Updated: Top Gun - The Jet Coaster - Post #20

[Beldin]

Paramount Carowinds has something new. Probably all the Paramount parks are going to be doing this. You can purchase a DVD of your ride experience. They have mounted digital cameras on the train and now film your ride.

Top Gun is an excellent ride and since they had a special on the DVD today, I figured, "What the heck?", and I bought the DVD. It came with a pretty lame music track, so I got rid of that and added some appropriate music.

I've got the video on my server and you can download it here (http://68.209.88.219/coaster_rides/top_gun_the_jet_coaster.wmv). It's just over 12MB in size.

I'll be posting the video on Google Video and on Myspace after I post this message.

Edit: The video is now available on Myspace. You can view it here (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=960279301&n=2).

Edit again: Now available at google video here (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1908141216372064387&q=belgarath&hl=en).

[infiniteblue]

Wow, I see the practice of on-ride photos has been upgraded. This looks like an interesting souvenir!

[Alpengeist]

Actually, that was a pretty good video. Top Gun is a fun coaster, a little short, but still fun.

...and if someone can confirm this, doesn't Sheikra at BGA have something like this?

[Beldin]

Top Gun is, in my opinion, the best ride there is at Carowinds. Yes, it's a little short, but there are plenty of inversions and good G forces. It's also very smooth (I haven't met a B&M coaster that I didn't like.)

The Vortex is ok, but it's even shorter than Top Gun. I'm not partial to stand up coasters, either. The Carolina Cyclone is ok, though it's short, too. I guess the two longest rides are the Hurler and Thunder Road. After getting beat to death on Thunder Road, I've passed by the Hurler, too.

Ricochet had me for lunch today. I dunno why, but they've got one of the block brakes set to stop the car so fast that you can't help but bruise your ribs on the lapbar. I'm gonna be sore for a while.

[Alpengeist]

Yea, Top Gun is my favorite at the park too.

[-NGS-]

Very cool video Beldin. I don't see why you say Top Gun is short- the ride altogether is something like 2:20, and the Vortex is 2:10. Did you ride Thunder Road forwards or backwards? I love both personally. I don't care much for the Cyclone; it beats my head up too much. I'm also fairly depressed that you didn't try the Hurler. It's a very fun ride if you know how to hold your head.

[Beldin]

I had planned on riding The Hurler today, but after getting my ribs bruised on Ricochet, I decided to wait until next time.

rcdb.com lists Top Gun at 2:47, but I don't think it's that long. They list Vortex at 2:19.

[okinawaboy11]

PKD was going to get that system this year. But it never happened.

[littlelolligagged]

That's really cool. It's too bad SFoG isn't doing that - I'm thinking about taking my daughter next week (if it's not as miserably hot as it was this week) and I'd love to have her very first coaster ride immortalized on DVD.

[aennilQ]

Yeah, really. I just went on Superman: Ride of Steel (SFNE) a week ago, and I wish i could have seen my face. The onride shot had someone's arm in front of my face. SO yeah, that would be a cool system. Cost alot, though? Cameras on every car?

[Alpengeist]

^I think it's one camera per two seats, and that would be two cameras per row.

[okinawaboy11]

^ Well, depending if it's a 2 seat or 4 seat coaster.

[Alpengeist]

^True, but I think he was asking about Top Gun.;)

[Beldin]

You can see one of the cameras for the row behind me. It's over my right shoulder between the seats.

[okinawaboy11]

Are they big and bulky? Or are they like lipstick camera's?

[Beldin]

They aren't big. They are round, about 3" in diameter and about 3" to 4" long. The electronics packages are mounted under the seats so the cameras themselves aren't that big. I believe there are actually two cameras mounted in the housing (one for each seat). There are 2 camera housings for each row. I'll be going back in a couple of weeks and I'll make sure to get a good photo of the camera.

Edit: now that I look at it again, I guess that there is one camera that covers two seats so each housing has just one camera.

[Harpo]

...and if someone can confirm this, doesn't Sheikra at BGA have something like this?

Yes, Sheikra does have a DVD available of the rides. From what I could tell, it uses fixed video cameras at a variety of spots throughout the ride, then combines them into one video. I didn't purchase it, so I don't know how the final video would come out.

[coasterdude89]

If you do not want to get jerked to death on hurler and Tunder Road, here are my secrets for smooth rides.

On thunder road only ride in the middle seat of each car. It is ultra smooth.

On Hurler only ride in the front car. It is not rough and you have tons of ejector airtime and speed.

Ricochet usually does not stop you so fast. It depends on how mnay cars are on the track and there location. Ricochet can fly when the brakes don't break you!

Really cool video. Personally I wouldn't have one, well maybe, since I go about once a week. Top Gun is my favorite coaster at the park.

[Squid2]

Final video on Sheikra comes out pretty well. There are five fixed cameras from offride... 1st drop, bottom of 1st drop, 2nd drop, water fantail section, (have no idea what to call that section,) brake run. The rest of the ride is b roll film POV. There's some cheezy animation at the front and the back of the video. But it's a cool souvenier. I do recommend getting one, but only on clear, sunny days... that way, your video sections match the POV parts.

Squid2

[Beldin]

I edited the video and removed all the movie content. It's a little shorter (of course) and I think I like it better than the original.

My server (a little slow since I've only got 384kbps up), but it's top quality.
Click here (http://68.209.88.219/coaster_rides/topgun_edit.wmv)
Note: You may want to right-click and save the file to your computer rather than trying to stream it from my server. It may get choppy.

Myspace (quite a bit faster) but the quality is reduced.
Click here (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoID=1002825666&Mytoken=E8882048-A21A-1029-41D17B4E05DC95A216459264)

Google Video
Click here (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3925393913808374102&hl=en)

[weasel497]

I rode Top Gun at PGA and It was a blast! One of my "Must Ride's"