Retired engineer = fun!
This is what happens if you have a former Boeing engineer as a grandfather: a home project for the kids like a rollercoaster park will just sprout out of the backyard. For Paul Gregg, his skills on working with aeroplanes and military vehicles are not at all confined to his duty at Boeing, but even after retirement. He made use of lengths of timber, PVC pipes and his engineering expertise to build coasters for his grandchildren.
Retired engineer built a rollercoaster (Source: Backyard Coasters)
One of his backyard masterpieces is called the ‘Out’n’Back Negative-G,’ which starts from a picnic table on his porch that rolls to a series of bumps and dips. It eventually faces a large slope (at least for the kids) and retraces the course backwards. Another ride takes inspiration from a The Hobbit character, which he dubbed ‘Smaug the Terrible’ navigating through the backyard while going near the trees and looping under itself.
Retired engineer built a rollercoaster (Source: Backyard Coasters)
Of course designing the entire thing is not at all an easy task. He used CAD schematics complete with calculations in velocity, kinetic energy and G-forces for each twist and turn, using spreadsheets and the accelerometer in his phone. But it’s not enough to trust his skills – like any engineering project, the coasters have to go through safety tests, especially that his grandchildren will ride them. His projects involved a passenger in the form of sandbags strapped to an infant car seat for a dry run.
Retired engineer built a rollercoaster (Source: Backyard Coasters)
The details of his work are published in his book called the Backyard Coasters, in case other retired engineers are willing to take a shot at being a cooler granddad. But for now, the ‘Granddad of the Century’ title is reserved for Gregg
