Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Coaster of the Day "Kingda Ka"

Today's "Coaster of the Day" is the mammoth "Kingda Ka". Kingda Ka is located at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. At 456 feet, Kingda Ka is currently the tallest roller coaster on the planet! That's a whopping 45 stories tall! It is also the third fastest roller coaster on the planet (128 mph)! The length of the track totals at 3,118 feet. The total duration of the ride is 59 seconds. Once you board the Kingda Ka you move out of the station onto the launch pad. Once on the launch pad you get propelled horizontally at 128 mph by a hydraulic launch system. After that you turn a full 90 degrees and creep over the top of the hill 456 feet in the air, and what goes up must come down. You then round the top and plummet down into a 270 degree spiral. Riders, then, experience complete weightlessness as they go down into a valley and up over a 129 foot camel hump.











Special Safety Precautions:
Commonly in breezy or wet weather rollbacks occur on the Kingda Ka. Rollbacks are when the train doesn't reach the needed speed to make it over the 456 foot hill. If this should happen there are magnetic fin breaks located in the launch zone to bring the train to a stop. Many riders actually hope for a rollback because they get the rare experience of going backwards on the Kingda Ka and they are also treated to another launch. It is also possible that the train stalls and comes to a stop on top of the hill, but this is very rare because the train would have to be perfectly balanced atop the hill. If this were to happen there is an elevator at the base of the hill that employees can take to the top of the hill and manually push the train down the decent side.

Example of Rollback:
WARNING: I do try to stray away from videos that have any curse words in them due to the fact that anyone can view these at any age. Video does say the "H" word.



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