Heh, shuttles can be amusing ^^
My own recent experience was a shuttle that, upon exiting a planets atmosphere...would fall back onto the planet with its rear end smashing into the ground, pointing me straight up. Then it falls upside down, and flies forward quite a ways until I shut off the auto-pilot and right the craft myself. Heck, I even tried giving the autopilot an order to return to the Galatea (yes, I named my ship after the Descent: Freespace command ship), and the same thing happened again ^^;;
You're not the only one with amusing troubles with shuttles, so dun feel alone ^^