Thanks, I guess I could start with the vulture and save up for the FAS..... any practical downsides to the vulture? Can I get around the bubble in it?
It doesn't have super-long jump range, but it's not terrible. You'll need either a spare fuel tank or a scoop for longer journeys as its standard tank is fairly small.
The Vulture never quite has enough power for everything you want, so make sure you A-rate the power plant, and then juggle the rest to suit your flying style - and you will need to use module management. Pulse lasers work well, as you can fire them practically forever with 4 pips to weapons, though the new Large multicannons might also be worth a look. It's also one of the few ships that can still keep up with the most agile NPCs post-2.1.
It's very much a shield-tanker - the shield can take a lot of punishment, but the hull isn't particularly strong. You could add some armour, but it's not really worth it as the first thing to go once your shields are down is almost always the canopy.
