Do you use the past perfect to talk about something not true in the?
Yes, the past perfect is often used to talk about hypothetical situations or refer things which havent happened (like wishful thinking). I had gone to the store. I wish I had gone to the store. If I had gone to the store, Had I gone to the store, (The last two examples mean the same thing, and they cannot stand alone - they need another independent clause to make them complete sentences.) These are all uses of the past perfect. The past perfect is used in these cases because the speaker is referring to something which could have happened in the past, regardless of whether it actually did happen or not. In the case of your example, the I wish implies that the speaker has not actually made it, but they wish that in the past, they had made it.