I bind pitch up to space bar. Once you get used to it and remember that 99% of your jet maneuvering is performed by pitching up kb/m with spacebar as pitch up is the only way to fly.
The hardest thing for me to get used to was forcing myself to stop using the mouse to "force" my jet to do things. Use the mouse to control your roll and spacebar(pitch up) for everything else. Once you get that ingrained in your memory then you can start working on precision pitch control with the mouse for aiming.
I flew around a empty server using rockets on vehicles for about 30 minutes and then I had the hang of it. It's ridiculously fun blowing up an enemy AA vehicle with rocket pods from across the map now.
That's an interesting idea, I'll try that out tonight. Thanks for the tip!