Aerial Antics: Beech Bend Park

Just outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky, you can find a gem of a independent amusement facility, Beech Bend Park. Named for the Beech trees that dot the landscape, the park made a big name for itself in 2006 with a big ride - but that's getting ahead of things.

The park actually dates back to the late 1800s when it served as a picnic park, and rides did not start to show up until the '40s and '50s. The one featured above, the Wild Mouse, is a Zamperla creation that was added in 2005.

Here is the older water park section of the property. It looks small but seems a perfect fit for a park like Beech Bend.

Here is the Looping Star, a Pinfari traveling coaster that the park purchased. I've never been on one of these but their smaller size makes them look like they'd pack a punch.

And here we have the Kentucky Rumbler, the ride that really put the park on the map. A Great Coasters International twister, the ride quickly became a fan favorite after it opened. These type of rides are just so beautiful to look at, too!

Here's a link to the Live Local Images.

Aerial Antics: Alabama Adventure & Splash Beach

This week we visit Alabama Adventure and Splash Beach water park, located in Bessemer, Alabama. The park opened in 1998 as VisionLand, but eventually filed for bankruptcy and was purchased only to be eventually sold again!

Confusing, I know, but what matters is that both parks are still open and operating so why don't we take a look at some of the sights?

Here we have the entrance area to the property, a main street style start for guests.

This ride, located way up on the side of a hill is Zoomerang. This Boomerang coaster was relocated to the park from Australia - look at the length of that walkway up to the station!

This is the park's rapids ride, aptly titled Wild River Gorge. It opened in 1999 but then closed for a couple years - not opening again until 2001. I love how it borders the side of the woods and has a hidden tunnel in the back.

Interesting look for a Space Shot, right? The park opened a dual Space Shot/Turbo Drop tower but during the park's restructuring the Turbo Drop was given back to the manufacturer and now operates at Lake Compounce! They should maybe get a cap piece for this one?

Rampage. A 1998 CCI built wooden roller coaster. Often compared to Megaphobia in the UK, the ride had some stellar reviews when it opened.

This is Splash Beach. They've added some new attractions to the water park in the past few years, making it much larger than it was at opening. How weird is that walkway under the wave pool that snakes around a straight path?

The park is also adding UpSurge! this summer to the water park, and combing both amusement and water parks into one general ticket after being separate for many years.

Here's a link to the images.

Aerial Antics: La Ronde

Off to Canada we go, this week in order to check out La Ronde amusement park, located in Quebec. The park was created as part of Expo '67, one of the largest and most successful World's Fair's ever.

The park's assets were purchased by Six Flags in 2001, and they received a long term lease for the land the park sits on. Six Flags has expanded the park since purchasing it, as we'll see today with some of the large coasters they've added. Above is the very pretty entrance gates that were built in 2002.

Here we have Le Vampire and Cobra. Cobra is the green coaster and is an Intamin stand-up ride, relocated to La Ronde from Sweden in 1995. Vampire is a mirror-image Batman clone from B&M.

Here's Goliath, the park's huge new coaster for 2006. The B&M mega coaster stands over 170 ft. tall and stretches over 4,000 ft. long. It's painted in Six Flags' tradition Superman-themed-ride colors... maybe it was going to be themed to that?

The huge wooden coaster above is Le Monstre. Opened in 1985 the twin tracked ride is quite imposing at first glance. Interestingly, the two tracks of the ride do not always run parallel to each other and provide different ride experiences.

Also in the above image we see Le Super Manege - the super ride - which is an old Vekoma looper from the early 80s. In the upper right corner is the Toboggan Nordique, a Zamperla wild mouse coaster that Six Flags added in 2003.

Here is Orbite, an S&S Space Shot tower that was built out over the water to provide some spectacular views, I'm sure. The park's log flume, La Pitoune, is also pictured. It's a classic Arrow Dynamics flume that was opened in '67 as part of the Expo.

Here is a link to the Live Local images as well.

Aerial Antics: Lake Compounce

Lake Compounce, known as "New England's Family Theme Park," is located in Bristol, CT. Formerly owned by Kennywood Entertainment Company, the park is now part of the Parques Reunidos family.

The park is very old, and touts itself as the oldest continually operating amusement park in America. That's not an easy title to come by!

And one of the most classic rides the park features is the Wildcat:
The classic wooden coaster originally opened in 1927, making it one of the oldest operating coasters anywhere. Originally designed by Herbert Schmeck and constructed by PTC, the ride was upgraded in 2007 to allow two train operation.
Also in the right side of this image you can see the park's Ghose Hunt interactive dark ride. It was opened in 1999 and created by Sally Dark Rides. The attraction was given a total overhaul just this past season.
I think river rapids rides look so cool from the air. Here is Lake Compounce's version, aptly named Thunder Rapids. Added in 1997 it was built by Hopkins.
A classic ride and a modern thrill - the park's Ferris Wheel sits next to Thunder n' Lightning, an S&S dual Screamin' Swing.
Here is the park's water park that they wish to expand so badly. I think the waterslide that's built to look like a light house is a really neat idea. The slides that end directly into the lake are a cool idea, too.
And here's the 'star' of the park, Boulder Dash. It's buried in the woods so you'll have to click on the larger image to really see it. The massive wooden coaster was built in 2000 by Custom Coasters. It sits perched on the side of a mountain and quite literally dashes past massive boulders while careening through the woods.
Here's a crazy image for you all, the above massive maze is the park's haunted house attraction, "The Haunted Graveyard." Open only during the Halloween season, the 45 minute walk through attraction is actually operated by Graveyard Productions, a prominent haunted house and prop manufacturer.

And here's a link to the Live Local images!

Aerial Antics: Dreamworld

The time has come for me to take Sabrina's suggestion to heart and make my ever present obsession with Live Local and Google's aerial photography a regular feature here on NewsPlusNotes.

And with that we'll call it Aerial Antics because I also enjoy alliteration. I'll try to publish one weekly and you can find them under the new Aerial Antics tag.

Dreamworld is located on the Gold Coast of Australia. I remember it obtaining most of it's notoriety by building the Tower of Terror back in 1997. The ToT is a clone of Superman at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Speaking of the Tower of Terror, here it is in the above photo. Technically it opened before Superman at Magic Mountain, making it the first coaster to hit 100 m.p.h. The park slapped a free fall, named Giant Drop, on the tower in 1998 and then also had the world's tallest free fall at 390 ft or so.

But also in the above photo is the park's latest coaster: Mick Doohan's Motocoaster. Opened in 2007, the launched motorcycle seating style ride was built by Intamin. We can see that the ride's layout is pretty much a double figure eight.

The park also has a Nickelodeon Central section of the park, which is extremely similar to what was built at several of the former Paramount parks in the early 2000s. They even have a Rugrats Runaway Reptar jr. inverted coaster by Vekoma!

They also created a Wiggles World years before Six Flags built them at their U.S. parks. Again the design is similar, even down to the entrance sign you can see and the brightly colored pavement. The rides and attractions are quite similar, too - Big Red Car Ride, Captain Feathersword's Ship, etc.

Whitewater World is the park's huge water park, opened in 2006. Talk about an awesome selection of water slides! They've got one of everything it seems, a Tornado, a water coaster, Flowrider, and more!

Also you can see how the water park slides wrap around the theme park's Cyclone roller coaster. The ride was relocated from Luna Park where it was called the Big Dipper.

Here's a link to Google's images.

Aerial Antics: Wiener Prater

Wiener Prater is an amusement park located in Vienna, Austria. It's almost a Coney Island type set up where many vendors share the area and each attraction is pay as you go.

This makes for some great competition between operators to have the newest, coolest, baddest rides though, which is pretty great. Just check out the rides page on their website to see the variety of what's offered on property.
Here's an interesting coaster, it's a custom Vekoma ride called Megablitz that was added back in 1994. Lots of track packed in a small space on that one. Also the blue tower in the bottom left of the image is a Starflyer - which is something I'd love to ride.
Here is the Hochschaubahn - this is really a scenic railway at heart, opened back in 1950. The side friction wooden coaster actually has brakemen on the back of the trains to control the speed!

And here's two more attractions - like Volare, a Zamperla flying roller coaster painted in bright red and yellow. The park also has a Vekoma Boomerang as well.

The unique water ride on the left is Wildalpenbahn. The River Splash was created by ABC Rides and has a vertical lift hill and sections in a flume like a water slide and parts that are in a river, like a more tradition river rapids.

As always, to check out the aerials of Prater yourself, click here.