AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 47

VIDEO |

Engine out
Inside a P-51 off-airport landing
B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N

IT WAS A MOMENTARY engine stumble, and P-51 Mustang pilot Mark Levy
quickly put it out of his mind. The
British warbird pilot was part of a 21-airplane formation in the annual airshow at
Duxford, England, in July 2017, and he
concentrated on maintaining his position within that large group.
"There's that instantaneous startle
factor where you just go, 'What?'" Levy
said. "Then you go into denial." Within 90
seconds, however, the engine would lose
power completely, and Levy was forced
to put the airplane down in a farm field.
Levy recorded the entire event on a pair
of point-of-view video cameras, and he
shared the images, as well as his lessons
learned, in a candid discussion with the
AOPA Air Safety Institute.
Moments after the first interruption, Levy's engine quit again, this time
for several seconds. He pulled up and
out of the formation and declared an
emergency. Levy, an airline captain and
veteran airshow pilot, selected a farm
field, turned toward it, and began preparing for an off-field landing. He rolled

back the P-51's sliding canopy, and then
the Merlin engine roared back to life. He
was only a couple miles from the airport.
Perhaps the engine would keep running
long enough for him to get there.
"When I saw the airfield appearing
on my left side," he said, "I thought, 'I've
got a chance here.'" With the engine cutting in and out, the airplane descended to
about 500 feet above the ground on a tight
left downwind, and air traffic controllers
shouted on the radio to Levy warning him
that his landing gear was still up.
"That's when I made another mistake," he said. "The chimpanzee in the
back of your head hears an instruction
and says, 'I can do that.' So, I put the
gear down."
The engine lost power again, and with
the additional drag of the extended landing gear, Levy was beyond gliding distance
from the runway. Also, he heard the whistling sound that the Mustang's gun ports
make when the wing is at high angles of
attack and nearing an aerodynamic stall.
The runway was so close that Levy
felt he could almost touch it. But it may

as well have been thousands of miles
away. Attempting to stretch a glide could
be fatal, and it would require overflying
a busy highway. He decisively turned
away from the airfield, raised the landing gear, and extended full flaps. Levy
said he followed legendary pilot R.A.
"Bob" Hoover's advice to fly the airplane
"as far into the crash as possible."
Levy bellied the stricken airplane
into a farm field, and it slid to an abrupt
stop in about 100 yards. The impact was
so forceful that the canopy slammed forward, hitting the back of his head as the
plexiglass was thrown clear of the airplane. Levy wasn't seriously injured.
The cause of the engine failure is
under investigation. The airplane is
being repaired and is scheduled to fly
again this year.
EMAIL dave.hirschman@aopa.org

Watch the video and hear Mark
Levy's assessment of the flight.
www.airsafetyinstitute.org/videos/
P51engineout

www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 47


http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/videos/P51enginecut http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/videos/P51enginecut http://www.aopa.org/pilot

AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018

Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - Intro
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - Cover1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 5
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 6
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 7
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 8
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 9
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 10
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 11
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 12
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 13
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 14
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 15
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 16
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 16A
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 17
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 17A
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 18
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 19
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 20
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 21
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 22
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 23
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 24
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 25
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 26
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 27
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 28
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 29
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 30
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 31
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 32
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 33
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 34
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 35
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 36
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 37
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 38
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 39
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 40
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 41
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 42
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 43
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 44
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 45
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 46
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 47
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 48
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 49
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 50
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 51
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 52
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 53
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 54
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 55
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 56
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 57
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 58
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 59
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 60
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 61
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 62
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 63
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 65
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 66
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 67
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 68
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 69
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 70
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 71
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 72
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 73
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 74
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 75
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 76
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 77
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 78
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 79
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 80
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 81
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 82
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 83
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 90
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 97
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 100
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - 118
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2018 - Cover4
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