i didn't know and you hadn't said
the only other thing i can think of is to look in the craft's -set file and remove or comment the model loading in there... you might have to chase it from the -set into another file, though... depending on where the craft loads it...
me thinks i might be contacting the maintainer of the craft and requesting an option to turn off the pilot model...
[edit]
the maintainer, d-jsb, is on the dev mailing list so you might inquire there...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."