I was able to beat the mission the "honest" way. I was worried that it was bugged with the F10 option not working. The mission isn't really difficult, it's just annoying to execute perfectly. In any case, I tried F10 on the next mission and it gave me a passing score. I don't know why mission 17 does not. Hope that helps.
BTW I do rather enjoy the campaign and I look forward to the Mig-21 campaign as well.