I vote for no pilot at all. Why? Because shmups always present a great chance to have the player in the pilot seat, since there's no need to show the pilot upclose. Great stories have spots for the viewer to fill in. If the character you make isn't needed for expanding your universe, then don't make one, cause then it'll only be an empty shell taking center-stage instead of the player. I remember someone saying in your previous thread that the screenshots seemed to hold in some good story. Great many games take benefit of telling the story without language. It's always good to let the player define things for themselves, unless of course, you have something so spectacular that requires predefined aspects. R-type final is a good example. Every bit of graphics and sound contribute to a good story and only a sentence of written text is given between missions to give a hint of what the story is.
Not to get too off-topic, i really like the ships themselves as well as the silhouettes showing their weapons. Other than that, i agree with others, the user interface is too bulky and takes attention away from the ships. Try thinking in levels, then make an interface that doesn't rise too high above the ships and give the ships some subtle containers.