Join in a crane flight, on the world's only Free Fly rollercoaster...
Join in a crane flight, on the world's only Free Fly rollercoaster...
| Theme Park | Skara Sommarland |
|---|---|
| Type | Rollercoaster |
| Audience | Older Families and Thrillseekers |
| Opened | 29 May 2009 |
| Manufacturer | S&S |
| Model | Free Fly |
| Height | 66 ft |
| Length | 1640 ft |
| Inversions | 0 |
| Max Speed | 25 mph |
| Duration | 1 minute |
Tranan
Tranan (Swedish for "The Crane") is a one-of-a-kind rollercoaster which can be found at Sweden's Skara Sommarland park.
The ride is the only S&S Free Fly model coaster to have ever been installed anywhere in the world, which is a shame as it provides a unique experience.
The trains are similar in design to a wing coaster, with riders sitting on seats to each side rather than on top of the track. However, the Free Fly seats have riders sat behind each other in a line of four bobsled style, making a total of eight riders per train. These seats are mounted on arms which swing freely, meaning they can swing out as the train navigates corners but also can rotate a full 360° so that while the train overall can invert upside down, the riders stay roughly upright.
The coaster has a traditional chain lift hill, with the track layout featuring a mix of clockwise and anti-clockwise helices plus an inverted section where the track flips upside down and the seats rotate fully around. It never really gets particularly fast, with a top speed of just twenty five miles per hour.
While Tranan is a fairly gentle ride, the swinging seats with only a seatbelt lap restraint help make riders feel quite exposed which makes for a pleasantly exciting experience. It has been well received by visitors to Skara Sommarland and the Free Fly concept has won industry awards. However, perhaps part of the reason it has never been a success for S&S is the low capacity it offers: even with four trains, Tranan can only cope with a theoretical 900 riders per hour.
Tranan is an S&S Free Fly coaster
In the station
Lift hill
Top of the lift
Swinging out
Corner
Inverted train
Mid-course brake run
Off the brakes
Rotating around
Flying aboard the crane
On the wings
Into the final brakes
Back to the station
Tranan POV
