What's up with Invisible Flight Controls in this FIREFLY Clip?

Some of you may have already seen this, but I never even noticed it until today when it was pointed out to me. In the scene below Alan Tudyk's character Hoban "Wash" Washburne is showing off his crazy ass flying skills, but we surprisingly find that he has been flying with invisible flight controls, then all of a sudden they are there again. What happened here?? That's a big and interesting mistake. Did they loose the controls when they filmed this scene? See for yourself at around the 8:34 mark in the clip below. I thought this was pretty funny. What are your theories?