So that was a new experience - switching to silent running and immediately getting subsystems demolished.

[Kirk-Fu]

Instead of silent running, heat sinks or reckless piloting I just fly towards the station as normal and pop a chaff if I see the scan warning. By the time the effect wears off and their scan can continue I'm already on the pad, no stress no fuss.

 

[Marra Morgan]

Instead of silent running, heat sinks or reckless piloting I just fly towards the station as normal and pop a chaff if I see the scan warning. By the time the effect wears off and their scan can continue I'm already on the pad, no stress no fuss.

I could tell you that chaff makes no difference, but after seemingly successful results, I doubt you'd believe me!
I think it's just a case of pulling out of range of the scan or entering the docking area and breaking their line of sight.

You could do this quick test if you're curious:
1. Hang around outside a station until you see the Scan Detected message (with no contraband in your hold).
2. Time how long it takes to complete the scan.
3. Now repeat, but this time launch chaff during the scan and note how long it takes to complete the scan.
4. Compare the times.

I did it myself a few months ago (on release of 1.2, I think) and found that chaff makes no difference to the time it takes for an NPC to scan you (which is ~10 seconds). Please do post your results if they're different, though!

 

[Kirk-Fu]

I could tell you that chaff makes no difference, but after seemingly successful results, I doubt you'd believe me!
I think it's just a case of pulling out of range of the scan or entering the docking area and breaking their line of sight.

You could do this quick test if you're curious:
1. Hang around outside a station until you see the Scan Detected message (with no contraband in your hold).
2. Time how long it takes to complete the scan.
3. Now repeat, but this time launch chaff during the scan and note how long it takes to complete the scan.
4. Compare the times.

I did it myself a few months ago (on release of 1.2, I think) and found that chaff makes no difference to the time it takes for an NPC to scan you (which is ~10 seconds). Please do post your results if they're different, though!

I'll agree most cases are simply me getting through the airlock before the scan completes, but I generally assumed chaff interrupts police scans, since it halts my KW scans whenever AI pop one. Maybe I've just been lucky, who knows. A dev response on the matter would be nice.