Using Oculus headgear position as input.

I have been trying to use the oculus headgear position as a modifier the speed of a space shooter (chin tucked in means slower speed). However I've run into two problems.

1. I'm trying to use a script on an empty object to pass on the speedModifier variable to use in other scripts, however it doesn't get any input.

     using System.Collections;
        using System.Collections.Generic;
        using UnityEngine;
        using UnityEngine.XR;
        
        public class HeadgearModifier : MonoBehaviour
        {
        private InputDevice headgear;
        public float headgearModifier;
        public float throttle;
        public float devicePos;
        public Vector3 deviceVector;
    
        void Start()
        {
            List<InputDevice> devices = new List<InputDevice>();
            InputDeviceCharacteristics headgearCharacteristics = InputDeviceCharacteristics.Camera;
            InputDevices.GetDevicesWithCharacteristics(headgearCharacteristics, devices);
    
            if (devices.Count > 0)
            {
                headgear = devices[0];
            }
        }
    
        void Update()
        {
            headgear.TryGetFeatureValue(CommonUsages.devicePosition, out Vector3 devicePositionValue);
            devicePos = devicePositionValue.z;
            deviceVector = devicePositionValue;
    
            if (throttle < 0.1f)
            {
                headgearModifier = 0.1f;
            }
    
            else if (throttle > 1f)
            {
                headgearModifier = 1f;
            }
    
            else if (throttle < 1f && throttle > 0.1f)
            {
                headgearModifier = throttle;
            }
        }
    }
   
   
   

2. This is actually the second method i tried, the first one was simply reference to camera position. however the camera position sometimes got altered somehow (note that i offset the camera to a 3rd person view of the "fighter plane" with the z axis locked (which is the axis i want to use).

     public class FollowPlayerX : MonoBehaviour
        {
            public GameObject plane;
            private Vector3 positionOffset = new Vector3(0, 1, -10);
        
            void Update()
            {
                transform.position = plane.transform.position + positionOffset;
                
            }
        }
   
    
   

If anyone could help me with this i'd be very thankful. Cheers!