Tranan

They say that the dream of flying is as old as mankind itself. The idea of being free as a bird is therefore a theme that is often used at amusement parks. Ride manufacturers as well tried to simulate that freedom in their roller coasters and other attractions for a long time and with very different ideas.
A new approach can now be tested at the Swedish amusement park Skara Sommarland: Four cranes have nested here since summer 2009 to take their visitors for a very special flight experience.

Tranan is the name of this attraction and the first delivery of the roller coaster type "Free Fly" from S&S Worldwide. Always on the lookout for unusual new concepts, the manufacturer from Utah, USA, developed an attraction where riders are not sitting in a traditional-style roller coaster car on top of the tracks but to both sides of it. The whole roller coaster car consists here of a large middle piece that rolls on the track and two passenger gondolas, one at each side. These gondolas are positioned at about the height of the track itself and can swing freely during the ride. This design allows twists of the roller coaster track that look spectacular from the outside while providing an interesting and family-friendly ride thanks to the suspended gondolas which will always rotate around the middle body of the car without rolling over.

On the way to the entrance of the ride we can already get a good impression of the blue-colored roller coaster track. As we watch the twisted layout we notice the track twists and briefly ask ourselves if something like that can be rideable at all. Soon we reach the large station building of Tranan. At first the queue takes us to the upper level where we have to decide between one of the two available sides of the coaster car. Once we have made our choice we follow the queue a few meters more before we go downstairs again and straight to the boarding area.

Altogether there are 4 roller coaster cars on Tranan and each of them represents a different crane with a unique design and humorous details. The cars do not stop at the station area but slowly move on during unloading and loading. As soon as our car reaches the boarding area the staff members on both sides are letting a maximum of 4 people from the queue to the station platform. The massive cars therefore take only 8 persons in total and give the ride a rather low capacity which is however sufficient for the summer land. We take a seat inside the gondola and close our lap belt - there are no other restraint systems. A quick check by pulling on the seat belt and our flight can begin!

Our crane picks up a little bit of speed after the station, takes a left turn and reaches the lifthill. During the ride upwards the very open seating position becomes more and more obvious: Besides the lap belt as the only rider restraining system we sit on tiny seats without back rests and inside a gondola with very low sides. Soon we reach our maximum flight height of 20 meters and get faster to take the following right turn. As soon as the banking of the track is increasing we experience the very special and unique ride dynamics of Tranan: As we are not sitting on top of the track but beside it the gondola at the outside radius of the turn gets a sudden increase in height and speed while the other losses some height and speed to take the inside radius. Both gondolas are rocking to the side and together with the very open seat position generate the feeling that we will fall out any second - this is when some riders begin to hold on even tighter to the small handrails on both sides. We fly through several other turns high above the ground with the same unfamiliar acceleration forces before our crane is suddenly rolling over on his back. We swing around the track and are now on the other side, take another turn and fly through the block brake of the ride. Again we swing through the following turn which at the same time brings our bird back into his normal flying position and head towards the end at an increasing speed. We take one last turn and enter the final brakes which put a sudden end to our flight experience. A few seconds later we already enter the station building again at walking speed, the seat belts open and we say goodbye to our crane as we get out of our gondola.

A flight on Tranan is a very special and fresh experience. Spectators watching the ride will notice the consistently low speed and rather short track length of the ride. The design with suspended gondolas to both sides together with a very exposed seating position however provides a flight with surprises and a far more thrilling and interesting ride than one would initially assume. The only drawback and a general problem of the concept are the strange and inharmonious G-forces in the turns as the gondola is either suddenly accelerating or decelerating for a brief moment. But Tranan is still anything but only a gimmick on the search for new ideas. S&S is impressively demonstrating the concept of their roller coaster type "Free Fly" with this ride - we can't wait for the next exciting flight adventures!