Bravo, one of the most entertaining first posts I've read
Oh and welcome to the forums.
As for your first question, if the Bar is completely green your gunners will perform as well as possible, so no need for a extra qualification, however it helps the immersion to having a reliable trained hand up there to cheer for, or curse at.
As for the second - never had that happended. Have you tried setting the grid manually in Commander, as in actually typing in a valid grid? If that doesnt work either, I'm stumped.