Well, if I got this correctly the cause for the crashes for the DAT PTO carrier mission has been found by Charles, it seemed to be an issue with some effects files. But since I don't even have that mod it's unlikely that this is causing my problems here. Not to mention that I don't have any inflight issues as far as I can tell, it's just the menu windows were I run into trouble, but since it's intermittent it's kinda hard to say with what exactly.
On top of that it's also fair to assume that no installation is like the other here...and mine is a mess really.
It would be huge step forward though if it were possible to reproduce these freezes, because I have none of the issues Piecemeal has...
EDIT:
TK has released a hotfix....flown a few campaign missions....no issues with the Loadout or Map menu,
http://www.thirdwire.net/files/dl/SF2_Jul2013_Hotfix.exe