I had the same issue many months ago, I could not for the life of me get in the basket and if I did couldn't stay there. I watched 104th Mavericks videos on the subject for reference, but I followed his initial advice of formatting with the aircraft and just flying alongside it. If you can fly in formation with it then you can AAR, in theory.
It also helps if you are either in VR, its amazing in VR, or Trackir as you can quickly gauge your reference points. From then on do it slowly, inch in and keep your references and not look at the basket.