreed, it has great pacing too. MT was my first ride of the day on arrival (also first time riding) and it blew my mind.
Grizzly shocked me this year with how smooth it was! As for Loch Ness(same trip) I felt the one rough spot was the transitions into the loops other than that glass smooth.
I 1000% agree on Canyon Blaster, I went to ride it thinking "Oh another arrow looper here we go" and came off impressed! Ended up getting multiple laps because not only is it smooth, but it's the best-paced arrow looper I've ridden!
I agree about Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood. Other than it being short, it had some airtime and great forces!
Front row into the brakes…awesome airtime.
I went to Kennywood for the first time last week and couldn’t agree more about their rides. Those old woodies were unbelievably smooth. And Phantoms Revenge is a top 5 coaster for me!
KW is my home park and feel lucky to have a great collection of coasters, old and new, that don't give u head aches! Jack rabbit is over 100 years old and smooth!
Sidewinder gave me whiplash and hurt my shoulders. While comet is mostly smooth they had a pothole in the back last summer
canyon blaster's one of my favorite coasters and honestly yeah, i was also surprised by how smooth it was. at the time it was the oldest coaster i had ever ridden, so i was expecting it to at least show its age... but it's probably one of my favorite thrill rides i've ever been on, especially considering(other than the end)it was REALLY smooth
I also remember Canyon Blaster being surprisingly smooth for an Arrow looper. I was pleasantly surprised by the Santa Cruz Giant Dipper as well (but definitely NOT the San Diego one).
Chris: These are surprisingly smooth coasters
Everyone: Liar!!
I was used to how rough Georgia Cyclone was, so Viper at SFG America was a really nice surprise for me!
I've been on Giant Dipper in Santa Cruz, and I remember thinking it was going to be rough just because of how old it is, but the park does maintain it really well, so it ended up being a lot smoother than I was expecting. Also a pretty fun ride, despite it's relatively short height.
Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It's almost 100 years old at this point as well (and located next to a corrosive body of water) but the boardwalk maintains it so meticulously that you would never know it.
I expect steel coasters to be smooth, but I like a little roughness from wooden coasters. Not bone jarring, teeth rattling bumps, just a little rattle, which adds to the ride experience.
BTW, The Beast is the smoothest wooden I have ever been on.😎
Nessie is so good, it was my first ever coaster and it's been giving me great rides ever since. There's a bit of jankiness here and there, especially where it had to be rewelded, but it's so much smoother than Alpengeist, which is a whole 19 years newer.
Great shout out for my home park! Kennywood really does do a great job maintaining its coasters.
0:05
Chris: that coaster’s going to be great
Kings Island fanbrats: YOU’RE WRONG!
Wild One is a Dinn Corp coaster, it's also easily one of my favorite rides at SFA.
Kennywood is my home park and I’ve marathoned phantom 12 times at once when no one was in line and it was and always has been glass smooth. The back seat is so intense with that ejector at the end. Thanks for putting it and thunderbolt on the list :)
Boulder Dash front row ride was surprisingly very smooth for an out of control, 60 mph terrain wood coaster with so many pops and sustained floater moments. Butter smooth compared to Wildcat next door which tried to kill me lol
Agree with all the coasters you mentioned that I've also ridden, which is most of them. One I've said has gotten smoother as of late too is Racer 75 (Rebel Yell) at Kings Dominion. If you stop at Lake Winnie, Cannon Ball is on my list of surprisingly smooth coasters too.
I just got off of Viper at Great America. Good airtime, smooth ride, my personal number 3 in the park.
I think peoples height/weight is a big factor in ride experience, especially with OTS restraints. I recently rode Corkscrew at Silverwood in the back and it wasn't bad at all considering it was Arrow's first Corkscrew
And best of all, sidewinder got rethemed to jolly ranchers and was beautifully decorated! And although comet has somewhat of a rattle, it adds to the experience!
Viper at Great America is an underrated coaster. It has some good airtime and going through the support structure provides some good head chopper elements. The only thing going against it is the PTC trains. I'd like to see them get some Millennium Flyers or Timberliners on it.
Energylandia (Poland) has a new SLC with the new vekoma trains. Having walibi Holland as my home park, which has the very first SLC ever built (design even contains some weird kinks removed from future installments) which is rough as hell, the one in Energylandia caught me by surprise by how smooth it was.
I just with went to Kennywood this past weekend for the first time with some buddies and had a blast. I got to hit everything except thunderbolt.
I don't know how many times I've said this, but I rode Viper in 2019 and LOVED it, even though I'm short. It's at least a top seven in the park after TC, X2, Riddler's Revenge, Tatsu, Full Throttle and Superman Escape from Krypton.
As for Cyclone at Luna Beach: whilst most coaster enthusiasts on CZcams today have never ridden it, it looks to me like the best roller coaster ever built when it was built in 1927. I 2014 when I was merely a latent coaster enthusiast, my aunt took me to Luna Beach to ride the cyclone because her 2nd home was in Brooklyn. Unfortunately: it was a week day in September, so when we were riding the subway there, neither of us realized that everything was closed, due to it being a weekday in September. It's extra intriguing because in 2014 I merely a latent coaster enthusiast who wasn't even trying to ride coasters, yet my aunt tried to take me there to ride The Cyclone, which I still have not yet ridden to this day and very much hope to ride! (That says a lot about my Aunt, especially considering she's had a stoke since then, but I don't wanna make you sad.)
Phantom's Revenge has the biggest single increase in DROP in 1991 (when it was known as Steel Phantom) over the coaster with the biggest drop before it: MAX XL-200 with a drop of 194.7'. That means that Steel Phantom was the 1st TRUE hyper coaster when it opened in 1991 with a drop of 220' and a max speed of 85 miles an hour, beating out Max XL-200 by 11 MPH.
The last thing I wanna mention is that some enthusiasts will claim some coasters at Kennywood other people don't like are still smooth. To that I can say that everyone seem to think Phantom's Revenge is surprisingly smooth, and either other people (or some of the same people) also seem to think the old wooden coasters are also not only smooth, but even smoother. Having never been there myself, what else can I say, (other than I really wanna ride Phantom's Revenge?).
Thanks for posting this, Chris, you bring well thought out entertainment for people with at least half decent brains who may also be going though a hard time. I loved this video, Thanks for posing! Keep up the great work and much love.
When I first started riding Canobie Lake Park's Yankee Cannonball, it was fairly rattly as you'd expect from a woodie installed in 1936. Several years ago, though, it got a major overhaul and since then it has been practically glass-smooth. Some enthusiasts complain that that work also robbed it of force and call it ruined, but I don't really think so--and I do think the change has kept it a very popular ride with the general public.
Phantom's Revenge gets my vote. Also the Phantom's crew is among the best I've seen, as was the Jack Rabbit crew.
I missed Sidewinder this past Saturday. Would’ve ridden it as the last ride of the day, but I wanted my brother to get on his first looping coaster. Good to know it’s not a headache.
I’d also say out of all the woodies I’ve ridden, Wild One is my all time favorite. Definitely a smooth, fun floater machine.
I just went to holiday world the other day, and people had said that legend had been running great in recent years. I’ve had my ups and downs with legend, and hearing that it had been running great, me and my friend had no hesitation waiting for the back seat. The first half of the ride was alright, but it was the second half that through me through a blinder. Everybody knows about the pot hole at the bottom of the turn around, and I was expecting that. But it was during the helix that really hurt. Me and my friend jokingly said we hated each other for doing this while we were in the tunnels. Then the final turn around into the station felt like I was riding on jagged rails. 😕 maybe I caught it on a bad day, because I’ve had good rides (and bad rides) on legend but this experience had to be a 3/10. And thats being generous cause the first half wasn’t really all that great.
Phantom's Revenge is a coaster that's definitely improved by its (let's be honest, almost nonexistent and borderline illegal) restraint. A seat belt and a pool noodle are all that are holding you in. If it still had the Arrow OTSR's it originally came with, that ejector barrage at the end would make you vomit before you hit the brakes.
Agreed, best restraints on any hyper that I’ve ridden.
Just got on Tennessee Tornado yesterday. I was very surprised how smooth it was, and I found the ride actually very enjoyable!
Glad for the shout out to Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz, rode it on a whim in 2015 and it was unexpectedly awesome
I'm gonna make a prediction that Chris finds a way to insult Skyrush in this video
Wait for Thursday
Uh oh
@@AirtimeThrills Oh boy
Top ten coasters that were surprisingly rough...called it
@@AirtimeThrills oh good lord
I love Thunderbolt! I rode it for the first time back in August as my last ride of the night, and other than a bit of rattle going up the lift hill (and my dad went "ooogh" on the last turn), it was such a blast. As it was the end of the day, I got two great rides on it. Can't wait til next year!
Legend in the front is now a lateral king in the first half and an airtime machine in the second. Seriously insane.
Kennywood is my home park and I have been riding Thunderbolt for my whole life. It’s a good ride, but it is very rough. I can’t understand how anyone would think that it’s smooth.
Another surprisingly smooth woodie is Timber Wolf at Worlds of Fun. My personal favorite Dinn coaster
It’s his too.
@@DoswarePictures not anymore. Thunder Run overtook it. Has his press secretary been living under a rock recently?🤣
@@thequackenscoasterchannel2927 when was his most recent trip to KK?
@@DoswarePictures Keys to the Kindgom 2020
Rode Wild One a few weeks ago and while maybe the my best rides ever on it, would not call it smooth. But while one of the most violent rides I have experienced, all the best way possible. No jackhammering, washboarding or nonsense, just hard ejective pops, train slamming back down to the track, laterals during airtime, the bumps skating over the top of the weak air hill, and of course the ridiculous helix.
I went on Viper (SFMM) a couple weeks ago, and fuck did my neck hurt afterwards. My dad was ready to leave after that ride, but I got him to go on one more after that. It was way more rough than my backwards 2014 ride on Batman.
Viper treats everyone so different
Looping Star at Jolly Roger in Ocean City, Maryland is a PINFARI ZYKLON and is somehow smoother than 90% of coasters I’ve ridden
7:33 no joke the only coaster to ever make me cry was when I rode the Giant Dipper at the San Diego beach. As a lil child and it being rough as all hell, it scared me both mentally and still to this day a lil bit physically on my leg too lol
Just got a back row ride on Magnum 45 minutes ago and WOW it was so smooth. The track work was very Arrow-esque, but the train ran on the track very smoothly, and not to mention the airtime HOLY CRAP. I've ridden Magnum quite a few times before, and every single one was really rough and uncomfortable, but after my latest ride this is a very solid #4 in the park as opposed to #8.
It all depends on where you ride, the third row of each car is to be avoided at all costs on Arrow coasters with three rows. That's why Gemini beat him up, he sat in the third row of a car
If mind eraser isn’t on this list I will commit mind eraser
Pleeeeeeeeeeasebpost coaster cloud!!!! I will literally pay you to!!🎢☁️
had the opposite experience at Kings Island a few weeks ago. The Beast has never been smooth but something's wrong with it this year, it nearly broke my spine. My ride in 2017 was nothing like that.
Ive had specific rides on beast where itll just jackhammer me, but the ride just before that was fine
2019, it was okay. 2020, it was barely tolerable, and only in certain seats. This year, I finally said I'm done until a retrack.
I visited Magic Mountain for the first time yesterday, and here’s my opinions on the coasters I was able to ride.
Revolution - More fun than I expected, a nice and easy start to my day, good operations.
Ninja - Underwhelming, but fun for what it had to offer. (Rode twice).
West Coast Racers - My new favorite steel coaster. Smooth, exciting, and fun. My first dueling, launch, and möbius coaster. (Rode twice).
Scream - Fun & smooth. Medusa is better (SFDK). My third ever B&M floor-less.
Twisted Colossus - The second most intense coaster I’ve ever been on next to X2. I had fun but I wasn’t used to the restraints as I felt I was going to fly out of my seat. I got a headache afterwards, but otherwise it’s in my top 5.
X2 - The most intense coaster I’ve ever ridden. I got a night ride without my glasses, so I really couldn’t see what was coming 😅. It was really fun and scary. My first 4th dimension coaster, winged coaster, and my first coaster (not launched) over 70 mph.
I missed the others but will try and ride them next time I visit.
Magic Mountain was really fun and lived up to expectations.
Your channel helped me get here. AirTimeThrills helped to spark my passion for rollercoasters and I thank you for that.
Kennywood operations this year are so much better! The staff at the coasters have been amazing and have had great dispatch times.
0:53 yeah abt that…. When they renovated it to twister III I found it extremely rough. I believe it’s an issue with the newer style trains because I didn’t have that issue with twister II.
It cracks me up that you know a ride will “destroy” you and you give it more chances! You’re brave. If a ride hurts, I’m done with it for good.
Did ride Mean Streak one last time tho when it was announced it was getting axed haha
Sometimes you don't even want smooth rides because I've found that rough ones make the ride more aggressive.
A good example of this is Boss at Six Flags St Louis.
I want all my steel coasters butter smooth but I for one really like the woodies to throw me around a bit
Viper is a crazy underrated coaster at Great America. If Raging Bull didn't give you the airtime you were expecting from a B&M hyper (and this is coming from a fan of that coaster), then look no further than the coaster that's right next to it. Viper is butter-smooth for a wooden coaster and has some of the best airtime a Cylone knockoff could possibly offer.
“And at that speed, any kind of shakiness would wreak havoc on your head”
Orion has entered the building….
Literally everyone says Orion has a rattle and then there are the Ohio natives who can marathon banshee, Orion and diamondback without making one comment on the rattle😂
Front row was 🧈
Thank you for including canyon blaster, The ride is fantastic and is my number 3 arrow
Kennywood has great ops now. Phantom never stacks and they are ready to dispatch when it’s going through the turnaround. Jack Rabbit dispatches in about 45 seconds. Sky Rocket dispatches in like 30 seconds. Only Steel Curtain has bad dispatches, but I hear they are doing better after my last trip.
That’s great to hear. It’s such a great, old-school park aside from past operations. I mean, I still loved the place even when the one-train ops on Phantom’s irritated me, but if they had great ops, a lot more people would love the park.
Its good to see, i was watching someones story and they had 1 train on steel curtain and phantom on a weekend which is pretty maddening
@@AirtimeThrills That did happen on some occasions. If you look at the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, they both ran 1 train. Steel Curtain valleyed in early test runs and they had to fix the 33 train and Phantom can only run 1 train in the rain. That day, it didn't matter since it wasn't busy.
Great to hear. My only visit to Kennywood had some awful ops. 1 train on Phantom on a Saturday... then they decided to add the 2nd train in the afternoon and had to stop operations for about 20 minutes to do all the opening checklists and test cycles on the 2nd train. Rather than doing it in the morning and having the 2nd train ready to go if needed.
I was surprised how smooth Twister at Knoebels was. It look like it would be rough but amazingly smooth.
The smoothest part of this video was saying that in your opinion Viper is pretty smooth. I disagree with you on it being smooth but will give you a thumbs up for being honest. ❤ 😄
I appreciate the Wild One love, very underrated. It’s first airtime hill is borderline ejector
And that HELIX!?!? Damn son!
Racer 75 at KD was suprisingly smooth for me as well as Anaconda.
ikr, racer is hella smooth
Yes!👍
@@AmusementArchitect i was surprised by how smooth it was, i barley felt any roughness
Same!
@@AmusementArchitect i was there friday, my friend somehow stapled himself 😅
I just rode Viper about 2 weeks ago and I was actually surprised at how fast it’s declined. I used to love Viper also but this last time it almost made me pass out because of how much it was throwing me around against the restraints and the side
It's funny how you mention canyon blaster, when you look at the other two big coasters in Las Vegas
I love how he talks about how smooth some of the wooden coasters are and the POV looks like it was filmed during an earthquake. I'd rather save the headache and just ride an RMC hybrid.
As far as Arrow loopers go I’ve heard that Canyon Blaster is fantastic. I’m looking forward to riding it when I go to Vegas in September
Funny, I was just at hershey park last month and comet beat the crap out of us and made some ungodly sound on the first drop. It's incredible how different rides can be just based on days or weeks without even accounting for maintenance
loch ness monster is perfectly smooth, and they're retracking it anyway. that shows just how well they take care of it.
You ain't lying with canyon blaster. When I was younger I rode it 17 times in a row
4:05 - the real irony of this is that I've ridden Anaconda 3 times this year (2 very front, 1 very back), and for some reason, it's nowhere near as tough as I remembered it being when I first rode it in 2014. It actually had a 30-minute line when I went to KD this past weekend.
Anaconda is a simple coaster to learn to ride defensively but it can be expensive on your head to learn. Nessie has more little bangs and jolts, and not much you can do for the spine-jarring bounce out the loops except avoid the (otherwise excellent) back rows.
The slc at michigans adventure is very smooth and agressive
glad you mention Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
I rode Corkscrew at Cedar Point yesterday and I was surprised that it was smooth for me
People always complain about how rough corkscrew is, and I never come off it with any kind of headache. I just sit up straight.
I personally found the Timber Wolf to be less rough than Thunder Run, especially after they took the helix out of the TW. But I love both of those Dinn Corps. I'm biased though about which one is better, I grew up with the TW across the highway from my house. And I actually loved the helix unlike my cousin who I always tricked into riding on the left side of the car.
Loch Ness Monster is probably very smooth because the ride isn't pushed very hard. The ride has a very mine-train like layout with most of the elements relatively high up, and its interlocking loops being the only parts of the ride to exhibit significant amounts of force. The turns are relatively high up and thus taken relatively slow, so any jankiness in the transitions into those turns isn't as noticeable. In turn, the fact that the train isn't getting jerked around is also easier on the wheeltrucks.
I rode Nessie at Busch Gardens for my first time in 2004 and thought it was smooth then. Last week I finally got a chance to go back to Busch Gardens after 17 years and Nessie still wowed me with how smooth it is for 1. It’s age and 2. It being an Arrow. That park takes good care of their rides and a bunch of other things to say the least
I predicted half of the items on this list 🤣 Great Video!
I appreciate the shout out to Kennywood, my home park. The last few years have been rough as far as the park and operations. They’re going through a sort of a Renaissance in 2021 with people actually being used to welcome you on the rides instead of recordings… More employees… Two trains on coasters more often. Yes it is home, but like I said the last few years have been pretty bad, I’m glad they are trying to make a comeback. Phantoms revenge is a modern classic. I will disagree with Hoosier hurricane, The legend and Thunder Run. I have not been on The Legend since the re-track and I really just do not like thunder run. As far as Hoosier Hurricane, Hopefully I’ll get to go on that this summer since they fixed it up a bit.
Keep up the great work! I personally think that Tennessee Tornado was super rough and janky. I was not a big fan of it, but I support ur opinion!
Legend has been running better than it ever has. Yeah it has definite rough spots, but honestly It's still really enjoyable, and quite intense. Also as a side note, sitting on the left side of the train is more comfortable than the right side.
I'd also like to acknowledge how smooth Raven is with the re-profile of the Lake Turn. It's a night and day difference from 2020 in terms of smoothness.
Maybe it was just the ride I got but I rode wild one in 2020 and I got bounced around a ton. And there was even a literal drop off the brake run where the track wasn’t aligned right.