Tatsu Stats
- Type of coaster: Flying
- Height: 170 feet
- First drop: 111 feet
- Top speed: 62 mph
- Track length: 3,602 feet
- Ride time: 3.5 minutes
Tatsu not Your Garden Variety Coaster
The stats are a bit deceptive. While Tatsu will handily smash all existing height records for a flying coaster, it will actually feature a more potent ride than its 170-foot-tall lift hill might indicate. That's because the loading station will be atop the park's nearly 100-foot-high Samurai Summit. (Unfortunately, the ride will displace Magic Mountain's lovely Japanese garden, one of the few tranquil spots in the park.) Unlike Superman: The Escape, which also sits at the peak of Six Flags' mountain, Tatsu will swoop down and into other areas of the park and experience a 263-foot elevation change over the course of the ride.Since flying coasters first appeared in 2000, the loading process and ride concept have evolved. Coasters such as Batwing at Six Flags America in Maryland tether riders, using an awkward system of ratcheting safety bars and harnesses over the shoulders and beneath the knees, into motorized seatbacks that face backwards. Once secured, the seats recline until passengers are nearly prone, and the train heads up the lift hill backwards. Just after the train crests the top of the hill, the track inverts, the train faces forwards, riders dangle beneath the track--and fly.
Like the next-generation flying coaster, Superman - Ultimate Flight, at New Jersey's Six Flags Great Adventure, riders on Tatsu will load into forward-facing seats. Before the train leaves the station, its seats will tilt down so that riders will face the ground. The advantage to this method is that it takes considerably less time to load and unload the ride, and passengers are spared the incongruity of ascending the lift hall facing backwards. On the downside, riders are in a sitting position as opposed to the prone position that better simulates flight in the original flying coasters.
Tatsu will wind around Magic Mountain's Sky Tower and the park's Revolution coaster as it executes its flying maneuvers. Elements will include a 124-foot pretzel loop and a 96-foot-tall zero-G roll. In addition to soaring to great heights, the attraction will dive to within inches of the ground--keep in mind that riders will be inverted beneath the track and facing down. Tatsu will mark Six Flags California's 17th coaster (assuming that all 17 coasters will be up and running in 2006--the park has a spotty record keeping its entire coaster arsenal operating) and will be the highlight of its 35th anniversary.
To see Tatsu in action, click to the Tatsu preview video and the coaster's preview photo gallery.
