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/PSlengineout), has been seen more than 1 million times on the AOPA Air Safety Institute's You Tube 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-10.1 wanted to find out what this veteran pilot—who has flown scores of aircraft types ranging from Eastern Bloc aerobats to wide-body 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.
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