I'm in the process of changing the RTT (rep_fly_command) from a flyer into a hover vehicle. The only problem I have left is in the animations. Since they were originally designed to play upon taking off as a flyer, they don't work at all now that the vehicle type has changed. I want to keep the animation the same, but simply change what triggers it to play, for example having the animations play upon entering or exiting the vehicle. Is it possible to control this through .odfs or the model's .anims file, or would I need to use other means (I'm not an animator, so I'm not familiar with the process of creating/editing animations)?

no you cant, you can only try to make it a flyer and mess with the pitchrate etc. commands

Yeah, unless there are some hidden animation calls that weren't documented for hover vehicles, the only ones i've seen for them are 9pose animations defined as a FinAnimation in the odf which are linked to when you move the vehicle forward, backward, or side to side, i'm not sure exactly how Pandemic set these up though because they are a single animation file capable of several different movements depending on which direction you move the vehicle.