Mind Bender (Six Flags Over Georgia)

Mind Bender is a steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Over Georgia near Atlanta, Georgia. Billed as "the world's first triple-loop roller coaster" when it opened on March 31, 1978, Mind Bender maintains its popularity some three decades after it opened. In its 30th anniversary season in 2008, Mind Bender was ranked #15 by Amusement Today magazine in its annual Golden Ticket Awards, and was one of only two roller coasters built before 1980 on the list; the other was its "fraternal twin," Shockwave, at Six Flags Over Texas.^[1]

Attraction history

Designed by Werner Stengel and built by Anton Schwarzkopf, Mind Bender would be the last original roller coaster the park would construct until the arrival of Georgia Scorcher in 1999. Since its debut, Mind Bender has had three different color schemes and been counted within three different sections of the park. In its inaugural season, the attraction was part of the USA section and was silver in color. In 1979, Mind Bender became part of the new Jolly Roger's Island, itself an offshoot of the USA section. The structure was painted brown during the 1980s. Throughout its first two decades, the trains were silver in color, with a rainbow-colored stripe along both sides.

In 1997, when Jolly Roger's Island was converted into Gotham City, Mind Bender was painted green to suggest that it was the creation of Batman's arch-enemy, The Riddler. Even a waterfall within the attraction's site was dyed green, and occasionally still is (although at times it retains a more natural color). The trains were painted black, and sprinkled with green question marks, another hallmark of the Riddler.

Because Mind Bender is a relatively mild looping coaster with a low height restriction (42"/107 cm), it is marketed to families with children who are too short to ride bigger coasters like Batman: The Ride and Georgia Scorcher.

Design and operations

Like almost all modern roller coasters, Mind Bender operates on the block system. The attraction has 5 blocks: station, transfer table, lift hill, reduction brake, and ready brake, after which it reenters the station block. The bulk of the attraction's layout lies between the lift hill and the reduction brake. 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 three 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 at times only one has been used for regular operation. In the 1990s, one trainset was cannibalized to supply parts for the remaining two. More recently, the park obtained trainsets from the former Six Flags Astroworld's Schwarzkopf-designed Viper. Each train has seven cars with four seats per car (two seats per row) for a total of 28 riders. Passengers are restrained with a single ratcheting lapbar.

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 one brake 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 operations during mild rainshowers, while others within the park that have covered brake runs continue normally.

There are two sets of trim brakes on the course of the ride. These brakes reduce the speed of the train. The first is before the horizontal loop, after exiting the first vertical loop. The second is located before the second vertical loop. The attraction is placed on the side of a ridge, and portions of the track—including the second and third loops—are located in an adjacent ravine, thus increasing the attraction's overall elevation change. Of the advertised "triple loops," only the first and third loops send the train upside-down; the middle loop is actually a diving circular helix into the ravine.

1984 accident

On June 3, 1984, a mechanical problem caused a train to stop abruptly, sending four people to a hospital. The ride was repaired and put back into service with no more problems.^[2]

Awards

See also

• Incidents at Six Flags parks

References