And some precision SHIVA fire would be fun. No real reason to have the dropship just sit there.
This is a point to consider IMO. The pilot is aboard. The ship is armed. Possibly the dropship has order to stay grounded for some reason (not giving a target, waiting for emergency return of the soldiers, whatever).
We can also assume that rockets cannot be used due to the short distance, but lasers and the SHIVA should work nicely.
So I'd say it would be logical to have the pilot sitting behind his weapon controls during the mission. He only needs 2 or 3 commands:
- Ready for liftoff (i.e. don't shoot - may be handy if you're trying to catch aliens alive)
- Open fire on enemies
- Optional: shoot only safe targets (NO civvies or soldiers can be hit by accident)
The only limitation is that the weapons are aiming frontwards and probably won't have a wide angle. But since a hit with that kind of weapon is a 100% kill it would be well worth the effort.