Ok so I just did a GSF match after ebing out of it for a year.

I crashed. I blew up. It was awful.

I'm going to keep going. My smuggler is a born pilot!

But what are the pros/cons to GSF vs. the fights when you get your own ship?

Looking for any tips to begin crafting my own ship that'll keep me alive

You are laboring under some confusion!

In GSF, you play a part of the game where your character is flying one of several ships. You requisition (are issued, for the purpose of using militarily) these ships from your faction, and the more you have proven yourself, the influence you have to get them to put you in rarer ships, or ships with components tuned at presumed great cost to the military.

In game terms, you earn currency by completing GSF missions, which are all pvp missions, and use that currency to unlock new ships (purple fleet requisition), unlock companions to help you (purple fleet requsition), unlock components on ships (yellow ship requisition, each ship has its own pool), and upgrade those components (more yellow ship requisition).

The biggest point about flying is practice. If you are crashing, you have a great tool to help you not crash: the tutorial. While not amazing, it certainly lets you get used to the three dimensional flight, and grants you invincibility in a solo world, so you can keep trying to fly around obstacles and control your ship by trial and error. You can also watch some tutorials:

tinyurl /drakotutorial1

tinyurl /drakotutorial2

Ensure you map all your GSF buttons- you should be rolling to help you turn (you move faster up and down, "pitch", than you do left and right, "yaw", and rolling helps make more of your turns into pitch instead of yaw), and you should be using all buttons, which will take time and practice.

Good luck!