[pproteinc]

Has anyone seen this and would this affect Copperhead or any other Mack coaster to open in 2019?

http://m.yangtse.com/content/app/663815.html

“Some interesting if odd news from China as it seems large parts of the Mack built Blue Fire ride for Wanda Wuxi have had to be returned to Mack due to quality defects.

"From October 2016 to January 2018, Wuxi Wanda City Investment Co., Ltd. imported a set of launched roller coaster tracks from Germany in six batches, valued at 2,382,300 euros.

Wuxi Customs carried out safety performance inspection according to law and found that there are many problems of safety performance quality of linear defects in the local base metal of the track. After re-inspection and after treatment by German technology, it still found that there were many safety performance quality problems in the local base material of the track. Wuxi Customs determined that the quality of 124 tracks of the launched roller coaster was unqualified."

While it explains the continuing absense of the ride from the contruction site in Wuxi it is a bit of an odd news story”

This is what was posted by VHCoasters on Facebook.

[coasterbruh]

That seems like an issue with one coaster at one park.

[yawetag]

Probably not, but depends on when the steel for the other rides were constructed. I can't imagine CS's was made a year ago.

[Glitch99]

That seems like an issue with one coaster at one park.

But he's right in that their defective track came from the same source as our track.

Presumably, testing is an ongoing thing, and if any similar issues were found with our batch of track, we'd still be looking at a vacant construction site right now.

[Capler]

I don't believe the article. One mistake like that would bankrupt a coaster company. How many of those do they do a year, 2 or 3? If they had to redo one, how could they survive the financial hit. There is no room for the sort of mistake described here. That is like providing defected steel for a high rise. You are not going to run through a whole batch, ship it to site and then discover it is flawed. It is possible it meets their standards, but is not good enough for the Chinese government?

[bejackso]

does anyone know if carowinds is doing a copperhead strike first rider auction charity benefit? (like they did on fury 325)

i can't find anything on it. looks like the soonest anyone can get on the ride is for season passholder preview night on fri march 22 from 6-10pm, then the following day is the park's grand opening. will those days be crowded?

any intel out there? found this article too:

https://www.wcnc.com/article/entertainm ... 1473dbd98c

[gabed]

Both passholder day and opening day will be slammed and I can’t wait to be a part of it

[dirkdiggler1992]

looks like the soonest anyone can get on the ride is for season passholder preview night on fri march 22 from 6-10pm, then the following day is the park's grand opening. will those days be crowded?

Friday night and Saturday will be very busy, especially if the weather is nice. You’d be lucky to get more than a couple rides in on preview night with it being only a four hour event. Big crowds are a good thing and part of the experience of a new coaster opening, however if you aren’t local or getting a hotel for the weekend I’d consider waiting until that Sunday when the crowds should be lighter.

There’s always an option to fast lane it if you’re willing to splurge.

[bejackso]

thanks for the info

[yawetag]

You’d be lucky to get more than a couple rides in on preview night with it being only a four hour event.

My son has decided to make CS his first upside-down rollercoaster. I'll be in that line Friday night.

How many people can say a jojo roll was their first inversion?

[RiDeWaRrIoR]

The first train has arrived....

Photo from Carowinds

[uscbandfan]

You’d be lucky to get more than a couple rides in on preview night with it being only a four hour event.

My son has decided to make CS his first upside-down rollercoaster. I'll be in that line Friday night.

How many people can say a jojo roll was their first inversion?

Probably very few right now... But hopefully a good many after 2019.

[Gopack44]

looks like the soonest anyone can get on the ride is for season passholder preview night on fri march 22 from 6-10pm, then the following day is the park's grand opening. will those days be crowded?

Friday night and Saturday will be very busy, especially if the weather is nice. You’d be lucky to get more than a couple rides in on preview night with it being only a four hour event. Big crowds are a good thing and part of the experience of a new coaster opening, however if you aren’t local or getting a hotel for the weekend I’d consider waiting until that Sunday when the crowds should be lighter.

There’s always an option to fast lane it if you’re willing to splurge.

This is where I am excited that my wife surprised me with a season Fast Pass. We only are able to get down there for the weekends typically and love staying at the campground so I will get plenty of use out of that this year!

Does anyone know if the Fast Pass will be able to be used for season pass preview night?

[Christopher Mallis]

I think they are selling fast lane on season pass preview night but don't quote me on that.

[JWitter]

No need to bother posting more pictures as they will be showing the same thing but how about some tidbits instead ?!?!?

- As far as thematic elements, the entire area will be playing up on the farm theme.

- We will be seeing veggies (especially corn ) growing throughout the area as well as. . . Copperheads! Note, copperheads aren't always snakes

- Granny's jam factory will have a presence in the area but the team haven't made the decision on everything as far as speciality items (food, souvenirs).

- There will be a small show scene inside the barn. For those of you who are familiar with the area, the park installed a much improved version of their ladder climb game in 2017. Well, they purposely placed it in it's location (directly in front of the barn) so you couldn't see directly into it (the barn).

- As it seemed based on the trains, the time period for the new area is around the same as the county fair as the two areas are suppose to flow organically into each other.

- There will be a HUGE gas fireplace built directly to the left (if you're looking at it) of said ladder climb. This will be perfect for those winterfest nights.

- It's interesting how the launch system works. On COpperhead Strike (and i'm sure on other launch coasters) the coal is to have it operate at the highest efficiency point. The actual speed of the launch will depend on the weight of the train at that time. They will test and tweak the launch system with water dummies at different weights. The initial test will be with the dummies weighing 170lbs each as that is the standard weight of adults. Then they will raise the weight to 220lbs each to see how that will effect the launch. From there, will be able to provide a near perfect ride, each time, regardless of the train is full or not.

- The expansion of Country Kitchen will allow for dual serving lines and one of the main featured dishes will be rotisserie chicken made right there in the restaurant!

- There are a lot of foundations on this coaster. Coming in at 230, it surpasses Fury and Intimidators 170 and 180.

- The onride photo section location is yet to be determine. It has been narrowed down to two spots (don't quote me lol) which are after the first vertical look and before the top hat element.

- As far as a light package, I wouldn't expect anything like hangtime. While no decision has been made, I would bet my money on some spotlights, if anything.

- Since carowinds have been transformed several times before, one of the biggest challenges the construction crew faces is finding old ride foundations, and conduits. Even though they did plenty soil test, they still managed to hit some pretty tough granite. A funny tidbit is they thought they struck gold but it turned out to be (ok I forgot what it turned out to be but it wasn't gold. However, there does seem to be a gold mine that runs through the park! I had no idea.

- The construction crew gave themselves an 8 week time span to cover any downtime and with the weather the park has experiences that were still able to come under it. You may have noticed some of the crew installing elements and pieces of the project during winterfest hours.

- Speaking of winterfest, Copperhead Strike MAY operate during it. SO basically, don't be bummed if it isn't on the ride list as the park has made it very clear that the direction they want to go for winterfest isn't one that is heavily dependent on coasters and thrill rides.

I had been wondering about whether or not they will theme the whole area as shown in the illustrations. I know this might be a bit nit picky, but why the heck are there still palm trees beside the coaster?