I don't know the policy's for the 101st as I have never flown with the, but im not a big fan of Outcast factions myself due to the skill level which is required to be a member for most of them, and I honestly hate flying alone, I find it very boring and slow and no fun at all.
Corsairs, from what I have seen there has been many Corsairs factions around recently and most of them are active, [TBH] and there is CNS I think are both active and they will welcome new players as such. Especially with the new Nomicron mining that has just been implemented from what I hear there are 3 new locations which could bring some cool activity too.
The BAF is a good choice, I myself am a member and I think you will get on really well there, we always have between 1 - 4 active members at any time so all you need to do is ask for someone to log and sure someone should log with you
