Buckyball Racing Club and New Pilots Initiative present: New Pilots Hustle (8-16 January 3308)

[Coslany]

Intent to race:

Race Class: Unlimited
Ship Type: Type-9 Heavy
Ship Name: Baymax

I'll probably switch to a more suitable racer later, but for now watch out for me in the mail-slots folks! o7

I can't let the bottom of the board go uncontested
Let's hope we don't meet in the slot!

ITR:

Name: CMDR Bob Dubrovnik
Class: Is sadly lacking
Ship: Type-9 Heavy
Ship Name: The Wonder Stuff

 

[sgurr]

Class: Is sadly lacking

well played

That's the T9 run entered, time for something a little more nimble than a planet.

 

[Raiko]

Was very busy yesterday, but manged to make two T-9 runs very late last night.

The first was going quite well I think, until I experimented whether you can gently nudge npc Sidewinders out of the way by ploughing into them at 300m/s in a 2000ton cargo hauler. You can't, and station security take a dim view of it.

So I reassembled Baymax at the nearest detention repair centre and headed back to the start line.

By this time it was after 3am, so I should have gone to bed, but wanted to make sure that I had something to submit.

The second run had lots of little mistakes and an evaded interdiction (just as I'd got a potential overshoot under control ), but I made it to the end in around 35 minutes.

I think I'll have time for a couple more runs this evening, to get a more respectable time. Went straight to bed, so I've not uploaded that run yet.

I did enjoy throwing Baymax around the course, so I'll stick with the Type-9.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Four attempts to beat @Alec Turner's time this morning. Four failures to even beat my own, though I came close... once. I was a teeny, tiny bit over aggressive with my gravity braking attempts, which naturally leads to overshooting or getting captured. Hopefully, I'll be able to find that zone again this afternoon.

Highlight of the morning:

 

[Coslany]

T9 run submitted.

By the numbers:
450CR in fines.
1 loop of shame.
About 4 or 5 ships 'encouraged' not to impede my progress.
Of which I have no idea how one Hauler survived as I clipped him when boosting off the pad to the slot.
52% Hull at the finish - which when using 6A G5 shields is pretty poor.
ONE happy pilot!

Viva Buckyball!

 

[Alec Turner]

Tip #147 - I seem to have a had quite a lot of jumps which were heading straight back towards the station ... always that tantalising risk of hitting mass lock before you can engage the jump. I tend to deal with these by turn FA Off so I continue my drift away from the station as I'm lining up for the jump, only re-engaging FA and boosting back the way I came at the last minute, the aim being to just get back up to speed in the direction of the jump at the last minute (but not to get too close to the station before that happens).

Also, a blooper reel from this morning ...

Source: https://youtu.be/jTDKxRxku00

 

[Epaphus]

Epaphus was also spotted in a Regulation Eagle, breaking the 30 minute barrier at a chill 29:55. Ominously… “Dynamic Shields never fail, until they do.” Epaphus, do you have a history with shields? Did they hurt you?g

They did! I might have subbed my toe on the shield generator a few times while preforming maintenance or tweaking them


I dusted off my Type-9 for a warm up run this morning. Some how ended up not hitting anything in the mail slot. When I returned to Whitson Hub some tourists wanted to play chicken then moved out of the way at the last second.

Now back to something which can actually turn in supercruise

 

[Ozric]

Penultimate Scoreboard Update!

View attachment 286368

Hot on the tracks today, Antikythera67 switched from Open Unlimited to Regulation Eagle, and landed smack in the middle of the scoreboard at a hair over half an hour in the 13-NPH-BL1TZ. I think they stole their ship naming scheme from my bookmarks theme! This time in spite of arriving at the side of two stations and whacking a solar panel. Odd how that doesn’t get a fine, let’s all thank the Pilot’s Federation treaty for that! That’s when you need those Dynamic Shields most, and "When you absolutely, positively need to stick a landing at 150 m/s...you can rely on Dynamic Shields." Thanks Anti!

And hey, look who’s back since forever, it’s Stern Winter! Cruising around the course in the Rusty Penguin, running over some hapless commander outside Nimoy Station. Thankfully Stern’s shield held, since they’re “Dynamic Shields - a weave above the rest.”

Epaphus was also spotted in a Regulation Eagle, breaking the 30 minute barrier at a chill 29:55. Ominously… “Dynamic Shields never fail, until they do.” Epaphus, do you have a history with hields? Did they hurt you?

Shaye Blackwood switched ships again, with his fourth type of the race, trying out the popular Viper Mk 3 and naming it Plissken. Apparently it’s popular for a reason, because he knocked another chunk off his time to solidify his lead at 20:19. Will anyone be able to knock him off on the last day? Get out there and try Buckyballers!

Lastly, I’ve added my own run to the Open Unlimited board, safely off the podium, although hopefully I can beat at least ONE of Shaye’s ships!

I'm sure there should have been another entry in your inbox...

Tip #147 - I seem to have a had quite a lot of jumps which were heading straight back towards the station ... always that tantalising risk of hitting mass lock before you can engage the jump. I tend to deal with these by turn FA Off so I continue my drift away from the station as I'm lining up for the jump, only re-engaging FA and boosting back the way I came at the last minute, the aim being to just get back up to speed in the direction of the jump at the last minute (but not to get too close to the station before that happens).

Also, a blooper reel from this morning ...

Source: https://youtu.be/jTDKxRxku00

When I have a target behind me I start charging the FSD while still facing directly away from the mailslot. Once it gets to the end of the word 'Charging' I hit boost and turn to face my target. I do the same thing for all my ships and it works well with even the larger ones. But I must admit that the Eagle is so nippy I was surprised I didn't get back into Mass Lock a couple of times.

 

[Seingalt]

Intent to plot route correctly (and hopefully improve my personnal best)
CMDR Seingalt
Ship : BB intials
Regulation eagle

 

[Fish172]

That`s all its about really

 

[Seingalt]

Damn !! Managed a great unofficial 29:28 (I think, because - well, no end of race screenshot !)... but the last screenshots were not saved because I wanted to check my start time when supercruising to Whitson dock and in locked the folder or something !!! Regulation eagle category of course.

Anyway I soothe myself by telling myself it was a bad run anyway, that I'll doo better (except the arrival at Meliae, which I finally managed to get right)...
And I'll do better next time and take proof this time.

Using the correct route is definitely a great improvement... Being daft with my supercruise time is the problem.

Only 1h 15 minutes left to compete !
ITR : please, just ONE smooth run, without technical problems
CMDR Seingalt
BB initials (regulation eagle)

20:59 : rebuy screen...

 

[Ozric]

Final run submitted. I had 5 goes today, 3 of them ended in failure. My second run of the day was about 10 seconds quicker than my submitted time, but I wanted to try and break the 28 minute barrier. On what was going to be my last run everything just came together, and there's still a reasonable amount of time to be saved on SC approaches.

Thanks for the race Bruski, it's been great. It's been nice to visit a few of the old places, even if for some reason the Galaxy Map didn't think I'd visited Ovid or LHS 3006. I particularly enjoyed skimming bits of the station as I was flying back and forth. And the chance to really get a landing pad I wanted made things nicer,

Source: https://youtu.be/q05Cujxv0_w

 

[Cheetah]

Really enjoyed being back in the saddle, thanks for the race Bruski. And thanks to the rest of you for the fun and games. One day I really must learn to do all this properly

 

[Fish172]

Had a blast and what a great way to start the year. Thank You!

 

[Seingalt]

That was my first race, but certainly not my last. Submitting on last open attempt that marginally improved my time.
I am however very proud to present you with my 30:09 run timelapse in the regulation eagle.
Didn't get below the 30 minutes, and there are plenty of things to fix, but I certainly am happy about getting a second faster than my fellow New pilot - Huntaer
-> timelapse
I will try to get a better record of my future runs. My computer really struggles too much with video, so I'll try and make these from now on, and maybe have a 0.something interval between screenshots to get a good idea of my runs, and the highlights too... Maybe even without the boring jumps...

Next step is to burn all my supercruise assists, to improve my mastering of helixes, and do my cargo runs without shields, just to get better at docking.
Maybe it's just funnier to run a permanent buckyball race as I fly around the bubble ?

Happy to join the club and going to purchase a lucky ton of coasters to put in my open Viper right away !

 

[Raiko]

Managed my normal eleventh hour submission - finished at 11:57pm!

Couldn't manage to break 30 minutes in Baymax unfortunately, mostly due to some dodgy touchdowns on the pads - kept getting caught on the floodlights and deflector thingies.
Then docking back at Whitson Hub I nearly completely blew it - I thought I had a perfect line through the slot, clipped something and got stuck - I managed to free myself with seconds to spare before the station killed me, but from getting caught up in whatever it was to actually landing took a full minute.

I'm pretty sure that I could get under 30 minutes in my favourite Type-9, on a better day, but it wasn't to be for me this time.

Thanks for a great race Bruski! o7
And thanks for everyone who joined in, especially those trying Buckyball for the first time.
I spotted Cmdr @Epaphus during my last run, had time to send an o7 between boosts.

I'm sat back on the Monday FCOC Shuttle to Colonia right now, ready for some more attempts at the Colonia Trophy Dash. I'll be back in the bubble in plenty of time for The Magic 8 Ball Championship.
This weekend has definitely brushed up my SC approaches in a Type-9.
I've also learnt that I've got a bad button binding for boost - I got really bad cramp in my right hand midway through the run!

 

[Epaphus]

I spotted Cmdr @Epaphus during my last run, had time to send an o7 between boosts.

I would have replied between boosts but can't see where my keyboard is in VR

Chasing down the last one final run, if only there was time for one more run.

Clearly need to spend more time playing with my Viper Mk III and learning how to get a quick 180 turn without going splat on the side of a station. Although to be fair it was first real flight with it, its been sat in Shinrarta for ages waiting for me to get some mats to finish the engineering on it.

Thanks for putting on the race Bruski, looking forward to the next ~8 months with the magic 8 ball championship. Should keep me busy

 

[Bruski]

[scoreboard is tentative and some runs are still undergoing validation]

Wow, there’s a lot of scoreboard to update today!

First off we have Ozric, Buckyball veteran returning to the stage at the last minute in the Fool of a Took. But who’s the fool here, the Took or the Turner? He polished supercruise perfectly, easing around the course well below 29 minutes and taking first on the Regulation Eagle board.

And now a word for our sponsors, Dynamic Shielding, a Core Dynamics Subsidiary, product endorsement does not indicate powerplay or governmental alignment by the Buckyball Organization.

read in a slightly manic Rick Flair style
Ozric: Man lemme tell ya. When you about to get to the mailslot on your way out of the station doing 350 m/s and an Adder suddenly moves into your way making you take evasive action where you end up slamming into the wall of the station, and you still come away with 11% shields. You know you've found a good supplier! Wooo!

And back to our racing.



We saw Stobi-Wan switch to a Regulation Eagle and post a completed run! This in spite of being sucked in by Tesla station into the infernal eternal loop of shame, where one orbits the station perfectly in supercruise four or five times. Almost beautiful in it’s curvature…

Public Service Announcement

Do not text and drive, distracted pilots are dead pilots!

Now lets take a close look at Stobi-Wans final approach and... OH, miffed the slot entirely, that’s what distracted driving does folks, best of luck and come back soon Stobi!




Excuse me we appear to be having a scoreboard malfunction… wait no, you’re saying a category has been ADDED to the race? This is… ahem… highly unusual, but I guess we’ll allow it. Early the final morning of the race, not one, not two, not three, but FOUR tonnage-addled Buckyballers decided to take the Type-9 out for a spin in an Eagle’s race.

Epaphus decided the Regulation Eagle was just too damn nimble and quick, and got into the As yet unnamed for, well I would say a spin, but let’s be honest the Type-9 doesn’t do much of that, around the stations. Max observed speed was 303 m/s, although due to using stationary cameras instead of video recordings it might have gone a bit faster, and the 40 minute mark was well and truly smashed by our first Heavy Metal contestant! He took the interesting strategy of avoiding other ships in the Type-9, a bold move Cotton, we’ll see how that plays out for him!
https://c.tenor.com/Q3KPOTHw9LAAAAAC/bold-strategy-jason-bateman.gif
Apparently ATC heard “ muppet in a Type-9 was going racing around them so kept the mail slot clear to avoid having to do ship to ship collision paperwork.” Could be, could be, but I think the Type-9 goes faster when it eats smaller ships.

The entire fiasco may have been started by CMDR Raiko, who’s love for his massive Baymax is well-known. Baymax clocked in at a zippy max 324 m/s, and snark was clearly maxed out with Raiko’s post race endorsement: “If that Sidewinder had fitted Dynamic Shields, maybe my Type-9 would have bounced off…” See, this is more evidence for my Type-9 ship carnivore theory. It needs the tasty smaller ships to fuel its powah! Raiko’s first submission was 35:04, but He managed to eek out a 33:09 in the ending few hours by utilizing the unorthodox strategy of bouncing off all the landing pad lamps at the very end and reducing hull down to 42%. Don’t knock it if it works!

Next off the line was Sgurr in the Barda, who I’ll let describe his strategy in his own words. “ I forgot that the T9 doesn't so much turn in supercruise as rotate the system around its mass. Out of six station approaches, I overshot the station on the first three due to an over-enthusiastic spiral approach combined with aforementioned glacial turning, and on approach four I opted to faceplant the rings rather than overshoot again. Thankfully five and six were less embarrassing and I finished in style, or as much as a T9 can have anyway!”
No worries Commander, there’s little as stylish as arriving in a thousand ton hunk of metal and twirling it around stations with the grace of a heavy metal ballerina at 295 m/s!

Finally for our oversize racers was Bob Dubrovnik in the aptly named “The Wonder Stuff,” with a 324m/s cruising speed. He utilized this to the fullest extent of the law and beyond, smashing into an Asp, and Hauler “and a few others” and racking up over 400 credits in assorted traffic fines. Upholding the reputation of the club there my good fellow! The approaches were a wonder to behold, aside from a loop of shame (self described as “a slow and imperceptible giant curve”) at the first station, Bob utilized the “Newton Strategy” of pointing The Wonder Stuff in the general direction of the station and letting momentum do the rest, occasionally bleeding some speed off with planets of some happened to be handy and if they were large enough to have any effect on a type-9. This sheer smoothness and calm placidity with which he crushed smaller ships in his wake led to an eye-popping time of 31:40, thus taking the Heavy Metal trophy. Enjoy your cast iron bowling ball Bob!

I hope that’s enough large ships to satisfy those who lust for collisions, because after this we’ll be back to more normal sizes. But that will be tomorrow when I have more time to write!

 

[Alec Turner]

Final run submitted. I had 5 goes today, 3 of them ended in failure. My second run of the day was about 10 seconds quicker than my submitted time, but I wanted to try and break the 28 minute barrier. On what was going to be my last run everything just came together, and there's still a reasonable amount of time to be saved on SC approaches.

Thanks for the race Bruski, it's been great. It's been nice to visit a few of the old places, even if for some reason the Galaxy Map didn't think I'd visited Ovid or LHS 3006. I particularly enjoyed skimming bits of the station as I was flying back and forth. And the chance to really get a landing pad I wanted made things nicer,

Source: https://youtu.be/q05Cujxv0_w

I've been studying this run on the train - bravo, an absolute masterclass. For those still learning their Buckyball supercruise approaches I recommend watching this and keeping a close eye on that ETA number. The real sign of excellent technique is when that ETA, having dropped below 0:06, never goes back above it again (while obviously never overshooting badly either). I found it fascinating to analyse the differences between this and my own runs of which there are apparently two main ones. First you turn far more aggresively away from the star. Despite this being recommended in Bruski's excellent tutorial it was something I somewhat dismissed. Yes, I've always arced away from the star to get away from it first, but I generally don't literally point away from it, preferring something of a compromise between that and still heading in the vague direction of my destination. Perhaps I need to rethink that. The other big difference is that I did take heed of something else mentioned in Bruski's tutorial, that off turning off flight assist, both when exiting the station and when doing my runs along the length of the stations because of the claim that speed decays less rapidly with FA turned off. I'm beginning to think this one is a falacy, and that the fact that FA off means your vector isn't always in as straight a line to the back of the station as it could be means any vague benefits are lost in taking a slightly longer route. No regrets and I loved that FA off vectors meant I could better drift past the rotating obstacles but I'm not sure I'd bother next time. Actually, another observed difference is that I think I tended to spam boost too much rather than picking my moments, meaning sometimes I overly drained my ENG capacitor and had to wait too long before I could boost again. I'm curious Ozric, in those runs down the stations what are you paying attention to most re: speed and boost, is it the engine sound? You seemed to have a far more consistent whine whereas my engine sounds tended to be all over the place.

Either way, an absolutely fantastic race Bruski and what a magnificent start to what looks set to be a fantastic year of Buckyball Racing (fans should stay tuned here after the flurry of post New Pilots Hustle banter for news of the first race in the Magic 8 Ball championship which starts in February).

Oh, and also ... what about the elephant in the room? An elephant named Darplata94?

 

[Fish172]

I always leave a boost for the apex at the rear of the station as it gives you massively better turn in while on boost at speed. I may be wrong on this but visually there is a marked difference. I guess I should test this and see. As for leaving a star, I must admit I tend to arc away, never really considered just blast away as quick as you can. I guess my brain can see why it would make sense to move from the gravity source asap but my instinct is to arc away towards my goal. Need to try this in practice.