I want to get my new vehicle in game, so I read minilogo's (or at least I think it was his) tutorial for animated vehicles. However, I don't exactly want new animations for my vehicle. I pretty much only want it to be able to take off, fly, land, and that's pretty much it. Is animation still necessary?

no, just set up the model with the hps and correct hierarchy, you dont have to envelope anything to bones, just export and make the odf.