Epic journey of exploration around the milky way galaxy!
PMC Exploration Galaxy Loop
After reaching Triple Elite status, switch to a relax mode in elite universe and go to an great long journey exploring around the galaxy. Loop clockwise at the "middle" part of galaxy (25,500ly from core) all the way through to the other side of galaxy (from Sol), then get as far in the edge of galaxy as you can jump with current jump capability. From there its so cool to look back at Sol and see the stupid long distance. When done marveling the galaxy, return to the loop route and return to Sol.
Relaxed exploration, no hurry at all. Scan all interesting looking planets, scan all stars, skip useless belts / icy / rock stuff of course... except with Elite v2.0 you can land on icy and rock planets, so they are no again interesting hehe. Try to scan the galaxy area where youre at for interesting stars. Just enjoy the journey and don't be bothered to count how many light years did you jump today etc.
My path to triple elite showed in exploration part how easy it is to burn out by playing too much. Don't play every day unless huge enthusiasm strikes. It is very important not to burn out playing too much, trying to jump too many systems at one session / day etc. Try to relax, enjoy the galaxy, if you don't feel like playing then don't. Simple.
In-game chat Athanasius said that its roughly 2 * 25500 * 3.14 == 160,140Ly journey 
If we calculate some useless statistics: 160,140Ly / 2000 (60min of jumping is two thousand Ly) == 80.07 hours. 80.07 / 24 == 3.33 days.
But bit more practical formula would be: 80.07 / 12 hours game time per day == 6.67 days. But yeah as you can understand its completely useless to try to calculate these as you have to count how much time you spend in one system, if the system map is empty of anything interesting then its 0 seconds per jump as you check it while FSD is charging... however if there are something interesting, then you can spend even half an HOUR in a system. Totally useless trying to estimate these into some formula.
The point of PMC Galaxy Loop is to enjoy the exploration, simple.
PMC Galaxy Loop Doctrine
Doctrine how to explore while in PMC Galaxy Loop journey. First and foremost it should be an enjoyable relaxing adventure where you take the time to appreciate the beauty and majestic sights of the galaxy. Do not rush this, it is not a idiotic dancing & frag race.
When route is plotted, walk it through on galaxy map so you can see if you go by any interesting stars or too many non fuel scoop compatible stars etc. Also in galaxy map scan the nearby areas every once in a while, maybe every 500Ly or so, you might find black holes or other interesting stuff. Think about using economic route plotting sometimes.
After dropping out of hyper space into a new star system:
- Advance discovery scan (doh! obviously!)
- Surface scan the main star to leave your first discovery mark
- Surface scan neutron stars, black holes, ammonia, water and earth like worlds regardless of distance
- Surface scan all planets with atmosphere that look interesting up to 10,000ls distance (or if there are many orbiting a distant star)
- Check out small / large landable planets from system map
- Land on extremely interesting looking planets, or if you just feel like it
When approaching landable planet
When detailed surface scanner start to scan, cut throttle and wait. When its done check system map for planets gravity, if its over 4g you are not "allowed" to land there (in risk of destroying your ship).
The 65k Ly from Sol Club
Finwen and Akira Masakari reached maximum distance from Sol of 65,279.35 Ly, this is also my goal to get into 65k Ly Club 
Waypoints in my route:
01 stock 1 sector js-t d3-49 02 preae eurk ut-z d13-16 03 prue dryai eb-u d4-37 04 thraikooe vs-u d2-34 05 eolls priae bq-v d3-27 06 xothi gg-y e25 07 hypua groa ma-h c13-18 08 hachaei wp-w g15-1 09 drootie sf-c d14-70 10 beagle point 11 plaa chroa mc-m d7-96 12 phrooe blou ac-f c14-60 13 stuenooe mr-i b37-5 14 blooe hypai ky-f d12-103 15 plua aewsy rr-w d1-118 16 bleia dryoae ag-w c18-35 17 pro eur wj-y c14-3
However you should check EDSM PMC Galaxy Loop Route for more specifics, especially as the journey progresses.
Update 2017-12-06: the above was the initial plan, below you can read what actually happened...
PMC Galaxy Loop
2016-08-06 started v2.1 Horizons - The Engineers for the first time. This was me coming back to Elite since Nov 29th, 2015.
2016-08-06T05:52:47Z I departed to Snake Sector, arrived there 2016-08-06T06:48:30Z and visited few systems, like just checking out scenerys.
I was using keyboard + mouse because earlier this year sold both my HOTAS systems (X55 and Warthog), keyboard + mouse was quite pain but I got used to it (it will take me few months before I can purchase HOTAS again).
Then... I saw that Elite runs nice and I want to play some more but populated space don't appeal to me so why not start PMC Galaxy Loop right now. The decision was made
2016-08-06T07:41:22Z departed towards "west" about 1000Ly. Idea was to just take it easy, pure enjoyable exploration mode without any rush. If I want to stop into interesting systems and do some SRV driving or if I get a rush and want to jump 5000Ly in one session, that's fine too. I really try to take relaxed attitude with PMC Galaxy Loop, its all about enjoying Elite and not trying to rush it.
2016-08-06T11:07:46Z arrived at Stock 1 Sector JS-T d3-49, which is leg 01. Distance to Sol 1193Ly.
At 1500Ly point I still saw quite a lot of other CMDR discovered systems, I guess the minimum range to hop out of populated space before not seeing discovered by CMDRs is like 2000+ Ly.
2016-08-08T07:55:06Z arrived at Sifi FL-F c11-14, distance to Sol 2137Ly.
2016-08-09T05:57:08Z decided to time how long time it takes me to visit 50 and 100 star systems in my relaxed and enjoyable exploration mode.
2016-08-09T07:22:59Z had 50 systems explored. Found two water worlds and a ammonia world.
2016-08-09T08:34:46Z had 100 systems explored.
2016-08-15T15:45:52Z had to skip above the T tauri and L/Y dwarf star layer. I already encountered this earlier but managed to avoid it, now had to quickly jump above it so I can continue using economical route plotting towards my next goal star system.
2016-08-16T13:51:47Z I landed on large icy body planet on Pru Eurk LX-L d7-54 system, it was 13k kilometers radius, quite large. Took an SRV out and... got pretty much stuck in edge on one massive crater. I started to run low on fuel and hull integrity so I recalled my ship fully aware that AI might damage it by its brainless landing methods... and it did, my ASP on 100% hull was banged down to 85% ! 
I was 3541Ly from Sol and as I'm a man of princible... I plotted course back to closest space station for repairs. I will not explore, fly a ship that is below 100% hull integrity like some fucking newbie
Yes it was 7000Ly round trip just to fix minor hull damage, but hey what can you do.
Lesson learned, I will never ever play around in SRV on such large planet or at least not recall ship if there is no flat surfaces to land on.
Fuck this sucks
New Yembo system was 3198Ly away, so I plotted course there.
2016-08-16T17:01:26Z docked at New Yembo station. Repaired my ASP Explorer. Then headed back out again...
2016-08-16T17:47:59Z reached Plaa Eurk LC-C d13-15 system which was about 1300Ly from Sol. First rest stop on my way back out where AI damaged my ship.
2016-08-16T20:52:58Z arrived back to Pru Eurk LX-L d7-54 where the damage was done. Damn what a detour.
The next day I jumped few new systems towards "west" as before the damage, then I decided to land on nice high metal content world. Well it was 1.3G world and this time it was totally my newbie mistake... I slammed into the surface causing 62% hull integrity damages. I did the good old clishe rage quit
Well not really rage quit but I just watched the monitor with blank look in my face, then just ESC and exit to desktop... I was done. Even though I just started to play elite... heh I need a few days break as the above happening isn't very nice gameplay experience
2016-08-18T16:44:49Z at Pru Eurk LX-L d7-105 back in the cockpit and departing towards New Yembo, AGAIN. Hehe crazy shit man, crazy ass shit.
Only 3214Ly, one way...
2016-08-18T19:15:38Z reached New Yembo, repaired ship and went back out...
2016-08-19T20:59:07Z reached back to Pru Eurk LX-L d7-105. Hopefully now this stupid damaging my ship shit is DONE.
Last discovered by CMDR name I saw was in: Pru Eurk YU-X c14-18 (3501Ly from Sol). Roughly (very roughly) after that point the CMDR discovered names were rare. So a good tip at August 2016 galaxy exploration state is to move 3500Ly away from the bubble before starting to explore, to avoid running into discovered by CMDR names all the time.
2016-08-22T19:53:23Z Been keeping casual relaxed pace when exploring, usually do only small like 20 or so systems per day. Like said, very relaxed enjoyable exploring. This is also because I have other things to do daily at the moment, I'm sure once I get more time and v2.2 comes out... we do 200 systems per day!
2016-08-23T17:07:58Z decided to flip flop completely
Okay so the Horizons v2.1 The Engineers came out which included possibility to increase FSD jump range, well I watched few youtube videos and talked with other CMDR's on IRC and decided to give it a try, I want to increase my explorer ASP's jump range so navigating near Beagle Point and "outer rim" is easier.
I was 4061Ly away from Sol and 4191Ly away from Deciat which is engineer bitches home system where I need to go.
2016-08-23T20:31:26Z arrived to Deciat system, player killer CMDR RedLineUK destroyed my ship. I lost exploration data from 1148 systems since 2016-08-06. BRITISH BLOODY BLIMEY CUNT.
After this I took a day or so break, then started to work on the engineers FSD upgrade. I wont bore you with the details in this exploration page, but when I was finished my ASP had 51.66Ly jump range, whoah pretty nice huh!
2016-08-27T21:11:12Z started PMC Galaxy Loop all over again. Did preliminary route to EDSM but without coordinates so it is pretty empty shell.
2016-08-27T21:27:33Z departed from Jameson Memorial.
At this time in my EliteLog tool I had hyper jumped 15,088 times. It will be really interesting to see how many jumps I'm going to do in this journey before I return to Jameson Memorial again
2016-08-27T21:31:25Z plotted course and jumped to Ipmil system, PMC Galaxy Loop has BEGUN! 
Plan was now to jump using 51.66Ly range to reach the 4000Ly mark where I turned around the... third? time haha, and then continue using economical route from there. Only 21 jumps for 1000Ly hop, gotta love the new jump range
2016-08-27T21:52:46Z arrived to Stock 1 Sector KH-V d2-32 so first 1000Ly leg done, man do I love this 51.66Ly jump range hehe.
2016-08-27T21:58:37Z arrived to Stock 1 Sector JS-T d3-49 which is the first route waypoint (or "leg") in PMC Galaxy Loop. Waypoint I mean just a average random place in the galaxy where I want my journey to proceed, nothing special in this system.
2016-08-28T00:24:44Z arrived to Sifou NK-L b36-1 system which is 4079Ly from Sol, another thousand light year hop done. This basically marks the spot where I left off earlier. Time to switch back on to economical route plotting and relaxed exploration mood
2016-08-28T02:23:10Z arrived to Chraufao SC-V d2-18 where I took a first break, good progress for first session.
2016-08-29T02:51:04Z arrived to Crescent Sector DL-Y d29 which is the crescend nebula. All explored by CMDR's already. Nebulas are for CMDR's like shit is to flies it seems. I won't be visiting many nebulas because of this, I have no desire to explore someone's leftovers, I need virgin exploration material
Most likely the CMDR explored nebulas reduce once we get beyond 20,000Ly... dunno, I might be wrong, those things do attract people so much, even me... but like I said, I have no desire of going to some tourist hot spot as exploration for me is to discover the never before seen unknowns of the galaxy.
I had to jump about 200Ly out from Crescent nebula with fastest route planning to get rid of the all systems explored by CMDR's annoyance.
2016-08-31T05:09:43Z arrived to Preae Eurk UT-Z d13-16 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 02.
2016-09-05T18:08:45Z arrived to Pro Eurk KX-L d7-16, then decided to land on a planet, didn't check its gravity which was 1.3G, not too bad but definitely something to be careful with. I listened to twitch elite stream on the background and on top of that started to take screenshots in external view when approaching planet from 35KM altitude (glide failed due to high angle).
Well you see where this is going... hehe, yes indeed CMDR
I leveled my ship still several kilometers above the planet surface, but it was too late, my ASP kept on sinking like a rock and BOOM! I got destroyed on the surface of this ringed planed. Fucking hell! whos the newbie now?
I'm actually not angry, I've been here too many times to know better, there is nobody else to blame but me... if you don't learn, you die. Simple.
But needless to say, I'll probably take "a few" days off from exploration now as this PMC Galaxy Loop starts to become bit too sad story hehe
So decided to head back out, actually I was eager to beat my EliteLog v1.0.4 record of 567 jumps in one session (basically in a day). So I looked my notes about found ammonia / earth like / water worlds before I crashed (which data were lost) and plotted bookmarked course for them.
I also decided that PMC exploration doctrine now is to NOT LAND ON ANY PLANETS until I have practised landing in Elite v2.2 beta like fucking hundred times! I've had enough of these screwups in this journey, now we do things right.
2016-09-06T01:32:54Z departed from Jameson Memorial.
At this time in my EliteLog tool I had hyper jumped 15,609 times. It will be really interesting to see how many jumps I'm going to do in this journey before I return to Jameson Memorial again
2016-09-06T01:34:00Z plotted course and jumped to Ipmil system, PMC Galaxy Loop has BEGUN!, AGAIN! HAHA
2016-09-06T09:58:36Z arrived to Pro Eurk KX-L d7-16, which was the system where I got my ship destroyed.
2016-09-06T10:50:18Z arrived to Prue Dryai EB-U d4-37 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 03.
2016-09-06T20:23:07Z arrived to Thraikooe VS-U d2-34 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 04.
Made a new high score of hyperspace jumps in one session today! Old one was 567 jumps which was made on my galactic core return trip.
It was quite exhausting task to break that record. As you can see I started UTC 0132hrs, but I took a small (hour+?) nap sometime in the morning time, was just somehow so tired, but after that I pressed on all day and to the night.
I believe the record I'm making now is quite tough to break, sure you can do it when you really focus and motivate yourself, get very good like 8hrs sleep and then go crazy right from the morning until you crash to bed again. It can be done heh, but it will be very tough
2016-09-06T22:51:25Z arrived to Ellorps PI-M a62-0 system, this was todays 600th jump! New record!
Decided to call it a day here, even number new record and it has been extremely long and exhausting day hyper space jumping that many times. I was 24,536Ly from Sol.
2016-09-20 took several days break after getting the high score hyper jumps in a day, then did couple of days of 20 jumps per day and finished that today. Today we get v2.2 beta which I'm going to play like crazy, lots of cool new stuff and get to fool around in populated space, experiment with stuff as there is no consequences in beta. Will be good stuff.
2016-10-25 Elite v2.2 was released. Started to play again in live game as I was earlier playing in the beta.
Tested PMC EliteLog v1.1, Genar-Hofoen's Captain's Log 2 beta and Finwen's EDDiscovery v5.0.5
2016-10-26T17:27:52Z talked with Eraktor about meeting in Colonia as he was headed there and I was quite close.
2016-10-27T22:26:59Z okay so I started to jump in speed mode again, fastest route and I timed how quickly I can jump 20 times, it was 18min 30sec pretty even when I tested two times in a row. That is 1000Ly in my current Asp Explorer 51.66Ly jump range configuration.
Speed jumping is just advanced discovery scan, quick system map check while FSD is charging and then jump into the next system.
Heard that Eraktor got destroyed in server disconnect near neutron star, it is unknown if he will get to Colonia for meeting.
2016-10-28T00:02:28Z arrived at Eolls Priae BQ-V d3-27, which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 05.
2016-10-31T00:00:09Z heh wow almost 0000 UTC heh. Decided that I'm doing the detour to Colonia. Eraktor is unknown status at this time but I still want to visit Colonia, so off we go. Nice 32,000Ly detour
So its one way 16,380Ly to be precise. I'm planning on returning from this detour back where I am now.
2016-11-01T23:34:27Z okay so 2016-10-31 I tested out some neutron star jetcone boosts, it was bit scary as I already have not huge but a lot of exploration data with me so getting ship destroyed by some foolishness like neutron star boosting would not be a great idea.
I managed quite easily in fact to boost I believe three times. When I jumped into fourth neutron star system I got disconnected from Elite servers, well okay I thought and logged back in... uh oh! entering the game / server my ship was on the neutron star jetcone and taking damage! 
I knew beforehand that this is a no win situation, CMDR Eraktor had his ship destroyed by the exact same thing, so I immediately logged off and submitted support ticket about this issue.
Well today support answered and they had repaired my ship and moved it to nearby non neutron star system, yes! Thank you Frontier Support!
I was in Eorgh Pre GA-J a36-1 system and get back on my travel towards Colonia.
2016-11-04T04:08:06Z arrived to Colonia system, 2016-11-04T04:15:53Z docked to Jaques Station.
It was quite relief (after the neutron star scare) to be safely docked in station with my exploration data
Purchased sidewinder and visited couple of populated nearby systems, but then returned to Jaques and got my Asp Explorer out again.
2016-11-04T23:48:57Z decided to continue my journey. Departed from Colonia (region) towards up in the galactic plane. Plan now is to go back to the PMC Galaxy Loop leg 05 location where my Colonia detour started, then continue from there according to the original plan.
2016-11-14T12:27:24Z arrived at Eolls Priae BQ-V d3-27 which is the same system I was before departing to Colonia, this was the PMC Galaxy Loop leg 05.
This Colonia detour was mostly done jumping max range, ie speed jumping. I'm hoping to return back to using economical route plotting and getting back to relaxed exploration where I have no hurry to get anywhere.
Now we continue in our journey, we head towards "north" in which is the furthest out we have ever been. This is exciting!
2016-11-14T14:22:48Z reached Dryua Priae CA-C c2-2 system, switched to use economical route plotting with plan on surface scanning all stars now and really taking a relaxed attitude to exploration once again. No more speed jumping 20 FSD jumps in 18min and 30secs
Went on like this for I think two thousand light years (two route plots), then had to do some EliteLog testing with longer jump ranges and got stuck there not really speed jumping but with fastest route plotting.
On a side note from this trip, I get motion sickness from driving the SRV, if I absolutely must drive, I turn on all the lights in my room and sit as far back as I can from the monitor / keyboard and try to minimise the time driving. And yes I do have the HMD motion sickness things enabled in elite options, no idea if those help or not, well not enough anyways.
I decided that for next exploration journeys I will not bring that useless SRV with me, I mean all its worth is getting "jumponium" FSD boost materials and taking screenshots, so why bother. I can land my Asp and take screenshots from there.
However dunno if its one of these things that its better to have it and not need it... like if you leave it out and go exploring, then you WANT to have it with you. But I haven't found such interesting landable planet so far while exploring where I MUST drive SRV, so dunno.
2016-11-22T00:34:47Z arrived at Xothi GG-Y e25 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 06.
2016-11-23T20:48:26Z arrived at Hypua Groa MA-H c13-18 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 07.
Long, 11 month break just editing arma3 terrains
2017-10-17 started v2.4 Horizons - The Return for the first time. This was me coming back to Elite since Nov 24th, 2016.
I have now purchased Logitech X-56 Rhino HOTAS so I can finally play elite like its meant to be played. During this one year (almost) without elite I have lost all the skills of how to fly my ASP and I believe the new X-56 HOTAS also is with some default settings, or I just simply have zero muscle memory left as flying in elite was as unknown to any newbie.
I practised in training mission navigation for like 5 times in a row to get hyper jumping with FSD into check. Okay I'm not a total dumbass, I do remember to cut throttle and not to collide with stars as after all I'm ranked Elite in exploration hehe, so basic exploration jumping should be fine. Only thing I need to learn again is fuel scooping, but I remember that being easy after you get used to it. Its crazy to think how much your skills are lost with "only" 11 month break...
But still I was super scared of getting back into my ASP cockpit so far away from populated space and with so much exploration data. But what can you do, I don't have second account to train exploration or is there any real exploration suitable training missions so its time to jump head first into the deep end
2017-10-17T04:44:37Z back in my ASP cockpit, finally!
Took me a dozens of jumps before I started to get my muscle memory back, I thought it was totally gone but nah it was there. After couple of hours of flying it started to feel very natural again. Only thing that my brand new X-56 Rhino HOTAS throttle was damn stiff heh. Edit: it still is after almost two months of playing, I guess its by design then.
2017-10-17T09:34:15Z finished for the first day back in Elite
Managed to get muscle memory back and basic HOTAS control setup done. FSD jumped to 110 systems towards leg 08. Its all good, CMDR.
2017-10-18T00:12:35Z arrived at Hachaei WP-W c15-1 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 08.
It is amazing that after almost a year off from elite I sort of started to get bored with exploration jumping again as I soon started to use normal fastest route plotting with that 51.66ly jump range. I wasn't in hurry, but still didn't feel like nudging around in economical plotting which is super slow traveling. Also when I made few ammonia / earth like / water world discoveries, I didn't go near them or screenshot them which I usually do. Honestly when you've seen one earth like, you've seen them all. Not complaining, just telling you how it is...
2017-10-27T07:02:58Z took a few days break but now was back in cockpit, plotted 13k ly route to PMC Galaxy Loop leg 09.
2017-10-29T07:22:36Z arrived at Drootie SF-C d14-70 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 09.
Tried to set course to Beagle Point at 12k ly away but route plotting failed. So plotted next hop about 5k ly away instead.
2017-10-29T11:00:37Z at Choi Eork SE-Y c17-1 system I found had other CMDR discovered water worlds the first time in thousands of light years. Man, I'm getting closer to Beagle Point...
Cheia Eohn VZ-O e6-0 another system, well a star, discovered by other CMDR, also the next system I jumped. Damn, lot of commanders traveled through here heh.
At 6100ly from Beagle Point I started to find a lot of stars discovered by other CMDR's.
2017-10-29T14:43:10Z arrived at Beagle Point
Jumped two systems further away, but that was as far as my ASP 51.67 light year jump range allowed (no I'm not interested with FSD material boost things). Arrived at Ceeckia FZ-D d13-0 system in 2017-10-29T15:18:33Z.
I must admit, arriving to beagle point was totally "blah" lackluster experience to me, I got there and literally was like "yawn.. umm okay, so what now", heh. Now don't get me wrong, I took my time to drop my ASP out of supercruise, stopped and just watched silently the whole galaxy in front of my eyes... it was definitely sight worth traveling 65,000 light years
It was quite demanding to travel the last leg of that trip all in one go so when getting there I thought it will take few days before I start to head back... but it was already the next day when I was eager to get going towards the populated space.
2017-10-30T10:37:21Z was back in cockpit and set my sights to route towards PMC Galaxy Loop leg 09.
I found several earth likes and water worlds near beagle point but because they were discovered by other CMDR's I didn't go scan them even for the basic money. Biggest payday is the first discovery bonus anyway.
2017-10-30T16:53:56Z for some reason route plotter refused to plot route anywhere near leg 09, so I just went and plotted to leg 10 instead, oh well. I was about 1.4k ly away from leg 09 so it was close enough.
2017-10-31T11:01:58Z arrived at Plaa Chroa MC-M d7-96 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 10.
2017-10-31 I was other side of the galaxy but was super eager to do some EDDN work on populated space, so after several hours (heh hours?) consideration... I purchased second elite dangerous account and started to send market price, station landing pad and distance from star data to EDDN, so taking a quick break from PMC Galaxy Loop for now.
2017-11-04T01:00:00Z finished sending market prices, kind of achieved everything in populated space with the second account what I planned to do (for now). Have no special desire to get back into exploration jumping frenzy either heh.
2017-11-07T21:03:21Z back in cockpit and heading towards PMC Galaxy Loop leg 11
I spent few days working on those populated space stations but now I'm back exploring and motivated getting back quickly to populated space (see pattern here?), I'm not going to do any economical route plotting but just blast off max jump ranges and as quickly as possible. Not that I'm "bored" of exploring, but I am definitely not in a mood for some economical months taking routes now.
2017-11-08T01:50:37Z jumped into the next system, dropped normally but as soon as that happened the faggot ass stupid fucking HOLO-ME idiot editor opened up and I could not get out of it as it just always opened some new shit options. I could hear fuel scoop already started as my ASP with 100% hull was entering near the star...
I tried quickly to exit that motherfucking stupid ass holo-me stupidity, but no, it ain't gonna happen.. dropped out of super cruise when hitting the star boundary zone and well yeah, there we go 99% hull integrity.
Could get back to super cruise without more damage but yeah now my exploration ASP is 99% hull, fuck that pisses me off as it was purely elite glitching with that cocksucking holo-me fucker
I have only once started up that stupidity in beta when it was first released, laughed how lame it is and exited right out of it. So now I had no idea how to close it when I had literally few seconds time to spare before my ship gets damaged. For the love of everything that is awesome... why such retarded GUI option is added into the cockpit menus, WHY.
Every video I put on youtube recorded after this make people believe I'm some newbie retard who cant approach stars and fuel scoop properly, SIGH
Was thinking of making support ticket because this was caused by holo-me editor opening, but was like... why bother...
2017-11-08T11:26:02Z day started when I was 752 light years away from leg 11, motivated to get back to populated space and FSD jumping a lot every day.
Distance to Jameson Memorial 39,300ly
2017-11-08T11:44:53Z arrived at Phrooe Blou AC-F c14-60 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 11.
2017-11-08T16:00:00Z moved three route waypoints from the "outer rim" into the closer inner rim which is quite bit shorter route to populated space.
I dunno man... I just wanted to get back there as fast as possible and besides if you just jump + honk + check system map, in endless loop without even scanning the stars to leave your exploration "piss trail", then whats the point going the long route? I mean I'm not here to enjoy some nice views, nebulas or other shit these blue eyed CMDR's seem to be doing.
I was in Lyaisu AR-L b21-0 system with 38,287ly to Jameson Memorial. Now begins the longest quick jumping return to the populated space! hehe
2017-11-08T18:24:09Z arrived at Pha Free SY-S e3-6 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 12.
Distance to Jameson Memorial 32,112ly
2017-11-08-17T20:40:00Z had to call it quits because my computer desk chair broke down. The back rest cracked and leaned like 10 degrees too much back and there was danger that it would soon fully snap. I could not fly my ASP naturally or do any serious computer stuff like this
But I tried to play elite, I even brought my tv recliner chair in front of my Gaming computer but no go, I cannot reach my HOTAS, well throttle full forward when I sit in the recliner, not to mention getting in and out of it is pure horror. So that was not an option.
Right now I don't have money to buy new computer chair, so if I cant use my computers other than short periods of time without back rest, it means no Elite playing either. Once again PMC Galaxy Loop is on hold
Damn man, this exploration journey seem to be riddled with all kinds of mishaps hehe. Wonder if I ever make it back? HEHE
2017-12-04T14:28:23Z got my new computer chair whohoo! Back in cockpit, next leg 10,000ly away, off we go!
2017-12-04T18:23:03Z arrived at Floadou VR-H d11-113 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 13.
2017-12-05T02:57:45Z arrived at Bleia Dryoae AG-W c18-35 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 14.
2017-12-05T04:31:01Z arrived at Pro Eur WJ-Y c14-3 system which is PMC Galaxy Loop leg 15, the last leg before hop to home
I was amazed to find undiscovered earth like world 2750ly from Sol. Saw first unindentified signal source 2200ly from Sol. At 1500ly from Sol started to see steady stream of discovered stars / systems by other CMDR's (but this was the case already a year ago).
2017-12-05T12:15:36Z arrived at Shinrarta Dezhra system which is the LAST PMC Galaxy Loop Leg!
2017-12-05T12:19:00Z docked at Jameson Memorial. PMC Galaxy Loop is over!
2017-12-05T12:24:00Z started to sell exploration data ... 2017-12-05T13:45:00Z completed heh. Total credits gained 204,768,812.
Conclusion
Many things happened and changed while I was on PMC Galaxy Loop exploration journey. Journey started with the mood of using economy route plotting and just relaxing, but it ended up with me a bit bored of exploring and just using max jump range only to stop detail surface scan ammonia, earth like or water worlds.
Actually more than half of this trip basically starting even before reaching beagle point was done with that high speed jump as quickly as you can attitude. For example right now I can only remember couple of times I landed on planet to enjoy the view and mood, on PMC Galaxy Loop videos there will be more details.
However mostly lack of landing on planets was because of the landing without shields causing damage bug and the fact that I'll get motion sickness driving that stupid SRV (32" monitor close to my eyes and trackir), even the options to disable HMD motion sickness do not help me. Only thing that helps is to turn on all lights in my room and sit far far back in my computer desk, but that is just stupid way to do any computer stuff. Of course you chould just fly around in your ASP above the surfaces, but that somehow is kind of like... why bother if you don't go full boots on ground so to speak. Anyways.
I took a break from elite for hardcore arma3 terrain editing which ate like 11 months, so saying PMC Galaxy Loop took almost a year would be a bit false as the actual in-game hands on cockpit time was mere weeks if you would compress that to 16hrs (heck even 12hrs) elite playing days. The formula I calculated at beginning of this page shows that you could, in theory, do this journey in one week with 12hrs a day every day jumping, which obviously it not really possible for exploration (detailed surface scans).
In that sense this exploration journey while I did complete it as planned, was not really done in the manner I had... well, planned. I'm not disappointed or anything, whats done is done, I accomplished this loop around milky way galaxy what I said I would do and that's all that matters. As result I'll most likely avoid making such long term exploration plans in the future as it feels silly to set into such a long journey with specific mindset only to return with completely other heh.
Was this fun? memorable experience? Yes it was. Do I plan another this scale exploration journey soon? Hell no!
Links: EDSM - PMC Galaxy Loop and this trips video "diary" from PMC youtube channel.