The Yela Slingshot: A 2400km MPUV Free-Fly Kosso-Aston-Grim Hex Rally

The Yela Slingshot is a fan-organized Star Citizen rally race, where you fly an MPUV Cargo from Grim Hex Pad 02, to Kosso Basin Aid Station, then Aston Ridge Aid Station, and back to Grim hex Pad 02.

Since everyone has an MPUV as part of the free-fly, I thought it’d be fun to do something with them! The Yela Slingshot is what I’m calling this MPUV rally race, where you take off from Grim Hex’s “old” pad 02 (by the lobby), loop around Yela, passing within 1km of two outposts in order (Kosso Basin and Aston Ridge), then land back on Grim Hex pad 02 again. The total distance is roughly 2400km, and thanks to Yela’s thin atmosphere, you can do pretty much all of it at 898m/s in the MPUV. I think the minimum theoretical time for the most efficient route would be about 44 minutes - on a test run, I was able to do it in 47:32. The race is against the clock rather than against other racers, but I think this would be a lot of fun to do in a whole gaggle of Argos! You can see a video of the whole route here: https://youtu.be/uVgh4pyHQeM

The Yela Slingshot runs from September 25, 21:00 UTC for ONE WEEK, through October 2, 20:00 UTC.

Full details and rules here: https://www.reddit.com/r/starcitizen/comments/pvfdkg/to_the_moon_the_yela_slingshot_a_2400km_mpuv/

Setup:

Because the MPUV has no quantum drive, you can use box mission markers as checkpoints.

Accept a three-box delivery mission Place one box at Kosso Basin aid shelter building, one at Aston ridge aid shelter building, and one at Grim Hex, near pad 02. (Use a ship with a QD for this step). Party up and share the mission with any other racers so they can accept and track the mission, to see the same checkpoints. Each checkpoint marker should then show on their HUD as “Package ######” mission markers Spawn your MPUVs and start the race from the big 02 landing pad outside the Grim Hex lobby. If there are too many racers to fit on the pad simultaneously, you may need to run it in stages.

The Route:

Starting at Grim hex pad 02, you’ll need to fly to Kosso basin on the north side of Yela, skim the surface to Aston Ridge on the south side, then fly back to and land back on Grim Hex pad 02. You need to do both daytime and nighttime flight, since you’re going around the whole moon. When you pass by each checkpoint, you’re pretty close to being lined up to the next checkpoint without needing a major direction change. Headtracking may be helpful, as when you reach Kosso Basin, the Aston Ridge checkpoint is almost directly underneath you on the far side of the moon. You can see the three checkpoints (Kosso Basin, Aston Ridge, and Grim Hex) are pretty much lined up on the DeepSpaceCrew’s Yela map from 3.12. When you approach Grim Hex again, you’re inverted and approaching from underneath the station, and fly right by the racing viewing platform on your way to the pad.

“Lore” (aka I made this up):

Slingshotting is a practice where a pilot uses the gravity well of an astronomical body to get a boost in velocity. Technically, you're not able to use the slingshot to exceed the max speed, but Yela's gravity does help curve your trajectory.

The Yela Slingshot is an unofficial rally-style race, inspired by the MPUV drug smugglers from the Jumptown Wars era of Yela’s history. With no weapons and no quantum drive, and visual navigation only, day or night, those pilots still managed to survive their runs from Grim Hex to Yela’s surface and back, taking advantage of the MPUV’s small signature and size to evade detection. Even though Yela’s WiDoW boom is over, pilots still run this slingshot style course around Yela and back to Grim Hex in MPUVs to remember the legacy. Completing the course with no weapons or quantum drive and starting and ending within Grim Hex’s comm-array monitoring blackout is part of the thrill for participating pilots. Pilots often run the rally in small groups and occasionally with escort ships, to increase the chance that they survive any spontaneous attacks.

Have fun!