Flight Deck at California's Great America Review

(Photo taken by Matthew Silvas @goldenstatecoasters)

Today I will be reviewing Flight Deck at California’s Great America located in Santa Clara, California. As this coaster is at my my home park, Matthew, Marc, and I(Jacob) have been able to ride this for however long we’ve been going to CGA. This is one of the most intense Inverts I’ve been on. It’s currently my Number 1 Invert and it could stay there for a quite a while. It’s currently my Number 10 and it barely makes that mark. But if it’s in my Top 10, it’s gotta be good right? Of course it is. In fact. It’s not good. It's amazing. So let’s start on the actual review now.

(Photo taken by Jacob @fluffy_coaster_enthusiast)

Flight Deck to me is a short and intense coaster. It has high forces and a possibility to grey out. The most recent time I’ve ridden this, I got an extremely forceful ride but I unfortunately didn’t grey out. Really intense how short it is. You start by going up the chain and Flight Deck is only 102 ft tall. Note that. After you leave the chain, you go into the standard B&M Pre-Drop. Turning to left, you go down the 91 ft drop, and that's where you reach speeds up to 50 mph. You go through the standard Vertical Loop and then, here's where it gets intense. Go up through a Treble Clef like turn and feel forces like never before, and have the possibility of greying out. Yes. You can grey out. Matthew and I have both greyed out on that turn and it’s pretty forceful.

(Photo taken by Marc @everydaythrills)

Exit the Treble Clef turn and head into a Zero-G Roll right above the Theater Royale. Which is an amazing photo spot!

(Photo taken by Jacob @fluffy_coaster_enthusiast)

Exit the awesome Heartline Roll and turn over the queue line and turn again past the station and drop down again to the corkscrew and into the second most forceful part of the ride, The Helix of Water, which you can actually touch if you’re long enough! Exit the forceful and intense helix and find yourself still feeling the forces as you turn into the brakes.

(Photo taken by Jacob @fluffy_coaster_enthusiast)

So with that being said, Let’s get into the results. How I will rate these are by comparing them, to the tallest, fastest, etc. B&M Invert. All categories will be 5 points each. Let’s start with Speed. Speed’s category will be out of 5 points. So for speed, I’ll compare it to the Fastest B&M Invert, “Banshee”.

Banshee is 68 mph, Flight Deck is 50 mph. So I will give it a 3.5 out of 5. It definitely has speed. But if it were any lower I would give it a 3. But the thing about is, on some rides, I get really good rides on it. It only depends if it’s running well. My last few rides on it, have been really amazing. It can give amazing rides and that’s what I’ve gotten some good ones. So speed is really up there. On the contrary, 21 Inverts faster than Flight Deck. And that’s why I have it as 3.5.

Next category is Height. I’m going to be comparing the Height to the Tallest B&M Invert, “Alpengeist”. Alpengeist is 195 feet tall and Flight Deck 102 feet ttall. 29 other B&M inverts are taller than Flight Deck. So I will be giving it a 2. Flight Deck is one of the smallest B&M Inverts but that is because of height restrictions. And due to it’s height, it actually makes it one of the most intense rides I’ve ridden. Which actually leads into the next category, Intensity.

The category is Intensity. Now for this category there is no way to tell the most Intense B&M Invert. So this will be my personal opinion. For the intensity for this B&M invert. With it’s speed, height, inversions, layout, Everything, It gives one of the best ride experiences you will get on a B&M Invert. In my Opinion, It’s my Number 1 Invert. Then again, I haven’t ridden Banshee, Afterburn, Montu, etc.

Length will be the next category. Once again with the size of Flight Deck it will be rated a low score. But we’re going to compare it to Banshee which is 4,124 feet long. And Flight Deck with a whole 2,260 feet long. So with the huge gap I’m going to be giving it a 1.5 out of 5. It’s short, not like other B&M Inverts, but it packs a punch. Unfortunately this category is JUST for Length.

And for the last and final category, It will be Duration. Alpengeist is 3:10 including the chain lift. And Flight Deck is 2:26 including the Chain lift as well. So it will be getting a 4 out of 5. There really isn’t much to say with this category.

Flight Deck’s final score is, 15 out of 25. That is honestly average. It could be better but this is my first Coaster Review. I will work harder into improve what I can do with these. My name is Fluffy. Thank you for reading!