You can use the Tab key and following menu's to give commands to AI wingmen. You don't need the autopilot feature for that. Granted they are not following commands all that good, you might need to issue commands several times and when they see enemy planes they all instantly think they are fighters and need to attack. Offline and AI are not that good in IL-2. It's online where this combat simulator really rules.
I would advice to post messages concerning IL-2/Forgotten Battles/Pacific Fighters etc at our sister site
http://www.mission4today.com - that site is dedicated to the IL-2 series combat flight sims and you would get a lot more responses - and a lot sooner too (sorry for the late reply).
This site has evolved into
http://www.airwarfare.com and is now part of a bigger scheme. There are a lot of free downloads for IL-2 at M4T, and a very active community. This site and it's forums are more meant as a continued support. - we don't like to delete things. You can find skins,campaigns, missions, utilities and everything else for IL-2 at
http://www.mission4today.com
Try some of the missions and campaigns (Download section) there - they are of a very high standard, matching, if not surpassing commercial add-ons for IL-2. There is also a continuously updated Knowledge base (In the left menu on the home page) about the IL-2 series.
Take a look - it's free and I think you will enjoy it.
Hope this helps,
MaX