Mind Bender
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| Mind Bender | |
 |
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| Location | Six Flags Over Georgia |
|---|---|
| Park Section | Gotham City |
| Type | Steel |
| Status | Open |
| Opened | 3/31/1978 |
| Manufacturer | Anton Schwarzkopf |
| Designer | Werner Stengel |
| Lift/launch system | Chain lift hill |
| Height | 80 feet (24.4 m) |
| Length | 3,253 feet (991.5 m) |
| Max speed | 50 mile per hour (80.5 km/h) |
| Inversions | 2 |
| Duration | 2:33 |
| Capacity | 1200 riders per hour |
| Height Restriction | 42 inches (106.7 cm) |
| Mind Bender at RCDB | |
| Pictures of Mind Bender at RCDB | |
Mind Bender is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Over Georgia near Atlanta, Georgia.
This ride is an older intermediate steel roller coaster that has two loops and one inclined helix plus a short tunnel. In 1997 the coaster was painted and rethemed to match the Gotham City section of the park. When opened, it was originally painted silver with silver trains. For most of the 1980s and up to 1996, it was painted brown. The coaster's newest color scheme, green, matched the bright green costume of the Riddler, including the numerous question marks. When the ride was repainted and the area rethemed to Gotham City, there was a rumor that it would be renamed to The Riddler's Revenge. This never happened and the name Mindbender has been retained throughout its history.
The tunnel is located just beyond the second vertical loop and produces a "head chopper" effect as riders course through it.
[edit] Operational Information
Mind Bender has 5 blocks: Station, Transfer Table, Lift, Reduction Brake, and Safety Brake, after which it reenters the Station block. These blocks are controlled by a program running on a programmable logic controller to ensure trains do not collide with each other. To assist in the movement of trains through the brakes, station, and transfer table, a series of feed motors can move a train at a slow speed from a full stop.
The ride opened with 3 trains. However, at no time was the ride control system equipped to handle all three on the track at once. One train was used as a spare should another be taken out of service. In normal operation, two trains are utilized, although in recent years only one has been used for regular operation. In the 1990s one trainset was cannibalized to supply parts for the remaining two.
The Transfer Table is used to move trains to and from the maintenance building. The table is located between the station and the lift hill, sliding across to adjacent tracks in the nearby maintenance shed. It has several sets of brakes on it but they are unused in normal passenger operations, instead only functioning to hold trains in place as the table itself moves. There is also one feed motor located on the transfer table.
The primary set of brakes that stops the trains' movement at the end of the ride are known as the Reduction Brakes. Because there is no covering over these brakes, rainfall causes unwanted slipping. Because of this, the Mind Bender will typically suspend operation before other roller coasters with covered brakes during rain.
There are two sets of trim brakes on the course of the ride. The first set is located at the top of the second hill, directly after exiting the first vertical loop. The second set is located at the top of the hill immediately before descending into the second vertical loop. Note that these trim brakes do not affect block operation; they merely alter the trains' speed as determined by the control system.
Each train has seven cars with four seats per car (2 seats per row) for a total of 28 riders. Passengers are restrained with a single ratcheting lapbar.
[edit] Trivia
- A publicity photo for the Mind Bender, taken at night with a long exposure, is in the General Manager's meeting room.
- Also in 1978 Anton Schwarzkopf designed another double looping steel roller coaster, Shockwave, located at Six Flags Over Texas.
- The track is sometimes considered a precursor of Intamin track, in that it utilized a truss design for strength.
- Although the highest single drop is 80 feet, the ride actually changes elevation much more throughout its course by dropping down the side of a hill into a small ravine.
- The Gotham City section of the park where Mind Bender is located was previously named Jolly Roger's Island.
- A game called "Boat Tag" was located beneath the Reduction Brakes before rethemeing the area to Gotham City.
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