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Which UK Coaster Has The Most Airtime?

nadroJ

CF Legend
As above. I don't actually know and it occurred to me that I also have no process for figuring it out? What do we think?
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Maybe this would be a good thread for Polls, as I think it might be somewhat subjective?

In terms of my answer, I’d probably vouch for either Icon or Megafobia. Possibly Grand National too, as that has a surprising amount of ejector airtime! And maybe Wicker Man too; even though it’s not really airtime-focused per se, it had quite a few wonderful moments of ejector when I last rode! Out of those, I’d probably say Icon, as the huge ejector pops seem to keep on coming on that thing!

In terms of strongest moment, I’d go for either Speed’s hill or Megafobia’s drop in the back row, but if you’re on about consistent airtime throughout the ride, then I’d say the ones I’ve mentioned are some of the strongest candidates, in my opinion.

Great thread idea though @nadroJ; we never seem to discuss airtime on UK coasters very much for some reason, even though there are some cracking airtime moments to be had here in Britain, in my opinion!
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
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Straight in with the annoying "question as an answer" - do you mean most as in most force, or most as in most number of seconds?

Also have no idea, but will muse over the UK creds this evening and see which ones jump out.

EDIT: @Matt N beat me to it by a moment, so not quite as "straight in" as it was when I was typing it. :p
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Straight in with the annoying "question as an answer" - do you mean most as in most force, or most as in most number of seconds?

Also have no idea, but will muse over the UK creds this evening and see which ones jump out.
In terms of force, I actually know the maximum negative g-force reading for a number of UK coasters, from various sources. I’ll list them in rough order; here’s the top 5 (well, the only 5 I can think of off the top of my head):
  1. Speed: -1.3G (on hill, cited from Gerstlauer)
  2. Icon: -1.2G (point not specified, cited from Blackpool Pleasure Beach)
  3. Smiler: -1G (airtime hill in second half, cited from Gerstlauer)
  4. Saw: -0.9G (presumably airtime hill just before MCBR, source unknown)
  5. Big One: -0.5G (point unknown, cited from Blackpool Pleasure Beach)
I’ll do some digging and see if I can find some more...
EDIT: I also found -1.3G for Rage at Adventure Island (from Gerstlauer’s website), and I also seem to remember a Physics exam paper I once did citing Stealth’s top hat as delivering a perfect 0G (it was one of those good old Mechanics questions that uses a roller coaster as its context).

So some of those might go some way towards providing a quantitative answer to your question, but as I said, it seems to be very much down to individual experience!
 
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Matt N

CF Legend
This is a surprisingly difficult question to determine the answer to... parks seem to love providing positive g-force readings for rides, but rarely provide negative g-force readings for some reason.

The best way would be to get someone to ride every single UK roller coaster with an accelerometer, but that would be very time-consuming, and possibly very inconsistent, what with variable weather conditions and such able to cause considerable variation in g-force levels...

This is such an interesting question, yet also such a difficult one to find the answer to, in quantitative terms!
P.S. Sorry for double posting!
 

Howie

Donkey in a hat
Speed, Oakwood for strength.
Nash for quantity I reckon, although it's a large quantity of the very worst kind of airtime.
Neither of these is making me feel particularly proud to be British right now. Forget Brexit and the 'Rona fiasco, it's our lack of decent airtime that really lets this country down on the world stage.
 

nadroJ

CF Legend
I had a sneaking suspicion it might be Speed for force.

What about actual seconds of airtime then?
 

Tonkso

Hyper Poster
Icon back row is a contender for longest single stretch of airtime after the top-hat if ridden in the right conditions. I've not been to Oakwood so can't speak for Speed but our rides disappointingly just aren't built for it.

The Ultimate for the undisputed winner of the world's most pointless bunny hops. Imagine how awesome (or painful) that stretch of track would be if the train was actually doing any speed.
 

toofpikk

Mega Poster
experiencing excruciating pain for the fact that th13teens drop track or the dragon hasn't even been acknowledged yet, in 8 posts. Ridiculous.
 

Tonkso

Hyper Poster
But Th13teen's drop track is only one short burst of airtime, and I think it's more like drop-tower's airtime than a traditional piece of coaster airtime.
 

JoshC.

Strata Poster
experiencing excruciating pain for the fact that th13teens drop track or the dragon hasn't even been acknowledged yet, in 8 posts. Ridiculous.

Th13teen, yes. But The Dragon? I don't think I've ever experienced airtime on that glorified railway.
 

Will

Strata Poster
Off the top of my head, it's got to be Megafobia - unless it's a little seaside coaster with a random crazy bunny hill that I've forgotten about.

Either way, I agree that this is a fairly sad state of affairs.

We do have Nemesis though, which nowhere else does :)
 
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nadroJ

CF Legend
I guess what I'm really asking is surely somebody on this forum spent at least some of their downtime during lockdown sat in front of YouTube with a stopwatch, watching POVs and counting airtime seconds. I refuse to believe this didn't happen, so please, show yourself.
 
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Will

Strata Poster
^
I nearly ended up in a major argument for saying this to Joey back in 2008, but you CAN'T judge ride forces from a POV!!! :)
 
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