#x-flight

Photo Sources: All photos are mine

X-Flight at Six Flags Great America!

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Opened: 2012 Manufacturer: Bolliger & Mabillard Height: 120 ft (37 m) Speed: 55 mph (89 km/h) Length: 3,000 ft (910 m) My most recent ride: 2024

I've been covering a lot of B&Ms lately. Over the last few days, we've seen a Hyper, an Invert, a Flyer and now a Wing haha. And lucky for us, the Wing coaster is a pretty solid one! Even though X-Flight might not be as big as Dollywood's Wild Eagle, I actually liked this one a fair bit more. The ride may be small, but it really packs in a lot in a tight footprint, including 5 inversions.

Going in to riding X-Flight for my first (and currently only) time, I figured it would be fun enough for what it was, but nothing super substantial since I had heard from a lot of people that it was the weakest of the Wing coasters in the US. But once I rode it, I found that I enjoyed it more than I had expected to! I thought the layout was a lot of fun and it had a lot of good forces to it.

The three big reasons I liked X-Flight more than Wild Eagle are: 1) it had a more dynamic and interesting layout, 2) it felt more forceful, and 3) it has some fantastic near-misses. Starting off with the layout, even though X-Flight isn't quite as long as Wild Eagle in terms of track length, it felt like a longer ride, and I think that's due to it's collection of elements. Wild Eagle takes its maneuvers much more gracefully since they at least feel a lot bigger than X-Flights, and once you hit the final two helices on Wild Eagle, the ride kinda dies.

X-Flight on the other hand, is all just bam bam bam nonstop through all of it's elements without any dead space in between. It's not as whippy or powerful as something like an Invert (go ride Batman in the same park for that lol), but X-Flight makes very good use of its track length and space. With that comes the second plus: the forces. Wild Eagle felt very big and floaty through its elements, where as like I said, X-Flight takes them more tightly. I sat in the back row on the right side for my ride on X-Flight and really got whipped over the wing over drop at the start of the ride. The two zero-G rolls and the immelmann also had some nice whip. To contrast this, the ride's final inversion is a slow-mo in-line twist. You take this element so slowly and it's so stretched out, it's fantastic. That in-line twist also comes with easily one of the best near-misses out there, which leads into my third main plus for the ride.

Near-miss elements are something Wing coasters in general excel at. Due to the wide but flat shape of the trains, twisting through an element will have everyone tucking their limbs in because it seems so close to the train, even though in reality of course, it's perfectly safe. This also makes it all the more noticeable when a Wing coaster doesn't have any near misses (looking at you again Wild Eagle). X-Flight has three great near-misses. The first is about halfway through the ride when you swoop through the door of an airplane hanger. This one is like blink-and-you'll-miss-it fast but it's still a lot of fun. The ride's signature near-miss moment though is during that in-line twist. As you're twisting upside down, you pass right through the middle of an air traffic control tower which looks amazing from both on and off ride. I had always thought that this was something just built as theming for the ride, but I actually learned when prepping to make this post that it was actually relocated from Chicago's O'Hare Airport, which is so cool actually omg.

The last near miss actually comes immediately following the control tower, when you're completely upside down during the twist. You go through the middle of a support structure for the ride that's sort of in the shape of an A, and once again, it's super fun on-ride, and looks amazing off-ride.

So I'll give a few final notes about X-Flight, since this post ended up being way longer than I expected it to be haha. The ride is pretty smooth, which is great to see as always. I rode in an outside seat, so it was a bit bouncy but nothing too bad. I love the look of the ride and it's light aviation theme. The red track with black supports and the silvery control tower structure looks great, and I also love how the station is built to look like an airplane hangar.

In general, I feel like X-Flight get buried in Great America's lineup, but don't miss out on this one! Especially if you're a fan of unique ride experiences.

Finally decided to put together my post from going to Great America about two weeks ago lol. Sorry it took so long! With moving back home after college, I kept getting distracted by other things haha.

Here are some of my fav pictures I got! In-depth thoughts about each coaster I rode are below them!

So I went with a friend from college and rode about half of all the major coasters there (7 out of their total of 15) since lines were pretty long all day. American Eagle, Whizzer and Sprocket Rockets were closed all day (this was only the third weekend of the season so it was to be expected - you know how it is with Six Flags lmao), and then everything else we didn't get to ride was either a kiddy coaster (Little Dipper) or has a clone somewhere else that I've ridden before (Batman the Ride, Joker, Flash: Vertical Velocity, Superman Ultimate Flight). So not super bummed about missing any of those. Getting on American Eagle and Whizzer would've been fun since those are both classics, and even with clones, a credit is still a credit lol. My friend and I are hoping to go back when we come back to school in August, so we'll hopefully be able to ride what we missed then.

But enough about what we didn't ride, onto what we DID ride! (This will be in the order we rode them throughout the day, plus what number they are in my credits list)

Maxx Force - Credit #162! This was easily my favorite coaster in the park! I am a huge sucker for launch coasters, especially ones with powerful launches. With Maxx Force now having one of, debatably the, fastest accelerating launch on any coaster in the world, that did not disappoint! The funky inversions were a lot of fun and I really liked the high speed heartline roll in the middle. Of course the one downside to Maxx Force is that it's a very short ride in duration, in addition to the brakes kicking in while you're still going through the final element. But overall, it was still an absolute blast of a ride and I definitely wanna ride it again next time I'm at the park!

Raging Bull - Credit #163! I knew this B&M Hyper has gotten mixed reviews in the past, so I knew going in it wasn't going to be the best Hyper out there. I did really enjoy it's more unconventional layout for its model and the focus more on lateral and positive forces throughout the layout, and it was pretty smooth all the way through. What did disappoint me a bit though was the airtime. Like I said, I knew not to expect the 5+ second floater airtime hills you get on other Hypers like Diamondback or Candymonium, but I had heard that in the back row, the main first drop off of the pre-drop had some crazy ejector air in the back row. We rode in the back row and there was definitely some air, but not the crazy throw-you-out-of-your-seat type air that I was expecting. There were a few other good pops throughout the layout, but like I said, I liked it's focus on laterals and positives more. Definitely solid all around.

Viper - Credit #164! Viper I was slightly underwhelmed with. Going in, I had heard that Viper is one of the more underrated coasters in the park, both from other enthusiasts and locals who visit the park regularly. It was definitely smooth for a wooden coaster, it had clearly been well taken care of and looked to have gotten some recent re-tracking, which was very welcome. It also had some good laterals going around some of its turns, but similar to Raging Bull, I found it to be kinda lacking in the airtime department. Again there were some good floater hills here and there but not every hill hit like it should I felt like. This is one I wanna give another shake next time I'm there to see if I just missed something.

Demon - Credit #165! Demon was, not my favorite I'll say. Like it wasn't awful, I've certainly ridden worse Arrow loopers but this one was kinda middle of the road. I didn't think it rode as smoothly or had as much hangtime as the other Demon at California's Great America did. I liked the theming that this one had around it though, much like it's sibling in California. The rock work around the lift and corkscrews and the tunnel you fly through after going through the loops were both pretty cool. Other than that though, I wasn't huge on this one.

X-Flight - Credit #166! Opposite of Viper, X-Flight was better than I had expected! I had heard going in that it was the weakest Wing Coaster in the US, so I wasn't really expecting much, but really ended up enjoying it! We rode in the back row on the right side, so we really got whipped through some of the elements, especially the first wing over drop. I sat on the outside seat, so it was a little rattly there but that's to be expected with B&M Wings lol, and it wasn't really that bad. There were a lot of positive Gs that were a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the hangtime on the first drop and the final in-line twist through the tower (which was also a really cool visual moment both on and off the ride). Of the three Wing Coasters I've ridden, I put it in the middle. I liked it more than Wild Eagle at Dollywood, but not as much as GateKeeper at Cedar Point.

Goliath - Credit #167! Goliath was the longest line we waited in throughout the day at over 90 mins, but I would say it was worth it! I knew this was one of the shortest RMCs in duration, so that wasn't an issue for me but I really enjoyed the elements here. Great first drop and some really strong airtime moments. Both inversions were awesome too! The dive loop was really weird in a cool way, since I turned my head up while we were upside down to look through the structure as we dove down, which was a wild moment. And then the HUGE stall under the lift was soo cool as well. I'd only done prolonged stalls on Jersey Devil and Wildcat's Revenge (the one on Steel Vengeance is really quick and snappy unlike the ones mentioned here), but this one was just so big and so long that it was just a crazy moment. Easy number 2 in the park after Maxx Force for me!

Dark Knight - Credit #168! The last coaster we rode was Dark Knight, the indoor Wild Mouse. I know there are better coasters we could have ridden like Batman or Superman, but at this point, it was about 4 o'clock and we just wanted to get out of the heat and sun for awhile, so we chose to wait in the indoor queue of the Dark Knight lol. I knew what to expect since I had done the one at Great Adventure before, but I think this one was a bit better. The trims didn't seem to be hitting at all on the switchbacks, or if they were, they weren't hitting very hard. So lots of laterals all over, and it looked like more of the theming elements were either on or working than on Great Adventure's (at least from when I rode that one back in like 2018 lol). So it was fun, but in the end it was still just a Wild Mouse in a box lmao.

So that's my recap of my day at Six Flags Great America! I had a great time, at least until it started POURING as we were heading out at about 6 lmao. I'm definitely looking forward to going back, hopefully in August like I said. It definitely had similar bones to California's Great America, but I liked the charm of CGA a bit more, although Six Flags Great America has way more coasters lol. If you've been to SFGAm, let me know what you think of their rides or how your thoughts compare to mine! I'd love to know!

Here's all of the coasters I rode at the park from most to least favorite, along with where they landed in my overall credits ranking (plus which coasters are before and after them on my list for frame of reference):

Maxx Force (#20, between Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood and Thunder Striker at Carowinds)

Goliath (#30, between Volcano the Blast Coaster [formerly] at Kings Dominion and Candymonium at Hersheypark)

X-Flight (#46, between Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point and Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure)

Raging Bull (#50, between Great Bear at Hersheypark and Impulse at Knoebels)

Viper (#65, between Flight of Fear at Kings Dominion and Comet at Hersheypark)

Demon (#101, between Iron Dragon and Wild Mouse, both at Cedar Point)

The boys finally reach Six Flags Great America in the greater Chicago loop and even meet up with the one and only Mr. Muffy (who apparently survived her own death).  They dig into Goliath, X-Flight and an actual genuine meal they had in the park.