Nighthawk Review For today's review, we're gonna have to travel back in time to 2019 when Nighthawk was at Carowinds. This was the parks Vekoma Flyer, and despite people bitching about it, this ride was really fun and I'm very sad that it's gone. Once you strapped yourself in, the ride got into flying position, and away we went!!! You rolled around a turn and then began to climb the lifthill. Now during that turn, I would've warned you. The sun is going to shine directly in your face and it will freaking blind you. But luckily, once you reached the lifthill, it was all good from there. Since you were climbing up the lifthill backwards, you couldn't see when you reached the top, which increased the levels of excitement you experienced on the ride. Then suddenly, you started to level out and just saw the sky, this means you were going backwards again. But don't worry about that. Then you simply just flipped over, and were going forewords again. Now we've reached the B&M Flyer position. Then you moved onto the first drop. The first drop was really good. It really made it look like you were diving straight towards the ground. It also provided us with plenty of speed. Then we headed straight into an overbanked turn. This was a fun part of the ride and did make it seem like you were flying. Too bad this ride definetly had more of a rattle to it than the other Vekoma Flyer that still exists, Batwing (REALLY CONCERNED FOR ITS FUTURE NOW!!!). But at least it was a better view over an artificial body of water. Still flying low to the ground, we then headed straight into a big turn. So far, it's just a normal turn, but suddenly, we noticed something weird. We were now on our backs going backwards again. Yep. There was a half inline twist in this turn. So that provided us with some fun. Anyways, you then headed down into one of the best parts of the ride. The loop. Now while I will admit that I prefer Pretzal Loops to regular vertical loops on flying coasters, but real loops still kick ass and provide a different feel on a flying coaster than on a normal coaster. It sort of just has a weird feel to it that rocks! Anyways, we then headed into another turnaround that flipped us back on our stomachs facing foreword. We then headed back towards the ground with plenty of speed. This just lead us to another turnaround that partially flipped us. Yep, we were now on our backs. And it wasn't exactly a smooth transition. But then we came to the most...awkward part of the ride. The corkscrews. I know on later models, these were changed into the inline twists that you see on Batwing (and Firehawk while it still existed. R.I.P). Cause yeah. You didn't just flip through these corkscrews. You tumbled through them. It was rough, very clunky, and just felt....wrong. It was fun, provided you don't mind clunky tumbling. After that bit of excitement, we just headed around this clunky turn and headed into the brakes. Yep. No helix on Nighthawk, like there is on the newer models. So just how was Nighthawk? Yeah. You can tell that this was the first Vekoma Flyer. You can REALLY tell. I know I praised Batwing and defended it whenever enthusiasts claimed that it and the Vekoma flyers were rough. Well on Nighthawk, I can defeinetly see where people were coming from. Now it's not HORRIBLY rough, and I still do find it to be a fun ride. But I'm not going to lie and tell you that this ride is smooth. Because...yeah. It's not. Unfortunetly, it always had a long line due to capacity and popularity, so I sadly am not too surprised that it was demolished, though I still wish they gave a prior announcement and allowed people to get their final rides. Also, it going as part of the great Cedar Flags coaster genocide of 2024 makes its demise more bitter, even if Nighthawk alone isn't too surprising. Please don't touch Batwing now. =( 7/10 Location: Carowinds Opened at California's Great America in 2000. Moved to Carowinds in 2004. Died in 2024 Built by: Vekoma Last Ridden: July 25, 2019 Nighthawk Photos Home