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Rank the B&M Wing Coasters

1. Thunderbird - Really great pacing and theming on this one! The launch and inversion designs are really top notch.
2. Gatekeeper - Ascethetically, this is one of the most gorgeous roller coasters, given it’s setting and incorporation into the entrance. While the first half is pretty good, the return journey does drag.
3. Wild Eagle - The beginning of the ride is pretty good... but totally meanders for the second half. At least it has a gorgeous station!
 
X Flight is great but if you happen to ride Wild Eagle at Christmastime, that's great too.
 
I've only ridden The Swarm and I absolutely love it! Such a smooth, enjoyable ride with some great forces, in my opinion; my personal 3rd favourite UK coaster!

However, I personally think that either Thunderbird or Fenix looks like it would be my favourite if I was to ride all of them.
 
I've ridden a grand total of two...

1) Swarm
2) Fenix

Fenix is alright, but it didn't really do it for me? The surrounding area and queue line is pretty damn impressive though.
 
1. Fenix
2. Swarm

Fenix is miles better by a long shot. Has moremore inten, airtime that I atleast felt a lot of, much prettier and I liked the theme more so yeah out of the two it's my favourite.
 
Thunderbird tops my list. It's the only B&M wingrider I've been on that I felt was genuinely aggressive. I loved that ride.
 
Only been on two.
Gatekeeper and Thunderbird.
Tough choice, I feel like Thunderbird is a better actual ride, like more consistent and better actual layout, but (in the back) I enjoyed Gatekeeper more. I found it had more pull/force than Thunderbird. Though front was crap, and I had some rides where it REALLY peters out over the 2nd half. In the end gotta go with just better experience, so edge to Gatekeeper, though again I grant Thunderbird may be a better coaster. Both fun, neither blew me away.
Will get on Wild Eagle this year, see how it compares. I usually hear it ranked near the bottom, but then some have it as their fav.
 
1. Parrot Coaster - The smart and graceful one
2. Flying Wing Coaster - The weird and intense one
3. Flug der Dämonen - The efficient and bouncy one
4. Wild Eagle - The inefficient and pretty one
5. Swarm - The inoffensive and Thorpe one
 
1. Fēnix - The restraints don’t tighten on me, it’s very smooth (probably won’t last), and it’s pretty forceful in parts. It’s quite short, but gave me a little more hope in a type I had pretty much lost faith in.
2. Swarm - I’ve grown very fond of this coaster over the years; really like the particular shaping of the wing-over drop and zero-g roll here, and again, restraints don’t seem to tighten. It’s definitely starting to go the way of the standard ‘juddery’ wing coaster though.
3. Thunderbird - The launch is fab! The rest of the ride is solid, if not hugely remarkable, but it’s reasonably smooth in most seats and has a nice flow to it. It’s easily one of the better ones, despite suffering from the usual wing coaster burdens.
4. Gatekeeper - It’s one of the bumpier ones, most likely because of its size and speed, but it’s also one of the more exciting ones, which when we get this far down the list, is a rare trait with these coasters
5. X-Flight - It looks like an extended and perhaps perfected version of Swarm’s layout, but it’s certainly not better. More juddery (sometimes) and definitely less forceful. It does have my favourite key-hole element, though.
6. Wild Eagle - My first ride on this was a glorious night ride, which is why it’s not right at the bottom, as every ride after that was pretty meh, and the restraints seemed to get extra TIGHT!
7. Raptor - In 2012, I really liked it. It was silky smooth and that allowed me to enjoy its beautifully graceful flow. In 2017, it was certainly not smooth anymore and the restraints were tightening a lot more than I remembered; creating a very dull B&M that was a little hard to enjoy.
8. Flug der Dämonen - Placing this last may be unfair now: it’s the one I’ve ridden least recently and just happened to be the first of the lot to disappoint me (something I’m much more used to now), so I guess that feeling stung more then? Anyway, I just felt the layout was cramped and awkward and at the time I was surprised at its annoying vibrations.


I’m yet to find a B&M Wing Coaster that I really love, maybe they just have too many inherent issues? At least there’s quite a few interesting-looking ones in China for me to try-out some time, but in terms of finding one that I’m a huge fan of, I won’t be holding my breath.
 
Glad to see another fan of The Swarm; it's such an underrated coaster, in my opinion! Definitely my favourite at Thorpe; reasonably intense, but so smooth, so rerideable and just genuinely such a relentlessly fun ride! It's the sort of coaster I love; thrilling enough to give you an adrenaline rush, but with a huge degree of fun, comfort and rerideability!

I'd be intrigued to know when you last rode Swarm, however, as I found it glass smooth when I last rode in May 2018...
 
Matt N said:
I'd be intrigued to know when you last rode Swarm, however, as I found it glass smooth when I last rode in May 2018...
Click to expand...

May 2017. Maybe it was an off-day, as before then it had always been really smooth, but when I noticed some juddering that I hadn’t before, I just assumed it was starting to act more like the other wing coasters I had done (still really enjoyed it though). I’d like to be proved wrong next visit, whenever that will be.
 
CookieCoasters said:
May 2017. Maybe it was an off-day, as before then it had always been really smooth, but when I noticed some juddering that I hadn’t before, I just assumed it was starting to act more like the other wing coasters I had done (still really enjoyed it though). I’d like to be proved wrong next visit, whenever that will be.
Click to expand...
My experiences on Swarm have always been glass smooth and nothing short of outstanding, so maybe it was an off-day! As far as I'm concerned, Swarm is just as good and smooth now as it was when I first rode it in 2014, if not better, so I'm sure you'll love it whenever you next ride!

I must admit that it's a shame to hear about the other wing coasters being rattly, though...
 
Matt N said:
I must admit that it's a shame to hear about the other wing coasters being rattly, though...
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is one of the fundamental issues with being sat beside the track rather than directly over or under it. The thing is, they’re never really rattly in my experience, but any kind of roughness becomes more of an issue when you’re trying to create a graceful and floaty/flying kind-of sensation in a coaster, which it seems to me is the purpose of this coaster type. To really optimise that sensation I think silky smoothness is required, as even any minor judder or rattle seems like an annoying interruption in the flow of the experience. Alas, I find most wing coasters are at least in some part hindered by that ?
 
The answer is obviously Thunderbird, but my list is probably fairly controversial

1. Thunderbird - Smooth, forceful, graceful
2. Fenix - Quite similar to Thunderbird really, minus the launch - excellent airtime hill
3. Gatekeeper - Just ****ing huge really isn't it
4. Flug Der Damonen - Don't judge me, it minces around and is fab and twisty
5. Raptor - Does the near miss thing the best and has some fab mincey moments
6. Swarm - I like Swarm, so
7. Wild Eagle - Fun, the setting helps
8. Parrot Coaster - Honestly, it was so bumpy I could barely keep riding it. Excellent first half but man does it get really bad, really fast
9. Heaven's Wing - It's alright, fairly bog standard
10. X Flight - It's poo
 
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