Entry 65 - 08.10.3303
10 Aug 2017MBaldelli
Current System: Wredguia JF-R d4-38I have been unexpectedly moody the last couple of days because of the lack of sleep I've been experiencing. At first, I thought it was because of the newness of the Zheng He and having to learn its idiosyncrasies; but looking at the calendar, I realized it's an old experience coming back to haunt me. Eh, it should pass in a couple of days. I'll be back to chatting aloud with myself in no time at all.
Two days ago, I had stayed planetside on HIP 26921 performing various engine diagnostics because I wasn't satisfied with the fact that the engines on the Zheng He tend to run a lot hotter than the Leif Eiriksson, and after consulting a couple of other pilots with similar models and engineering tweaks from Farseer I've come to the conclusion that I'm being needlessly paranoid about it. As it stands, I've never experienced overheating issues and given that as a DSE, I don't run tens of thousands of LY a trip, that I need to shake myself of the feeling that the FSD is going to break down in the middle of a surveying run.
With that in mind, I'm going to be continuing this surveying mission as I continue to perform the various shakedowns of getting used t a new ship, new cockpit and more of a view than I used to have on the Eiriksson. I've noticed double dipping does indeed pay off when it comes to surveying the great unknown outside the bubble, and if the Pilot's Guild and the local Factions are willing to pay the money, who am I to refuse those payments?
I think I'll continue looking for planets to surface mine materials from. I want to top off all the requirements for all the engineers in the Bubble if only so that I can later continue working on my ranks and reputations with the big three as well as Eliting my Pilot's Registration.
And where the engines might have been giving me a needless case of worry, the range tweaking on the scanners have definitely been giving me a sense of satisfaction. While really small rocks the size of meteors might not be scannable until I'm practically on top of them; I have noticed that with standard planets I can begin scanning them 150 - 200 LS away. Gas Giants scannable ranges have also drastically increased with scanning beginning 1,500 LS away (and more). This is definitely speeding up the ability to scan and land or scan and jump when I'm through with surveying a system.
Today, with only 500 LY from Sol, I've decided to change out from distance traveled to my current bookmark, to something more leisurely and economical. I'm seeing more half-scanned to non-scanned systems at this point and while I don't recognize the commanders names on these systems that were half scanned; I can't shake the instinct that some of these systems suddenly changed configuration. I know it's unfounded and that rogue planets can take hundreds of thousands to millions of years to occur in some places. It's just... one of those feelings I can't shake when I see how some really choice and money-making planets were completely overlooked by all the standard visual identifiers available.
All right, time to head back to surveying. I'm trying to decide when I'll be heading back to the Bubble. Based on the die roll I did, it'll be 08.23. So barring accident, systemic breakdown or other unforeseen events; I think that's going to be the soft date I'll set.