Stunt Pilot is the newest, and in my opinion, best roller coaster at Silverwood.
This is a Rocky Mountain Construction single rail coaster. While at first glance,
the layout looks nearly identical to the original Raptors, there were some key changes that impact
the ride experience- some good and some bad. I’ll explain which version is better in this review.
Rocky Mountain Construction or RMC is located in Hayden, Idaho,
just 20 minutes south of Silverwood. And the two have had a long and fruitful relationship.
RMC’s founder in Fred Grubb built the park’s two wood coasters in Timber Terror and Tremors.
Then RMC themselves assembled the attached Boulder Beach Water Park and Aftershock roller coaster.
RMC also tested their new Topper Track technology on Tremors in 2010
and returned in recent years to add Retrak 208 steel track to both Tremors and Timber Terror.
So it was only fitting when Silverwood announced their very own RMC coaster for the 2021 season.
This would be Stunt Pilot, a single rail coaster.
The ride would have a nearly identical layout to the two original Raptors in Six Flags Fiesta
Texas’s Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster and California’s Great America’s RailBlazer.
Stunt Pilot was heavily rumored to have initially been for Kentucky Kingdom.
In February 2020, the park filed height waivers for a roller coaster not-so-subtly named Raptor.
The height and dimensions matched the two original RMC Raptors. This would have been
placed between Eye of the Storm and Storm Chaser. And it was slated to open in 2021.
But we know what happened in March 2020- the covid-19 pandemic hit and muddied
the plans of countless amusement parks. Kentucky Kingdom cancelled these plans.
Once that happened, it is heavily rumored that Silverwood swooped in and purchased that Raptor.
It was built in just a few months and ready to go for the 2021 season.
And this was probably a dream for Fred Grubb. He famously wanted to
build one of his Raptor coasters, quite literally, in his backyard. However,
he was unable to due to the nearby airport. So Silverwood getting a Raptor is a nice
consolation prize considering its just down the road from the company he founded.
These Raptors are incredibly compact and slender rides. The layout is roughly 100 feet by 300 feet,
so Silverwood was able to cram Stunt Pilot between the Roaring Creek Log Flume and
far turnaround on Tremors. This allowed the ride to become the newest addition
to Roller Coaster Alley, the section where Silverwood places its most extreme rides.
And this coaster looks great on the park’s skyline. The pristine white track and bright
red supports really pop on a clear day. Not only is this coaster highly visible,
but you can also hear this from most areas of the park. It has an incredibly loud lift hill and also
an audio cue atop the lift. You can actually hear this from the parking lot if you listen closely.
It also has a great presence up close. I’ve said this about the other raptors and I’ll
say it again, this ride looks unnatural in a good way. The odd track design,
narrow trains, and breakneck pacing makes this look like something straight out of a cartoon.
And the park also added some theming. The name commemorates the park’s aviation history.
From 1988 to 1996, Silverwood had daily air shows. You can see photos of these in
the first part of Stunt Pilot’s queue. When you head outdoors, you pass under a giant biplane.
A majority of the queue then takes place outdoors, offering some spectacular views of the layout.
And you also can see a few near-miss elements that were added. The coaster zooms through a few yellow
rings and charges through a barn structure. The final part of the queue takes place in
the station. It’s a wooden shed with some signage on the walls. And best of all for
us coaster nerds, the park posts the cycle time for the past few trains.
At Fiesta Texas and Great America, it is highly advised to start your day with their Raptors.
At those parks, the Raptors have one of the lowest capacities in the park.
It’s the opposite at Silverwood. Stunt Pilot easily has the best capacity
of any coaster in the park. Not only is it the only one that can and often runs two trains,
but it has two other things going for it. First, it is always staffed with multiple
employees. Compare that to the other coasters that often had just one staff member working the ride.
Second, it has a continuously moving load platform. So it’s like a well-oiled assembly line.
Guests board the vehicle and employees quickly push the restraint down. The train could be
stopped if any guests needed more time. And this would happen if someone towards the back needed to
store a bag off to the side, but it was typically stopped for a just a few seconds at most.
While it’s tempting to start your day with Stunt Pilot,
I would advise against doing so for three reasons.
One, it typically opens with just one train. The second one is added an hour or two into the day.
Two, the ride will speed up as the day progresses. I didn’t notice this
as much with the other Raptors, but I did notice this behavior with Stunt Pilot.
Three, the ride will likely have little to no queue by the mid-afternoon.
Even on a beautiful summer Saturday, the coaster was typically just a 5 minute wait
maximum for the second half of the day. And if you get a chance to ride this at night,
it was a cool multi-colored light package illuminating the supports as a bonus.
Meanwhile, the wood coasters were pulling 30-45 minute waits most of the day because of their
lower throughputs. So I would start with those or the sometimes finnicky Aftershock.
It’s also worth noting that Stunt Pilot appears to have a single rider line. There was signage for an
express lane when you reach the final section of the queue. However, this was blocked off in my
visits to the park. But considering how late this appears in the queue, you might as well continue
using the regular line for two reasons. One, your group can ride together.
Two, you can pick your seat. With the moving load platform,
you need to take the next available row. However, this ride’s employees have no issue if you wait
off to the side for a row further back in the train or the next train altogether.
But I think the money seat on this ride, as with all the Raptors, is the very back row.
That is where you get the strongest airtime. Now it’s time to discuss the changes
between Stunt Pilot and the original Raptors. There are three key areas.
I think the first two are positive changes. First, this ride has a longer train. As with
the other Raptors, you sit single file. But unlike RailBlazer and Wonder Woman that have just an 8
person train, Stunt Pilot has two extra rows, so it can hold a max of 10 riders per train.
Second, this ride has the newer restraints. You can find these harnesses on the newer Raptors
like Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Wonder Woman or Six Flags Great Adventure’s Jersey Devil Coaster.
You still have an overhead lap bar with straps, but the latter are more comfortable.
Third, the ride has some modified profiling compared to the original Raptors.
These negatively impact the ride experience in my opinion. And I’ll cover
each change in my element by element breakdown. Once dispatched, you head up the 105 foot or 32
meter tall lift hill. This is swift but loud. At the top, a speaker tells you “The Sky is Your’s”.
You then turn 180 degrees, getting a spectacular view of both Roller Coaster Alley and the distant
mountains. But the turn itself has been modified from the original Raptors.
Both Wonder Woman and RailBlazer dip down and up on this turn. This sort of throws
you into the first drop. However, it does create a potential valley point high above the ground.
Stunt Pilot instead has a much flatter turn with a slight downwards grade.
This is tamer, but it does still offer a smidge of laterals from the lack of banking.
The entry into the first drop is flatter. This has the benefit of allowing the front row to sort of
hang over the plunge for an extra second. But you really want to be the back rows for this element.
The extra two rows do their best to compensate for the modified entry. You launched upwards and
get very strong ejector airtime in the back row. I still think the airtime is more intense on the
original Raptors since you’re bucked upwards, but Stunt Pilot still has an excellent drop.
But that’s not all this drop offers. There are two excellent headchoppers on the way down.
One with the mid-drop and one with the brake run.
Then you also get blasted with good positive Gs on the pullout.
Next comes the dive loop and this is the element that changed the most from the old Raptors. And
that’s a shame because this is one of the best elements on the old Raptors. On Wonder Woman
and RailBlazer, you don’t start the twist until you’re at the apex of the element.
So you basically have a half camelback followed by a sharp, rotating plunge.
This results in powerful ejector airtime before being hit with intense laterals.
On Stunt Pilot, you start the twist before you reach the apex. This unfortunately designs out
most of the airtime. You now just get some faint float, especially in front where you momentarily
hang forwards while you wait for the rest of the train to catch up. Then you have
a disorienting flip back down to ground level. This descent does offer nice positive Gs though.
Next comes the s-hill. On Wonder Woman and RailBlazer, the train is level over the apex.
On Stunt Pilot, you’re banked sideways at the highest point. This is another element that
I think was more intense on the originals. The laterals felt more abrupt and the airtime felt a
tad more powerful. That being said, you still get great ejector in any row on Stunt Pilot as long
as you’ve given the coaster a few laps to warm up. And this s-hill has a surprise near-miss on
the pullout as you dive through a ring. Next comes the turnaround. You rapidly
twist upwards, building solid positive Gs. I started to greyout if I sat towards the front.
Then there’s an s-bend high above the ground. On the original raptors, you zoom through
this maneuver. On Stunt Pilot, you do have a moment to catch your breath on the s-bend.
But things pick back up for the second half. You have a sizable plunge back down to
ground level. This offers a good and abrupt ejector pop in the rear rows,
but again it felt a tad less forceful than the original Raptors. That’s most evident if you
ride in front. On RailBlazer and Wonder Woman, the entry into this drop is so sharp and quick
that even front row riders will get a pop of airtime. That doesn’t happen on Stunt Pilot.
There are two great headchoppers though. First, you narrowly avoid some supports on the way down.
Second, you charge through another ring entering the next element.
And that next element is a cutback. This has a smidge of hangtime. Those in front
get traditional hangtime while those in back get something more akin to lateral hangtime.
You then zip through another ring and navigate my favorite inversion on Stunt Pilot, the corkscrew.
This offers lots of floaty hangtime, much more so than the original Raptors. You seem to spend more
time going through it. This is the one element that I think improved from the originals.
And the exit has another phenomenal near-miss, as you charge through a barn.
And if you watch this off-ride, you’ll hear some animals clucking afterwards.
Meanwhile, those on-ride whiz around a low turnaround. It’s
super speedy and offers some ok Gs as well.
You then jump into the final brakes, getting some good floater up front and some lift
towards the back. You then decelerate, getting applauded for your expert flying.
If the train ahead of you hasn’t stopped in the station, you’ll keep on rolling into the station.
Otherwise, you may stop on the brake run for a few seconds. But in short order, you’ll return to
the station and you’ll be asked to hop out fast. This ends the 1800 foot or 550 meter long coaster.
This is a short ride. While there is a bevy of elements, you do feel the lack of length a bit.
Now let’s talk about this ride’s pacing and smoothness. Pacing is one of the biggest
strengths of this layout. You fluidly cruise from one element to the next with minimal downtime.
As for smoothness, this is where Stunt Pilot has an advantage. My recent rides on
Fiesta’s Wonder Woman and Great Adventure’s Jersey Devil had a very noticeable shuffle.
Then RailBlazer’s final turn had a bump or two. However, Stunt Pilot is butter smooth start to
finish. Not sure if it’s the trains, track, or maintenance, but whatever the cause was,
it was much appreciated and made this coaster super easy to marathon.
So what would I rate Stunt Pilot? I would give this single rail coaster an 8 out of 10.
I love the 3 distinct spots of intense negative Gs on the two main drops and the s-hill.
And the inversions are fun too. Add in the wonderful pacing and smoothness and
this ride is a winner. That being said, it is a step down from the original Raptors.
The dive loop is very noticeably neutered and a few other spots were toned down. However,
it’s still a great coaster and my favorite attraction at Silverwood.
Just don’t expect the raw intensity to match RailBlazer or Wonder Woman.
So those are my thoughts on Stunt Pilot at Silverwood. How do you think this ride
compares to the other Raptors? Let me know down in the comments. If you enjoyed this review, I’d
appreciate it if you gave this video a like and you considered subscribing since there will be a
lot more roller coaster and amusement park videos here at Canobie Coaster. Thanks for watching!