Managed to get through the formation flying (after multiple attempts - yikes it's hard!) but running into a problem with AAR. A couple of things:
1) En route to the tanker Paco jumps his speed up without warning to the point I need to light the cans to keep up. Then slows without warning defying physics (I'm going same speed then go idle and hit the speedbrakes and still can't slow as fast as him).
2) I call the tanker on the DCS comms menu and get the response to go to pre-contact at 16k, despite the tanker flying at 15k. And then despite being in position, it won't recognize pre-contact. And I'm talking about being in proper position, I can do AAR with the F14 and F18 so I'm not sure what the issue is.
Lastly, and sorta unrelated: Once completing a mission with an "Average" grade the mission completed is listed as a "Draw". I have to hit the skip button to get to the next mission. Is this intentional? Or a DCS limitation? I don't understand getting an adequate grade but still not passing the mission.