Polovski: ...but if you fly Brit there's nearly always someone above you anyway.
Not only for the Brits, Pol - I hardly ever find myself the highest flyer on German side; there will always be some S.E.5a or SPAD XIII safely above.
I don't really understand that complaints about the waypoints.
To reach a certain altitude WITH your wingmen near you, you need them.
You can cut that bit, by either using "warp", or by leading your flight and press "rejoin";
or a third way:
you activate TAC, press "W" repeatedly, until the blue line shows the flight path to the first real waypoint
(wait until all craft are airborne; it won't work earlier);
then open the inflight map, and press "X" for "warp", but place your fingers over "Control" and "X", and stop
warp shortly after. You may now have reached the altitude, without doing all the way by warp.
If all this is still not right, cause you want it more realistic - well, then you can only perform all the climbing
spirals, as the real pilots also had to do.