Problem Setting Relative Transform for Mesh Component Simulating Physics

I’m making a rail shooter prototype from the flying template (think Star Fox 64).

My pawn actor has a root scene component that moves along a spline. The player controls a static mesh component that is a child of the root. This mesh simulates physics and player inputs apply forces to the mesh to move it. To constrain the player to a plane defined by the forward vector of the spline, I set the relative transform of the mesh to be zero in the x (forward) direction. This worked perfectly in version 4.7.6, but broke when I migrated the projected to 4.8. In the new engine, I cannot even use SetRelativeTransform on the mesh with an identity transform when Simulate Physics is enabled! Is there a way to fix this, or perhaps a better approach I should use?