I think a "good duration" for a coaster is to base it on the intensity. A family coaster should theoretically be a bit longer as you can easily handle 3-4 minutes of coaster, whereas something as intense as the Hulk should aim for a minute.
This is where pacing comes inI think a "good duration" for a coaster is to base it on the intensity. A family coaster should theoretically be a bit longer as you can easily handle 3-4 minutes of coaster, whereas something as intense as the Hulk should aim for a minute.
Every launch coaster will seem a bit short because they have taken out the longest part. Take Kraken for example from the top of the lift to the MCBR, it's 40 seconds. from the MCBR to the first set of final brakes, it is 20 seconds more. Same with Mako, about 40+seconds from top of lift to the MCBR. Then another 20 seconds to the first set of the final brakes. We have to fact the fact that we will never get a launch coaster with the same ride time of a non-launch coaster unless it is multiple stops/slow downs.I’m afraid it looks a bit short - that seems to be a trait of first-of-their-kind B&Ms though. Based on that video we’re looking at about a 45-50 second ride time.
Every launch coaster will seem a bit short because they have taken out the longest part. Take Kraken for example from the top of the lift to the MCBR, it's 40 seconds. from the MCBR to the first set of final brakes, it is 20 seconds more. Same with Mako, about 40+seconds from top of lift to the MCBR. Then another 20 seconds to the first set of the final brakes. We have to fact the fact that we will never get a launch coaster with the same ride time of a non-launch coaster unless it is multiple stops/slow downs.
Sea World probably got this thing on a huge discount.. because it is short.. a prototype... and taking up a ton of real estate... and going to be one of the least popular attractions in the park.
When you build a prototype you don't necessarily want to go "all out" with the max speed/height/length/inversions until you know how it will work. Look at the first B&M flyers-- SUF at SFOG and Air at Alton Towers. They were proof of concept but not really pushing the limits. There's only so much computer modeling you can test, but you need a real world model to see where there are areas that still need tweaking.
Of course B&M is pretty thorough and have rarely had issues, even with prototypes, but there's always a chance...
Now, if everything works great and it gives a great ride experience, expect Cedar Point to roll out a bigger, better version in two years.
Sorry for the double post, but it looks like Media Day for Pipeline is scheduled for May 11th according to this tweet from ACE - so Grand Opening probably won’t be too long after that!