Thanks Nutter and everyone for the tips, been very helpful. I've been on two 1000LY trips. The first was in a Diamondback Scout. The problem with the DBS for me was that it carried very little fuel - four jumps and it was empty which made me very twitchy about getting left without petrol in the middle of nowhere - even with a good fuel scoop. So I traded it in for a DBX. Lots of fuel, but I couldn't afford a really big FSD so my max jump was about 19LY. I was carrying a lot of defence and armament because being 'mostly harmless' makes me seem a lot more threatening than I really am. Anyway, I wanted to go to the Orion Nebula. I got within 1000LYs but couldn't plot a route through, so I assumed that I didn't have sufficient jump range. So I returned to what passes for civilisation and re-equipped the DBX with the biggest FSD I could buy. I can now jump 30LY but have had to go for hardly and defence, an intermediate discovery scanner and a fuel scoop which I also use for stirring my tea. So I'm going to do some rare trades and get enough to get a real scoop and proper scanner. Then to the Orion Nebula where I assume I'll find lots of other tourists.
Once again, thanks to Nutter and everyone.
BTW, is it possible to take out a contract on a psychopath CMDR?