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Dollywood: General Discussion

It's been announced on the Dollywood site that the ride won't be ready for the planned opening weekend, RMC need some more time getting it ready and commissioned.

BUT

Dollywood have uploaded a video of it running full circuit:
 
Lighning Rod still isn't open but Dollywood have now provided an update to Screamscape:
Screamscape said:
The hungry masses have been waiting for an update on the status of Lightning Rod from Dollywood. I contacted Pete Owens who sent Screamscape the latest official word on the project.
"We are resuming testing this week and will open the ride in a couple of weeks when that is complete."

Hopefully this is the end of the issues.

:)
 
Testing has now resumed and here is a video of the end of the ride:



Oh my, the speed coming out of the quad down! Wow!

:)
 
Lightning Rod is still not open but Screamscape have provided an update:
Screamscape said:
According to a reader who visited Dollywood, they were told that Lightning Rod has entered the final testing phase and is set to begin employee training as soon as they finish checking off all the safety and operational procedure documentation. Best guess right now is that it may be ready to open in early to mid June.

I don't know how true this last part is, but hearding an interesting rumor that Lightning Rod is running a lot faster than originally intended. Instead of maxing out at 73mph, Lightning Rod has been clocked blazing through the hillside at over 80mph. Nothing was said about adding trims to the experience, so Lightning Rod may really be a wild experience when it opens.

This really has been a long delay, it was meant to open two months ago. I do hope that rumour about it running faster than initially intended is true though!

Still awaiting a POV for this as well!

:)
 
I don't know how true this last part is, but hearding an interesting rumor that Lightning Rod is running a lot faster than originally intended. Instead of maxing out at 73mph, Lightning Rod has been clocked blazing through the hillside at over 80mph. Nothing was said about adding trims to the experience, so Lightning Rod may really be a wild experience when it opens.

If that last part's true, they may have to do something about that boringly. That's around 10 percent faster than the design speed! The effect that might have on the ride experience is one thing but the additional stresses it would exert on the structure would be massive.

So much more energy would be involved. By my rough calculations, peak kinetic energy would increase by 23% and it could be dramatically more depending on just how far over 80 mph it's running.

So either RMCs are massively over - engineered and they've decided it's not a problem, it is a problem and they're trying to fix it or it's not true and completely made up.
 
Good news! Lightning Rod has soft opened today so it looks like an official opening is getting closer. That of course means closer to a POV for those of us who can't get there!

EDIT:

So, here is a video of it in action:



Holy mother of dragons! The speed is phenomenal!

:)
 
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Urg, bloody septics and their whooping. *mutes*

Yeah, that looks rather good. Shame it's so short though, there's a lot of wasted energy at the end.
 
Incredible. RMC's arrival in the market is really changing the shape of the industry, just like B&M did and Arrow before them.
 
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It looks nothing short of incredible! Full throttle speed right up to the very end, it is almost a shame that they couldn't continue the layout a bit more to use the momentum it still has but then again no-one ever says that about Nemesis so maybe Lightening Rod will also be just right!

:)
 
This and Wildfire in the same year? RMC are taking the mick here aren't they? They need to tone it down and give everyone else a chance.
Very difficult to determine if this is satire or not on this forum!
 
Good news, Lightning Rod has now officially opened! Here is an offical POV provided by the park:



This really is a beast!

:)
 
Flippin' 'eck! :O


..... The camera is mounted at a sensible height!

(That's one smeg of a speedy lift/launch.)
 
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