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Linnanmäki | Swingi | Intamin Gyro Swing | 2024

Z

Zibulaatio

Roller Poster
New Intamin Gyro Swing is opening up to Linnanmäki in Helsinki, Finland in 2024!

Linnanmäen uutuuslaite Swingi saapuu huvipuistoon 2024!

Lasten Päivän Säätiö on jo vuosikymmeniä ylläpitänyt ja kehittänyt vuonna 1950 avattua Linnanmäen Huvipuistoa kerätäkseen varoja suomalaiselle lastensuojelutyölle. Huvittelemalla Linnanmäellä kaikki asiakkaamme tukevat suomalaista lastensuojelutyötä.
www.linnanmaki.fi www.linnanmaki.fi

"In 2024, Linnanmäki amusement park is welcoming the exciting new attraction Swingi! The ride, which moves in a pendular fashion, has been built by Intamin, one of the top attraction manufacturers in the industry. The same company is also behind Linnanmäki’s rollercoaster Taiga."
 
I hate the name. But other than that, this has me excited! If they stay faithful to the art I'll be happy too cause the victorian-esque fencing and brick backdrop look really nice as although Linnanmäki has no overarching themes, they have made an effort with a lot of recent additions and revisions (besides Magia) to have a level of polish with theming and landscaping, Kingi next door to this being a great example. (Which by the way will be amazing to be ascending on the drop tower and have the Gyro swing swing towards you!)
 
CanobieFan said:
Soooo.....why is this gonna take 2 years?
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Why is Disney taking so long to build a clone of Tron? Why do SF suck so much? No one knows.

On a serious note, maybe the park needs to justify the empty lot where the top spin used to sit. After all, the park, as far as I know, is a sort of NGO by which all profits go to social causes. Maybe this forces them to justify all investments, thus an announcement this early?
 
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oriolat2 said:
Why is Disney taking so long to build a clone of Tron? Why do SF suck so much? No one knows.

On a serious note, maybe the park needs to justify the empty lot where the top spin used to sit. After all, the park, as far as I know, is a sort of NGO by which all profits go to social causes. Maybe this forces them to justify all investments, thus an announcement this early?
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CanobieFan said:
Soooo.....why is this gonna take 2 years?
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The Top Spin basically had to close already this year but they're already adding a different new attraction in 2023 (presumably, not confirmed 100%) in the new Vekkula (funhouse) replacement for the one they closed in 2017 to make way for Taiga. They've had to delay that one by a couple years already due to covid so I suppose they're finally opening that one next year, and the gyro swing will wait for 2024 so they don't open two big new attractions in one year.
 
Boodangy said:
The Top Spin basically had to close already this year but they're already adding a different new attraction in 2023 (presumably, not confirmed 100%) in the new Vekkula (funhouse) replacement for the one they closed in 2017 to make way for Taiga. They've had to delay that one by a couple years already due to covid so I suppose they're finally opening that one next year, and the gyro swing will wait for 2024 so they don't open two big new attractions in one year.
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Linnanmäki has commented on Facebook that new funhouse Vekkula is now under development, but Swingi is still coming before that so we have to wait at least for 2025 season.
 
Screw it, people have revived threads for less so here; have some fresh construction pics taken from a cliff outside the park

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Unfortunately once the pendulum arm itself is in I won't be able to see much more progress from outside the park unless I lived on the top floor of one of the nearby houses or something. I assume since they're clearly getting the ride itself done quickly within this year, they'll probably focus on the more tedious process of landscaping etc. before season opening in spring. But seeing the construction made me realize just how visually impressive it'll be from outside the park once Swingi starts swinging.
 
Wish I had waited a couple more days before posting so it wouldn't be split in two like this, but anyway:

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The swinging arm is in place now, so I don't think we'll get to see anything from outside the park of the ride construction anymore, besides electricians working at the top and possibly a sign being put up which I won't be checking for. Interesting how the arm is installed at a 90 degree angle (I guess it's easier to lift with cranes that way) but that allows you to see just how impactful it'll look from outside the park while swinging.
 
Swingi is (nearly) completed and has been testing. It's scheduled to open with the park next Friday.

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www.instagram.com

Linnanmäki on Instagram: "Kohta huvitellaan!🎡🎢 Linnanmäen portit avautuvat uuteen huvikauteen 2024 tasan viikon päästä perjantaina 26.4. 🌞Linnanmäen Sirkuskoulu ilahduttaa huvittelijoita avajaisviikonloppuna 27.-28.4. Klo 14 ja 16 🌺 Vappuaattona 30

2,107 likes, 20 comments - linnanmakiApril 19, 2024 on : "Kohta huvitellaan!🎡🎢 Linnanmäen portit avautuvat uuteen huvikauteen 2024 tasan viikon päästä perjantaina 26.4. 🌞Linnanmäen...".
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
^ Very excited about it. I still haven't done a giant frisbee (outward facing) that doesn't do an entire 360 and I live literally across the street and have the season pass so I absolutely will be there regardless of weather and I will film a video.
 
And it is open! The season was supposed to begin on the 26th, but the beginning of last week saw huge snowfall in Helsinki which delayed opening preparations enough that the park had to postpone season open to today, the 30th. As compensation, season pass holders were given a free meal ticket (value of approx. 12-15€ depending on what you got with it). Somewhat as expected, the ride has seen troubleshooting throughout the day, in fact I was waiting for the first ever public ride and ended up waiting almost an hour after when it was supposed to open, it seems the ride computer couldn't decipher if the gates to the platform were closed or not and would refuse to lower the floor, but Intamin crew was present and surely this will be ironed out.

What makes these modern Intamin Gyro Swings so awesome is that they accelerate to full speed in just a couple swings, you don't waste ride time on gradual acceleration and thus you make the most out of the time on ride. That combined with the open feeling of the lap bars is just awesome, fantastic airtime machine and I don't understand how they fit this giant in the plot of an old Top Spin. The queue and ride area were more themed than I was expecting, all to a general music theme with some props, classic looking light fixtures and a custom soundtrack, however it was clear that the wintery conditions meant they couldn't completely finish the ride area in time as parts of metal fencing were still unpainted and other small details.

I was also surprised to see that in the candy shop across the pathway, Swingi actually had some pretty decent merch that honestly looked better than Taiga's merch, there were keyrings, flasks, t-shirts, caps etc. I included some video of those too in the collage. Oh right, the collage. Here's a little collage of different angles I filmed today after the ride was opened that I threw together to share.

 
I remember riding Loke in its opening year and thinking it was one of my favourite flat rides, so seeing more of these going up is fantastic. Would love to see one come to the UK at some point too!
 
Georgie-M said:
I remember riding Loke in its opening year and thinking it was one of my favourite flat rides, so seeing more of these going up is fantastic. Would love to see one come to the UK at some point too!
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Well, a new one with the lapbars and improved tech since Maelstrom at Drayton is technically also a Gyro Swing 😁
 
Boodangy said:
Well, a new one with the lapbars and improved tech since Maelstrom at Drayton is technically also a Gyro Swing 😁
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oh ofc, those lap bars are everything. The more rides with lap bars in the world, the better.

Hey, just out of curiosity, does anyone know the average shelf life of a KMG Afterburner? I happen to know a park that has kept theirs for about 23 years now...
 
Not to dig this thread up from the grave but idk that there's a generic 'fun anecdotes' thread in general so here goes a couple tidbits about the ride on it's second year.

So on Swingi if there's an e-stop, it uses the friction brake rather than energy recuperation (that it normally uses) to slow down, which is very loud and very squeaky (as one would expect from a massive disc brake, essentially). After the e-stop riders are evacuated back into the post-queue holding pen, the ride test runs and after a successful test run customers are put back on the ride. I was at the park tonight and Swingi experienced an emergency stop, nothing out of the ordinary, happens all the time and I've been on it during one plenty. Thing is, I go on another ride and as I'm exiting and walking past Swingi, it e-stops immediately after the guests have just been let back on and the cycle started, which you could tell from the customer expressions.

I talked to the staff member at the queue entrance (as the queue was closed already for the day) and she confirmed that yes, these were the same riders as the previous e-stop, and she said that they'd decided that they're gonna see these people through a succesful cycle no matter how long it takes. Keep in mind the park was closing in like 2 minutes from that conversation taking place and all other ride employees were already heading out. But sure enough, they let the guests back into the pen again and test ran it well after park close, and instead of sticking around (even if they'd let me, it felt wrong) to watch I did head towards the exit and exited the park over 10 minutes past closing time, and as I'm walking from the gates:

squeeeeaaak.... squeeeeaaaaak...

Third e-stop in a row. I wonder if those poor ride ops ever got home .😅 It feels like Intamin either produces something bulletproof that never ever has downtime (Kirnu and Taiga at the same park which are only ever down for the most extreme rain) while sometimes they produce the most temperamental rides ever (Swingi). Granted, Swingi's problems seem to mostly stem from all the sensor filled electronic gates that have to be closed for 100% sure to prevent people entering the ride area during operation, but that's still Intamin's fault probably. I've gathered that it almost always is a sensor tripping the e-stop 'just in case'. I got a solo ride at the very tail end of the day once and it e-stopped right at the end of the cycle once it'd almost slowed down to a stop already so I wasn't even bummed, but they still gave me a skip the line pass to use later in the season for my trouble (instead of getting it back up and running for one person) but I've probably experienced an e-stop either on my ride or it's had an e-stop while I'm queuing at least a third of the times I've gone (or tried to go) on it.

Unrelated to e-stop business, I was on it the other day and they stopped the ride immediately after it started but not with the friction brake, it was an intentional stoppage and they actually announced on the speakers "Dear Swingi riders, we had to stop the ride due to customer behaviour." And I've not recovered since from my curiosity not being satisfied, as I never found out what that customer behaviour was!! I couldn't see anything obvious (like someone busting out their phone mid ride).
 
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