Sky Rocket is a suspended family roller coaster at Dreamworld

Dreamworld

Dreamworld is a large theme park situated on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It is currently Australia's largest theme park with over 27 rides including 4 roller coasters. The park is made up of several themed lands: Ocean Parade, Kid's World, Wiggles World, Gold Rush Country, Rocky Hollow, Tiger...

 on the Gold Coast

Gold Coast, Queensland

Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...

, Queensland, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

History

Sky Rocket opened in 2002 as Rugrats Runaway Reptar. It was part of the new Nickelodeon Central

Nickelodeon Central

Since the 1990s, Nickelodeon, a worldwide children's entertainment company, has had an involvement in the creation and theming of amusement park rides. This article details the ventures of Nickelodeon in amusement parks....

 themed area. The roller coaster was the third of its type in the world and the first in the Southern Hemisphere

Southern Hemisphere

The Southern Hemisphere is the part of Earth that lies south of the equator. The word hemisphere literally means 'half ball' or "half sphere"...

. Towards the middle of 2011, Nickelodeon Central started to be rethemed into Kid's World. The change saw Rugrats Runaway Reptar renamed and rethemed into Sky Rocket. The ride remains to be Dreamworld's only children's roller coaster.

Ride

The ride has one train

Train (roller coaster)

A roller coaster train or car describes the vehicle which transports passengers around a roller coaster's circuit. More specifically, a roller coaster train is made up of two or more "cars" which are connected by some sort of specialized joint. It is called a "train" because the cars follow one...

, which has 10 cars with 2 seats on each car catering 650 riders per hour. The safety system consists of over-the-shoulder restraints that lock into place and then a belt-type connector that attaches the seat base to the over-the-shoulder restraints. Riders are taken up 14.8 metres (48.6 ft) by a wheeled lift hill, and go through a tight helix, followed by a series of small turns and drops. Upon approaching the station, the ride is slowed by a magnetic brake run

Brake run

A brake run on a roller coaster is any section of track meant to slow or stop a roller coaster train. Brake runs may be located anywhere along the circuit of a coaster and may be designed to bring the train to a complete halt or to simply adjust the train's speed...

. Each ride cycle takes 1.5 minutes.

Operation

Two staff members are required to operate the ride. One is designated as the ride operator and is responsible for operating the ride and safety mechanisms, and checking half of the restraints (either the first six rows, or one side of the train) The other employee is designated as a ride attendant and is responsible for letting guests into the loading platform, ensuring the guests are of the proper height, making seat assignments, and checking the restraints on the other half of the seats. In order to launch the train, both the ride operator and attendant must verify that the coaster is ready to launch.