Depending on the time you have to sit and take care of this sucker, I'd change the priorities on skills probably, and take others into consideration. I don't know the viability of this without the time to mess with some numbers, but I'm not sure how far you can get in any situation.
First off, I'd say
1) Cartography
2) Fuel Efficiency
3) Flight License
The first gets you the legs to build up for the rest, you want to try to get this to a total flight time that doesn't leave too much time on the ground before you can get back to the game. At
least hit a few levels of it first, then start hitting FE until you know for
sure you can reach something else. Hit one FL, then go back to the first two at least until your Cart is at a point where you know you can come back in time to re-up your queue. Once you're happy with your total legs, drop Cart completely. Unless that means maxing it, of course.
You also will need to try to look at trade/combat to bring up your money to try to upgrade the darn thing. I'd honestly say to try both, since combat alone is iffy to get the money you want. Bounce around where you can go, shake hands with the traders, and shoot the pirates. Combat missions are hit and miss if you're just trying to clear them there on patrol, but take a set anyway, you can drop any you don't clear/want before you leave.
Combat Upgrade Points: 8
Engine Upgrade Points: 2
Hull Upgrade Points: 2
Wing Upgrade Points: 2
Eesh. I... think you can level your skills to the point you can reach other clusters, which is gonna be important. Range mods aren't even a question. Whatever the best ones you can find and fit, get and put on. Avoid anything that lowers your range without, quote, "A {static}'d good reason." Namely, if you think you might stay in a cluster for a bit, and want other boosts. You can always take range mods off if you get somewhere else you plan on staying in for a bit, but they're gonna be critical for long range travel.
Use this to do range finding:
http://skyrates.jusque.net/buffaloes/GettyGet your trade license early up so you can counteract the fact that you're gonna be stuck in tight places in the beginning. If your cluster's lower end goods all go flat, you're in trouble. Missions might also not hurt, so consider at least a point or two in the two mission skills.
That's all I can think of, I'm tired, preoccupied, and probably wrong. Please, point and laugh where I screwed up.