AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020 - 30

PILOT BRIEFING
SWEEPSTAKES |

Seal of approval
British warbird pilot says your AOPA Sweepstakes
RV-10 is 'absolutely superb'
B Y D AV E H I R S C H M A N
THE LAST TIME I saw Mark Levy he was
nursing a stricken P-51 Mustang to an
airport in England. When the Mustang's
engine quit completely, he decisively
raised the landing gear and bellied into a
field-a move that helped save the airplane,
and himself, to fly another day. A video of
the event, and Levy's description of it (air
safetyinstitute.org/videos/P51engineout),
has been seen more than 1 million times
on the AOPA Air Safety Institute's
YouTube channel.
When Levy, an international airline pilot,
came to the U.S. East Coast recently, I wanted
to get his thoughts on an unrelated subject:
the just-completed AOPA 2020 Sweepstakes
RV-10. I wanted to find out what this veteran
pilot-who has flown scores of aircraft types
ranging from Eastern Bloc aerobats to widebody airliners-thought of this refurbished
Van's RV-10.
Flight conditions were less than ideal. A
cold front had blown through overnight, and
a cold, blustery northwest wind would make
the air choppy at low altitude. But Levy was
game, so we strapped in and launched into
the rough but clear morning air.

I'm fascinated by the various methods
veteran pilots use when evaluating new-tothem airplanes, and Levy wasted no time. His
feet were active on the rudder pedals during
the takeoff roll, and he noted the airplane's
"spry" initial acceleration and climb rate.
The air was smooth above 6,000 feet,
and Levy rocked the airplane left and right
using full aileron deflection. "I see very
little adverse yaw," he said. "It rolls very
smoothly without almost any rudder input
at all. The rate of roll is spectacularly good
for a little four-seat cruiser."
Levy eased into a pair of Lazy 8s with
pitch and bank angles approaching 30
and 60 degrees, respectively. "The airplane is incredibly well designed," he said.
"Amazing that an airplane with this power
and speed range requires so little rudder."
Slow flight was next, and Levy intentionally stalled the airplane at a variety of
flap settings and bank angles. "That's the
very definition of docile," he said.
Levy's airline career includes mostly
Boeing jets including 777s and 747s. He's long
been active in sport flying and he performed
throughout Europe on a formation aerobatic

team flying Russian-built Yak 50s. He owns a
North American T-6 Texan and flies iconic
World War II fighters including a Hawker
Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, and P-47
Thunderbolt for a British aviation museum.
After a pair of landings with a swirling
wind gusting more than 20 knots, he taxied to
the AOPA ramp and shut down. "It's clearly
got that RV DNA in it," he said, noting the
strong family resemblance in Van's Aircraft
construction and flight characteristics.
Levy described the day's flight conditions as "appalling" because of the
turbulence and a surface temperature that
never got above freezing. But he gushed
about the quality of the aircraft's craftsmanship, including the carbon-fiber instrument
panel from Aerosport, the three-screen
Advanced Flight System/Avidyne avionics,
and the leather SF Sport Aviation interior.
As a U.K. citizen, Levy isn't eligible to
win the AOPA Sweepstakes late this year.
Whoever does win, Levy said, will get a
capable, versatile, fun aircraft. "It's an absolutely superb airplane," he said.
EMAIL dave.hirschman@aopa.org

Visit the AOPA Sweepstakes
website for official rules and
a list of generous contributors.
aopa.org/sweeps

30 | AOPA PILOT May 2020
http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/videos/P51engineout http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/videos/P51engineout http://www.aopa.org/sweeps
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2020
