Thanks gnomio, early on I realized that my core mechanic was really going to take up a lot of space so squeezing in opportunities for role-play cues and character customization in the margins was important. Using the pilot dice as personality litmus test, "skill" measuring tool, and Hit Points rolled into one felt like a reasonably elegant contraction of rules overhead.
I have a longer draft version of the rules that a little more than doubles the word count and adds some framework for downtime, including a certain form of 'healing' of lost dice (as well as out-of-Frame risky actions). Once the voting is over I'll likely post that, also have been thinking about drafting the whole thing up in a visual-enticing PDF...