After what seemed like endless delays and setbacks in Trinidad, a true milestone was reached today. The first concrete footings were poured. We watched from afar with great eagerness over the last weeks as the crew there dug trenches, land down pipe, set manholes, built forms and tied rebar. Today the first of many hundreds of cubic yards of concrete was poured into the forms and levelled off. In the coming days more footings will be poured and the first of thousands of concrete blocks will be set in place. Today we celebrate real concrete progress!!!
The alien flies again!
A little over five years ago I began a fun display piece called 'out of the box'. Then, as often happens, we got real busy and the unfinished piece gathered dust in a corner of the shop for a long while. When we took on the two extremely large projects two years ago we needed every square inch of working space. We cut off the ship and smoke trail and tossed the bottom section. The space ship was fastened to the wall until we had a little time to work on him. Now at last the little alien will fly again as part of the trade show display!
A little design fun
Zamperla, an Italian ride manufacturer, unveiled a beautiful new ride at the IAAPA show few weeks ago. It was a great ride which offered guests the chance to pilot their own paraglider. Each kite is controlled by a push bar which hangs from above. The ride on display at the show was painted bright colours with lots of LED lights. As I eyeballed the ride set up inside the convention hall, my Zamperla contact asked me how I might theme the ride if I had the chance. Lots of ideas immediately came to mind. I promised Michael a concept drawing. Today I had a little fun sketching a new theme for the Windstarz ride. The centre pylon now sports a glider launching catapult and the ride sports a much more mechanical theme.
