We arrived at the park gates just before 9am, gripping our season tickets eager to use the exclusive ride time available on ''Air''. There was no one using the x.r.t entrance machine, I assumed this meant everyone had already gone in for x.r.t and we were late. As I walked through the turnstile I heard one of the employees saying ''Wayne Burton from Rideas'' , it was Paul from Rideas, I was so excited about riding and he was bragging he had already been on it, he stopped though when I reminded him I'd be riding ''Air'' today and he'd just be working.

At the top of Towers Street I realised where I was, for the first time it had hit me that this was March 16th and I was only a few minutes walk from the ride of my life. As we strolled down Towers Street a few enthusiasts passed us, running. There was a sudden urge to get to the ride as quick as possible, we opted for a quick route through the gardens, two other lads passed us they chose the old train track route.

We emerged from the other side of the gardens, the first thing that struck me was the new atmosphere in Forbidden Valley. The path to ''Air'' was red, the outlets next to MacDonalds had all been transformed, including a new information outlet. As I looked into the distant I could see the ''Air'' track towering above the other rides in the valley. Now excitement was building.

As we walked passed Ripsaw I noticed a familiar looking man standing outside of the Air shop, it was John Wardley, one of the many people who helped create this ride. I could either go to ''Air'' and ride it, or stop and speak to John, I decided to stop and have a word, after a quick photograph we remembered that the queues would be building up, so we said our congratulations to John Wardley and turned around.

I now realised that I was standing looking at ''Air'' in its fully glory. What was mud last year was now a multi-colour paved area. All at once I saw the very modern shop, a new games outlet, the Ripsaw arcades now as a cafe bar and the old Nemesis shop now selling food. It was a bit much to take in, the area looked very impressive and although there was no major theming, I thought it fit in very well with the rest of the valley.

As we walked under the mid ride helix towards the ride entrance I looked around me and saw some more coaster enthusiasts, some people wearing club jackets, some taking photographs. Once we'd worked out which side was the normal entrance we joined the queue. After a few minutes of entering the first train came around the track, everyone in the queue line stood silently, gasping at what they were witnessing. Next, the ride staff opened the second station, this allowed us to walk straight past everyone in the other queue and straight down to the second station. Although I felt sorry for the people who I'd just passed, I was now only a few minutes away from the ride I'd been waiting for, for the past 2 years.

I noticed a few familiar faces in front of us, it was two of the Rideas team members, they boarded the train in bay 6, gave a quick thumbs up and then crossed their fingers, hoping that the ride would not disappoint, we followed into bay 6 ready for the next train. After about 5 minutes of the ride ops checking the restraints and double checking them with the control panels the ride begun the floor fell and the trains tilted, we saw everyone's faces change as they adjusted to the new position, the lighting had changed and the train was ready for dispatch. The train left the station through the tunnel. We waited in loading bay 6 to see what the verdict was, as the train came back into the station everyone was smiling and clapping. Everyone had enjoyed the ride and now it was our turn to ride.

The air gates opened, I walked across to the central platform to put my bag into the storage racks. I walked back and sat into the seat. I pulled my harness over my head, at the same time the flaps in-between my lower legs turned 90 degrees holding them in place. I realised how comfy this ride actually was, whether it would be as comfy when we were tilted I was still unsure. For the next 5 minutes there was some confusion to what was actually happening, first our train tilted, which was absolutely amazing, but the lights changed and a voice over delivered the words ''assume the position - now fly'' but then we had to drop back down because on the ride ops control panel it said some of the restraints weren't closed. Then the train in the opposite station was tilted up into the flying position...... my initial thought was 'why should they depart before us? Its our turn.... have we missed our departure slot, like we could have done in a real air port? ' , but then the other stations trains fell back down again and we tilted back up. After 4 attempts of assuming the position we were finally departed from the station. We headed into the first tunnel, which was just concrete walls and floors, this gave me a bit of time to adjust to the position, the tunnel was lit up with the plain white lights.

The first part of the ride in that tunnel was quite fast and the train had to slow down before starting the climb of the lift hill. As we exited the tunnel Alton Towers staff were filming us, people were all happy and smiling. As we got higher we saw Nemesis from a totally new angle, the floor got further and further away until the clicking stopped and we were released, only gravity to help us around the rest of the track. The harnesses felt so comfy, it felt like I was on a sky coaster rather than a roller coaster. Looking down all I could see was mud, but as we turned the corner we got allot closer to this mud and we were ducking under the monorail, it felt as if we were going to slam into the metal fence surrounding the first drop. From looking down at the ground to looking up at the sky, the first inversion flipped us onto our backs. I turned around to my cousin and said 'wow'. The train tilted around this backwards turn, and just as we thought the train would turn us onto our fronts by flipping to our right hand side, it flipped to the left. Into a tunnel and out of the other side I felt like superman, although we weren't going very fast, this actually added to the experience. You could hardly tell that you were going through a barrel roll, it was so smooth and long that it just felt like another turn. Over the top of the train storage shed the train glided, I thought that was it, just a small helix to come, but this proved a very exciting end, no special water features, but a great view of the car parks and the first look at extended wooden queue line. In the brake run I clapped the amazing ride and shouted ''Oggy Oggy Oggy!'' and the rest of the train shouted back ''Oi Oi Oi''. Everyone had enjoyed the ride and came off it with smiling expressions on their faces.

In the station the trains tilted back into position and the floor came back up. The harnesses were released and we had just experienced ''Air''. As I collected my bag we walked up the 4 or so stair cases into the ride shop above. I bought my on-ride photograph, although it wasn't the best of photos and it was £4.99, I had to buy it to remember my first official flight on ''Air''.

We had a look around the merchandise in the shop. There were several different prduct lines, including the ATAF (alton towers air force) range, the 'love is in the air' range and the swirly air range. It all looked rather impressive. One of the shop assistants asked me whether I had enjoyed the ride, they had not yet ridden it, I told him it was fantastic. :-)

We rushed back outside to collect a virtual queue ticket, although the virtual queue prooved to be a disaster, with the virtual queue being very long and an annoying voice over in the queue saying ''please use both side of the queue lines : they are of equal length.'' We spent the rest of the day riding Oblivion, Nemesis, Corkscrew, Hex and Dynamo, we also managed a second ride on Air, which was better than the first ride. We also spent many hours around the Air area, taking photographs of the ride and meeting up with online enthusiasts.

In conclusion.... a fantastic addition to the park..... the more times you ride it the more you appreciate it!

Now i'm waiting for Tuesday when I'll ride again :-)