RE Re flying the Falcon - I know it’s EU, but one of the Journey to TFA books said that there was a flight simulator lying around Jakku that she fixed up which had a ton of different ships loaded into it. She used it in her spare time, so while she’d never actually flown before, she had a LOT of experience in the simulator.
Don’t remember if YT-1300 freighters were included in the simulator or not, though.