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What are your thoughts on sustained positive g’s/greying or blacking out?

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. From reading around various sites & forums, one thing I’ve noticed is that sustained positive g-forces, or moments on a coaster that make you grey or black out, seem to be quite a polarising sensation, with there being some who absolutely relish the sensation, but there also being others who aren’t a fan of it at all. It’s the reason why things like I305 and the Giovanola hypers, both coasters famous for their huge grey outs, are seemingly so marmite; from what I’ve heard, your like of those rides will likely rest largely on how you feel about grey outs/black outs. So my question to you today is; how do you feel about sustained positive g-forces, or moments that make you grey/black out?

Personally, I’d say it depends on the intensity of the grey out. I’d never say that it was a sensation I particularly enjoy (at best, sustained positives are a sensation I tolerate as opposed to relish), and I think I would enjoy the respective coasters they’re on a little more without them, but I can tolerate some moments of sustained positives better than I can others, and I’d say that that largely depends on the strength of the positives.

For instance, Swarm’s helicopter helix is a moment of fairly strong positives, and as much as I do love Swarm, I would controversially love it even more if this moment wasn’t there (or at least, wasn’t as intense), but it’s not so intense that it really detracts from the ride too much for me. It’s similar with moments like Nemesis’ helix; that’s a moment of fairly strong positives that I’d probably prefer if it wasn’t quite as intense, but it’s not so intense that it detracts massively from the ride for me.

Some other grey outs, on the other hand, really can detract from a ride for me. A particular one that comes to mind for me is Manta at SeaWorld Orlando, where it hurls you through that pretzel loop with what feels like absolutely ridiculous levels of g-force, and makes you grey out for a solid few seconds. I really didn’t enjoy that element at all, and I dare say it was a bit of a ride killer for me in Manta’s case. I’d also say that Revolution at Blackpool’s strong backwards g-forces were something I didn’t find the most pleasant; I’d certainly like that coaster a fair bit less if it wasn’t for the amazing bursts of ejector airtime.

Out of interest, do some of the notoriously grey out inducing coasters like I305 and the Giovanola hypers, as well as other notoriously intense grey outs like Lech Coaster, have positives that feel any more intense than the likes of Nemesis or Swarm? I’m guessing yes, and by a fair distance, given that neither of those coasters have anywhere near the same reputation for grey outs, but I was interested to discover whether Manta is only unpleasant and causes such an unpleasant sensation due to the riding position.

But in conclusion, I certainly wouldn’t say that sustained positives are a sensation I particularly enjoy. I can sometimes tolerate them, but I’d never say I look forward to or relish a moment of sustained positives on a ride, and they’re always moments I could live without on the rides that they’re on.

But how do you personally feel about sustained positives, or greyout moments?
 

solarfall

Mega Poster
I like positive G's. Rides without noticeable intensity feel flat to me.

I don't really gray out on that many rides. No ride on Titan, no batman clone, no Schwarzkopf loop has ever got me even close to graying out. The first overbank on Millie sometimes does it, and the very very end of the turnaround on i305 made me gray out a bit, but I'd hardly even take notice if coaster enthusiasts didn't talk about it all the time. It's more like a "oh hey would ya look at that" kind of deal than a "OH GOD I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE" thing. In general I feel like most enthusiasts exaggerate the sensation of positive G's.
 

TPC

Roller Poster
The closest I've been to greying out was the 2nd loop on Shaman in Gardaland. Didn't enjoy it whatsoever, so only ended up doing 1 ride on it.
 

Heth

Mega Poster
I am OK with brief bursts positive Gs but not a fan of long sustained G forces. I think Nemesis is around my limit, as I can ride it once and find myself a bit queasy after, but not to an extent that lasts beyond 30 mins or so.

Manta made me feel dreadful!

I much prefer airtime.
 
If your brain isn't being forced out your arse then it's not enough....

The forces can make or break a ride for me, I find high forces that are applied smoothly are much better than relatively low g's that come with a lot of shaking.

I haven't ridden anything yet that tops Nemesis for vertical g's done smoothly. Which is disappointing because I wants more 😁

I have the same opinion when it comes to horizontal g's from a launch too.
A ride on Stealth took me by suprise once when I did a mid day test ride after a couple of riders complained about a vibration on the train. To get an idea of what I am talking about, the power of the launch is automatically adjusted to compensate for varying passenger weights. This is to keep the launches as consistent as possible to avoid rollbacks and overspeed faults.
So up until this point the ride had been happily launching full trains for half a day, then I have to ride an empty train to find a potential problem.
For some reason I completely forget about the automatic balancer...... 😎
I'm now strapped into a machine that thinks it is about to launch 15 tonnes.... when in fact the train barely tops 11 tonnes empty. I didn't plan on riding with my arms up but I didn't get much of a choice. I think I dislocated both shoulders and an eyeball but I certainly wasn't complaining.

Turns out the vibration was just a flat spot on a wheel that had run over a 2p coin...
 

Eyebrows

Hyper Poster
I'm now strapped into a machine that thinks it is about to launch 15 tonnes.... when in fact the train barely tops 11 tonnes empty.
While you’re right about the launch being more forceful, this reasoning is incorrect. The computer always weighs the train every time, and the heavier the train the slower it will launch. This is on purpose, as heavier trains carry their momentum more (which is the same reason that a full train will have better pacing than an empty train), so a lighter train will need more speed at the launch to crest the top hat at the same speed.
 

Kalistos

Mega Poster
Once I went to Magic Mountain and started my day with Goliath. The helix left me with a strange feeling in one of my eyeball which lasted for the entire day. I don't know if it is normal, somewhat spoiled the day. Since then i'm very careful with positive g and try to find some ways to reduce the effect by squinting my eyes. I'm very nervous about riding Intimidator 305 one day
 
While you’re right about the launch being more forceful, this reasoning is incorrect. The computer always weighs the train every time, and the heavier the train the slower it will launch. This is on purpose, as heavier trains carry their momentum more (which is the same reason that a full train will have better pacing than an empty train), so a lighter train will need more speed at the launch to crest the top hat at the same speed.

You are thinking about the larger ones like Dragster, Stealth doesn't work the same way..... or at least it never used to. I.e. there is no empty train mode on Stealth.

Empty trains only need about 300bar in the accumulators to make the 77mph minimum to get over the top. Full trains on the other hand need up to 340bar. This is all because Stealth needs to accelerate in a relatively short space, you stop accelerating just before you get to the queue entrance tyre.

There was always a bit of confusion in regards to how the trains are weighed too, the weight is estimated by comparing the actual speed reached for a given power level to the speed expected. If the final speed is different to what is expected, the power is adjusted slightly for the next launch. This system caused quite a lot of frustration if you had to do more than 3 or 4 empty test runs during the day because when you reopened the ride, the now full train would almost always roll back.

So if anyone fancies a more forceful than usual launch on Stealth, try and get on a part filled train at the end of the day.
 

Eyebrows

Hyper Poster
You are thinking about the larger ones like Dragster, Stealth doesn't work the same way..... or at least it never used to. I.e. there is no empty train mode on Stealth.

Empty trains only need about 300bar in the accumulators to make the 77mph minimum to get over the top. Full trains on the other hand need up to 340bar. This is all because Stealth needs to accelerate in a relatively short space, you stop accelerating just before you get to the queue entrance tyre.

There was always a bit of confusion in regards to how the trains are weighed too, the weight is estimated by comparing the actual speed reached for a given power level to the speed expected. If the final speed is different to what is expected, the power is adjusted slightly for the next launch. This system caused quite a lot of frustration if you had to do more than 3 or 4 empty test runs during the day because when you reopened the ride, the now full train would almost always roll back.

So if anyone fancies a more forceful than usual launch on Stealth, try and get on a part filled train at the end of the day.
Oh, ok! Good to know, I thought they all worked the same, being the same model and all.
 
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