Cobra mission is a mission made by Maxqubit and released on the official forums (user missions).
It makes it possible for the player to switch pilot/gunner seat. I believe this is done with several commands (behaviour careless, never fire, doMove.., flyInHeight ..) it might be interesting to check the scripts used in the mission.
And yes I do know that I haven't solved nor answered your original question, will try to do that when this method doesn't work.