P-51 Engine Out, Off-Airport Landing - Full Analysis
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- čas přidán 16. 05. 2018
- British warbird pilot, Mark Levy, was part of a 21-airplane formation in the annual airshow at Duxford, England when the P-51 he was flying had a partial engine out. 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 Richard McSpadden, Executive Director of the AOPA Air Safety Institute.
ASI Transcript: bit.ly/RPSP51FullCert
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This video has one of the highest “good advice” densities of any I have watched - fantastic video:
1. Wishing is not a strategy
2. Fly as far into the crash as you can
3. Making your emergency someone else’s emergency is not solving the problem
4. Pause long enough to not be reacting
5. In an emergency make decisions that minimise bad outcomes not maximise good outcomes (canopy back, gear up, lose energy, prevent fire, prioritise yourself over the plane)
6. Don’t beat yourself up afterwards over bad decisions - if you are around to beat yourself up - you did good.
7. Own your decisions
8. Smile and drink tea (he’s British so this may be optional for some)
and no base turns after engine failures!
***know your plane to the minute detail...
Lots of this advice is universal in life. Love it. Thanks for making the short list
The key moment is when he moves his head from the runway to the field. Instant decision, and commitment. Excellent.
the oh shit moment
Propably could have crashed into the motorway.... that saved his life and others. A true pro.
He absolutely would not have made it! Great split second decision!
@@dr.killdare1284 He explained everything in the video, maybe watch a video before commenting incredible stupid things...
@@dr.killdare1284 Love analyzing from the comfort of my home computer. It's the same thing as being there with all the stress and uncertainty flying at you in seconds. I have no idea why people keep making the same mistakes I would avoid.
ATC: "Your gear is not down!" Pilot: "Talk to me in a few minutes, I haven't finished crashing yet!"
Spot on! No ego honest and professional, under immense pressure with no time to spare. Excellent piloting.
"Wishing is not a strategy", that goes so far beyond aviation advice. Great video.
Exactly. It takes DOING something!
wish in one hand, crap in another and see which one fills up first
@@Mr.Blue987 My dad bailed out of a Spitfire M XI over the channel at the Battle of Britain memorial flight in 1989. There is a BBC CZcams video of the disaster. Since that flight, they do not wear parachutes during these flights so the aircraft will be in better condition to restore and the pilots wont "chicken out" and bail.
Wish in one hand, sh*t in the other. See which one fills up first. ;)
Glad you're ok hope it's not too long for the p 51 to be repaired thanks for the video 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇺🇸🇺🇸
From the canopy camera angle I thought that he crashed really hard and probably rollover. But from helmet camera it looked pretty good
Great job!
Glad that pilot walked away
That's because the canopy came off :). I thought the same thing at first.
I saw the aircraft the day after and it was upright. Didn’t look too bad considering.
It will fly again, considering what happened it's in good shape.
Yeah I was so relieved to see the next take. Seeing the roll I expected catastrophic results and was pleasantly suprised. Great job!
yes it looked like he flipped
"The manual was written in blood."
That is one powerful truth, isn't it?
Heavy stuff.
RIGHT
FAR AIM is no joke.
line by line of safety instruction though
Never thought of it that way!
"Task saturation" - I'm not a pilot, but man does that also apply to other areas. I'm glad I watched if only for that little lesson!
Sorry to bring up a 9 month old comment, but I was thinking the same thing. I’m definitely making my wife watch this so she’ll know that I’m not the only one who literally cannot hear when I’m focusing on something. Haha! She might buy it.
@@jlr4876It's a good analogy for dealing with autistic people too. They get super focused on just one thing and appear to shut off everything else. It's so difficult working with my sister, but I just have to remember, she's not ignoring people, she's focusing on something.
applies to any area where performance under pressure is vital. That is why rehearsing and practising critical situations makes the actual task easier - reducing the cognitive load of trying to remember the next step, instead able to process more information... very powerful and key concept in many areas
That was a really striking point. In psychology it's called "inattentional blindness," which describes how easy it is to miss something right in front of you when you're focused on some other detail. The other thing was the concept of "caging the chimp," i.e. taking yourself out of fight-or-flight mode in order to deal with a problem intelligently. Fascinating how aspects of psychology and neurology have a practical impact in things like avionics.
I wondered what "helmet fire" is (sign in the background): "Helmet fire is a mental state characterized by unnaturally high stress and *task-saturation*
and loss of situational awareness."
Imagine those same camera angles and gut wrenching sounds of the Merlin cutting out, but instead the pilot is a 19 year old kid hundreds of miles behind German lines. Thanks for the upload, it’s definitely a rare and eye opening perspective.
"You can do a lot of bad things in three seconds." That has to be one of the best anecdotes ever.
I'm not a pilot but such good advice " When that engine quits, the plane has let you down. It's now a survival capsule "
Exactly how I looked at my EX-wife...
at some point she was just a broken dishwasher XD
@@Diax1324 ok simp
Good thing I'm a glider pilot.
I don't usually watch all of a 35 minute video, but when i do, it's usually an airplane video...
I binge them like a high-budget Netflix series!
I’m rewatching this one from maybe a year ago, and it’s probably the tenth straight airplane video.
And I’m not a pilot.
"The most interesting viewer in the world"
Excellent discussion. My rule for an emergency landing is "No gear until the landing is assured." I don't care who is saying what in my headset.
And you're totally correct: an intermittent failure is much harder to deal with. Your analytical, problem-solving side is having a tug of war with your natural instincts for hope.
I had that happen (and interestingly enough, in my Navion), when I had an inflight engine failure at altitude over Connecticut. One moment everything was humming along. The next, sputtering, vibration, then silence.
The engine had been newly overhauled (so of course it must be water in the fuel, right?). I traded airspeed for altitude until I hit best glide (90 MPH in the Navion at my weight), switched tanks (no change), hit the boost pump (no change), made sure the magnetos were on both (no change), then gave up and started downhill in the direction of the nearest airport (which I could see).
Then, the engine restarted.
Hope reared its head as I clawed back the altitude I'd lost. Water in the fuel after all! I turned away from the nearest airport towards my destination, just forty miles away.
A few minutes later, it happened again. Rinse and repeat.
I flew a sinusoidal, up and down wave pattern all the way home, passing many good landing options along the way. The engine running fine, then quitting. Running fine, then quitting.
I landed at my home field (BAF), taxied to the FBO and the mechanic I knew would be on duty there., and shut down.
He determined I had only one functioning cylinder (out of six), that the rings were coked with burned oil, and that oil getting by the stuck rings was shorting out the plugs, causing the engine to die. When the plugs dried a bit, the engine would relight. But there was no denying my newly-overhauled engine had cooked itself near to death.
It turned out the overhaul facility in southern Ohio (since gone out of business) had not reinstalled my intercylinder cooling baffles, causing wonky airflow and overheating.
There is no doubt I should have landed early and not pressed on for home. It was not "water in the fuel". Serious problems do not fix themselves.
In other words, I was not smart. But I was lucky.
If only one cylinder only, had been working, you would not have made it home.
@@johnnunn8688 Actually yes - one cylinder working (which alone isn't enough) and then intermittent additional cylinders making the engine run again.
Personally, I would have put it down at the nearest airport even if the engine came back.
that advice altho meant well, could have been fatal for him
@@johnnunn8688 I think the cylinders were working...it wasnt getting fuel or spark. maybe a broken ignition wire making and breaking intermittently
P 51, great airplane.. but not really a glider. Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.
I wonder how well the Thunderbolt glides lol
@@Red-Magic Like a well polished brick lmao.
I hope the owner of the plane wasnt too hard on him
BF 109 K4 was far better.
And here he was still on light configuration. No guns, no ammo. Low fuel for more manuverability
He got the full wwii experience
Thankfully he didn't have to SERE his way back to allied territory.
Being shot at would be a full WWII experience.
If he had paid premium he would have an ME-109 shooting at him.
Didn’t even get to shoot the guns :(
being a POW for a year would be more experience
As a sailor, I find pilot discussions like this fascinating. I'm not on a hydro foil or even up on a plane. Things happen slowly. But the vastly fewer things I have to think about while steering and trimming are still important from a racing performance standpoint, rather than a saftey standpoint.
I laughed when I heard the phrase "put the monkey back in the cage" because the crew has sometimes called themselves monkeys. But the ability and need to keep the right things on the top of the checklist when distractions pile up is much the same. After listening to an experienced pilot break down his decision making process only left me feeling more dedicated to focusing on the things that matter most.
Of course modern foiling cats doing 50 knots on one hull foil and one rudder foil have discussions that even more closely resemble aviation. But we still like waves.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video. Thanks
Great piece of advice for owner-pilots like myself. The airplane has let you down. Don't try to save it. Save yourself.
Usually, if you save the plane. You save yourself. Unless you can eject with a parashoot.
Saving the plane should not even be a consideration is the point I think. IF you save the airplane, sure you save yourself, but if you FOCUS on saving the airplane you can fixate on an unimportant goal and end up killing yourself trying to save the plane. Screw the plane, insurance will pay for it or they'll get it fixed back up. The primary objective is/should be your own survival.
Don't worry about the airplane. Trying to save the airplane can get you in a lot of trouble and probably killed. Worrying about saving the airplane will most likely affect your decision making skills, causing you to make bad choices. Like an impossible 180 back to the runway for example. Better to sacrifice parts of the airplane (wings, gear, etc) in order to minimize the forces on the cabin. For example, it may be advantageous, in a crash landing, to orient the airplane so that the fuselage goes between two tree's, and the wings strike the tree's slowing you down while saving the cabin.
Yes, children can sometimes be such a disappointment.
CYCLOWL i believe that too a p-51 is a great piece of machinery and even rittled with bullets they can still fly
I wish videos like this were available 40 years ago. These are the answers to what one should do when a difficult situation arises in the air. Much more informative than stories told sitting around the flight club. You're right there watching his reactions to the situation. I'll never forget some of those stories, though. Thanks for posting. All around life saving information on an engine-out situation.
A photo of the plane after the crash would have been nice.
Aaron Slouber thank you
@@aaronslouber8144 That'll buff out
@@aaronslouber8144 Thank you!
@@aaronslouber8144 Youre a beast !
@@aaronslouber8144 Maybe they can pick a better colour scheme next time...
If nothing else, this video should end the “what makes the famous Mustang whistle” debate. If any further proof were needed that it’s the inboard gun-ports NOT the supercharger, just listen to the whistle sounding after the engine has quit. I don’t imagine it’s a sound any Mustang pilot wants to hear.
Bo Nidle I believe that was the stall horn sounding
Cool, calm and level headed. THIS is a real pilot, people.
Brilliant chat. As someone learning to fly, I really appreciated Mark's candidness and willingness to share this.
My grandfather was one of only about a dozen men to fly both B17s and P51s in combat during WWII. He flew a complete combat tour in B17s in 1943, then returned in early 1945 as commander of a bomber scout squadron that flew P51s out in front of bomb missions to view the intended targets and feed recon to the bombers already in flight. After landing several B17s on fewer engines than he started with, he absolutely hated flying the single-engined P51s over the English Channel. In fact, the only losses his and a sister squadron ultimately had were due to engine failures because the Germans had so few fighter planes left that late in the war.
Usa wouldn't lose the Vietnam War if good pilots were alive today
@nigelwestdickens ...bad childhood.?? only thing I can figure....
@@praveensharma3456 hahahahaa another fucking idiot..what sort of comment is that?? The vietnam war was lost lost at a political level not by the boys on the ground or in the air....
@nigelwestdickens your aptly named..little dick...he was educating us not bragging about his grandfather ya bloody git
TheParadisecove no, it’s just you always see these comments about people’s grandpas, but never themselves..,
Most of his advice transcends aviation and be implemented to a lot of things in life. Thank you very much for this video
The rules of aviation are written in blood
So much to learn from this one! Thanks for sharing!
FlightChops You are the go to guy for training , as you continuously set a goal , train for it and check ‘em off. Except IFR maybe :)
I was thinking of you as I watched this, Chops! It's your kind of video with a great lesson told by very transparent participants. :)
We fly p51s all the time as well as other classic warbirds very well done on the landing we was there at flying legends when this happend
I like the bit applicable to everyone:
fly the plane as far into the crash as possible.
I was taught to "fly the plane until the dust starts to settle"
Damn! ... if only Levy hadda kept his mutton chops sharp! Damn those mutton chops! They're always clogging up the carburetors !!! Every pilot should get hisself sum pilot mutton chops (and sunglasses) and dammit! - KEEP THOSE MUTTON CHOPS SHARP! - just don't let your mutton chop hairs drop into the gas on fuel up cuz they'll end up clogging the carbs every time! Just be glad it wasn't a T-6! Ole Nervous Mr Mutton Chops woulda choked BIG TIME!
What a great story, hell of a call to turn away from the airport when you're THAT close to the runway, 10/10 I would've stalled my ass onto the crowd just short of field
WeeBooBeep lol just like ford mustangs do
me too
I see what you did there.....
He could have made the runway. He is a terrible instructor and needs more instruction. He never discusses why he did not just land down wind or on the taxi way.
lol all those bodies would have made for a soft landing
Fascinating interview. Glad Mark came out of the incident unhurt.
I’m not a pilot, only an enthusiast, but these videos are so interesting and of value to all pilots.
Excellent interview; such a pleasure to hear two folks of such intelligence cover this event.
This is probably the most amazing thing I've ever watched on CZcams. A professional pilot, making life or death, spur of the moment decisions, and landing a P-51 on its belly in a field!
/M0ther_bra1ned/ in the 40s 18 year old boys flew alone over the Pacific at night with bullet holes.. that's scary.
should go watch non pilots land aircraft.
What you may want to learn here is that he had plenty of energy to reach the runway but managed to miss.
A walk in the park compared to putting a 320 with 150 pax safely down on the Hudson River. Fine airmanship nonetheless.
Dan Frederiksen: What you may want to learn here is; "Hail Mary" maneuvers over spectators might be OK in Denmark, where lives aren't important, but in England not OK.
He brought it down OK. I appreciate that he's going over it and analyzing how he could have done it better, but he achieved his goal of landing in a field well. Awesome flying.
Every power pilot should have gliding licence and fly the power plane as a glider when there is even a slight engine problem. Straight to the airfield if possible. There is no I can make the down wind and base when you are on a base already and turn right to final.
He brought it down OK?? What a liar..
the plane was already on the ground and he was still yanking on the stick. a good example of "always fly the airplane"
i think everybody would hold it till the end and even after that's what people do...
Braniel Pichardo ah an expert in crash landings into fields...
@@tpeas2452 Cpt Levy called that "Monday Morning Quarterbacking" in the video which is a strong Americanism; wouldn't have offhand an equivalent Britishism. (Armchair expert is too general.)
@@SenselessUsername - What like calling a road a freeway?
(...sorry bud, just yanking yer chain there... ;-) )
Yeah - Tom Peas clearly misread Braniel Pichardo's delivery style.
I find it funny how he spun that canopy crank after. He was so focused he didn't notice the canopy flew right off as he touched down
Derek N. Not only that, he'd already opened the canopy before the landing. Makes sense that his first thought was, "Get out of here!" And his body did the first thing it normally does to leave the aircraft.
PHANTASTIC open minded analysis of this intermittent engine failure and emergency landing. Every future pilot and also every experienced pilot should watch this conversation with a maximum of attention.
This is almost a ground school for pilot decision making. Thanks for sharing and glad everyone was safe!
I was there to see this although I was at the other end of the active runway.
We all waited for the black smoke to rise but it never happened so we all started breathing again.
Amazingly calm and collected. You can always go back and analyze certain decisions made but you walked away which means you made more correct decisions than incorrect. Hats off to you sir!!
Our military has had the most bad ass pilots throughout history!! My grandfather was a P-51 pilot in ww2 providing support /protection for our B17's heading to and from their bombing missions, flew his first mission at 20 years old with nearly no experience and ended up receiving a medal for his actions that mission. for dropping back from the group on the return with another p51 to protect a badly damaged b17 with an engine failing FAR behind its group and slowly loosing altitude and fuel doomed to end up in the thick Forrest below . The other p51s radio wasn't working and as my grandfather had moved in close to the nose of the b17 to make eye contact with the crew and hopefully give them some sort of calm for a moment as they approached the most common Luftwaffe assault airspace he looked up and the other p51 was nowhere in site , he eased away looking for it knowing the pilot must have seen German fighters and spotted 2 in acrobatics way above them . He climbed to help keep them off the sitting and wounded duck B-17 spending what he said felt like hours of cat and mouse as they continued to try to get shots off on the B-17 even tho it was clearly in trouble and not going to make it. My grandfather in all the dogfighting looked down at his fuel gauge and it read nearly empty with a long ways to go and still well over enemy territory if he needed to bail. He said he knew he had 2 options, continue providing cover for the B17 hopefully fending off the 2 Luftwaffe and surely end up bailing out into German territory , OR abonadon covering the wounded B17 that was surely going down shortly and try to save the p51 and his life for another her day. Sure many pilots in other places of the world would have left to try and save the P51, himself and knwoing the B17 was most likely a lost cause but he said he couldn't leave it and it's crew to be shot down by the Luftwaffe that would surely pounce as soon as he left. He found out the other P51 also was having fuel issues from the long dogfight and with no radio he peeled off to return to the group ahead and left my grandfather . My grandfather a Young American Pilot from Idaho in a plane with virtually no fuel surely to end up a POW if not killed by the 2 Luftwaffe ,stayed and continued trying to protect the B17. One of the Luftwaffe made a good hit obliterating a machine gun turret and the gunner and my grandfather in his own words said "I was mad as hell and going to kill that son of a bitch!" He broke off and after that specific German with the other behind him. Moments later he had a good shot at a diagonal like angle and fired , it sheared JUsT the glass canopy off along with the pilots head , no other damage . The other German behind him immidately cowered and turned back even being behind my grandfather . He said the unmanned German fighter just glided smoothly and in seeming slow motion earlilly with no pilot and perfectly level somehow. He was going to finish it off and had the thought as he realized it was headed directly back in the direction of the bombing target , that he'd leave it be and with any luck it'd continue and loose altitude putting it in Hitler's bunker! Lol he always told the part with a grumpy smirk on his face. He left the ghost fighter and returned to the B-17s side. I always have imagined what a reassurance it must have been to them falling far behind their group in a doomed bomber , to see 2 p51's come and cover them and in the end a single one destroying one and scaring the other off returning to their side like he chased off the wolves. He looked at his gauge and it read empty , he knew he'd need to get ready to bail when right then he heard the b17 smoking engine sputter and stop and a sudden drop in altitude . He dropped with it in desperation completely helpless and unable to do anything. He said he got as close to the crews glass to wish them luck and the pilot salute him and began to drop. He used to tell us he'd still at 88 years old wake up drenched in bed seeing the wounded b17 slowly drop to the thick Forrest below and the helpless feeling he had and the anger for the Nazis for putting them there. It dropped down and found a slight clearing ahead but my grandfather knew he didn't have the altitude or speed to make it. It went into the trees and a fireball below . My grandpa never showed emotion ever but everytime he told that story he'd get choked up and seem to zone out for a minute like he was seeing it right then.
He looked back at his gauge in amazement that he still hadn't lost power and caught up to his group and let them know he was long out of fuel and would be bailing shortly and to let his superiors know the location when he jumped. He said a God given miracle happened that flight , the P51 Jsut kept going and going, until they got near the airstrip . As he decend with an about out of fuel B17 to approach, he said "I thoght hell, the damn gage must be broke! And sure enough as I said that , that son of bitch died!" Lol. He was short of the runway. But put it ina field with no damage saving the P51 and receiving a medal that sits in my moms house still today for his actions that day.
My grandfather had one sibling, a little brother that was also a pilot. They became orphans when he was 13 years old when his parents passed unexpectedly. His brother was all he had. He never talked about him though, my mom and grandmother said all they ever knew was he was a pilot and he died in the war. 3 weeks before my grandpa died one day he Jsut started talking about Jack (his brother) and we all shut up as no one knew anything about him. He went in to tell the story of how his brother was killed. He was crazy enough also a p51 pilot IN MY GRANDFATHERS SAME SQUADRON! We all looked at each other realizing my grandfather would have been in the sky it sounded like when he was killed. He went on to tel about a b-17 group protection mission they were suppose to go on. His brother was really sick with the flu and my grandfather told him he couldn't go up and to sit it out and rest. He told my grandpa , you aren't going up without me there , I have a bad feeling. As if he was worried about my grandfather. They went up and on the way to the point where they leave the b17's to dontheir drop and wait for the return having got through the typical hot zones with no issue , right then he said more Luftwaffe that he had ever seen came out of nowhere . Saidnitnwas pure hell and chaos! Grandpa said he chased off 2 NOT realizing they bait him and he soon had 2 on his tail . Long story,..long,..he heard a loud pop boom behind him trying to evade the 2 while moving all 4 out and away from the b17's . He looked back and saw one of the Germans in a fireball corkscrewing down with a p51 behind it. The other one peeled and dove and he turned to get back to the group realizing as the p51 came to his side that it was Jack that saved his life. On the radio he said jack said "told ya had a bad feelin! You always protected me in school and I finally got to return it!" They continued on B lining to the battle group when out of nowhere he heard his brother yell "ARTHUR!!!!" (My grandpas name ) over the radio and as he looked down and back for Jack it was being lit up at the moment by a German . He said before I could say his name it burst into flames and I watched jacks P51 disappear into the clouds with not a damn thing I could do about it!"
He stopped talking and tears pouring out his eyes , and everyone else's that had never heard that. To think ALL those years hat he never talked of it and we wondered why, was becaue he saw him shot down after being saved by him. Can't imagine how it must have affected his life. Then he said "they said I could take a few days off but Jack was all I had and I was going to spend every day I had left killing as many of those sons of bitches as I could and bringing home as many of my brothers,.. so , I went back up the next mission and every one after that I could until the war ended. And to think now jacks siting with my sweetheart waiting for me to come say thanks for giving me a full life of joy." My grandma died 3 months before in a tragic accident and it broke his heart. He passed away 3 weeks later after I found him after a fall with his head bleeding badly. His brain hemoraged and he passed.
I was extremely close to them and have an airforce bracelet he wore in every mission sitting on night stand .
These are the types of pilots and brave military we have! Today's pilots , the p51 and b17 pilots in ww2 and all the rest are the heroes that we owe everything too!
Sorry for the random story, today's the anniversary of when he passed and he's on my mind so watching p51 videos and hours of the motor cutting! And knowing this happened to my grandfather in ww2 ! I was meant to see this! Thanks for the post!!
Stories like these are the reason I randomly check out old WW2 war bird videos.
Thank you for sharing that, it's important that stories like this are not allowed to be forgotten. They show the human side of a very dark period in history.
Oh man, what a story! And btw. you can really write. Reading the story i could picture everything the way you described it, you should think about writing someting man. you have talent.
You just made up for all the shit comments I read on CZcams today. Great story telling!
Love this story.... Wish you could thank your grandfather and his brother for me for all they did. I can tell you are very proud of them. My dad served in the CAF during the second WW. Lancaster Bombers. Durham Tees Valley Airport.
A gold mine of great info. Thank you! I'm passing this on to my instructor and the aero club.
“Training the hard stuff!” That’s a very true statement in everything you could do!
I love listening to smart people.
i think he's a bit arrogant but ok.. which pilot isnt.. especially if you have thousand of hours..
'Smart' people don't believe we came from monkeys !
@@NebuchadnezzarThe2nd He isn’t arrogant!
@@NebuchadnezzarThe2nd I didn't get that.
Without dramatization and waving hands, without raising the voice, it was useful to listen two smart people .... because after this interview , and I feel ''important and clever''.Thanks so much to Air Safety Institute.
This channel just oozes brain power. It's great.
What you may want to learn here is that he had plenty of energy to reach the runway but managed to miss.
Dan , he says several times that he didn't have enough energy, and that he had a intermittent partial engine failure that kept changing his situation. Why do you think that he could have reached the runway? Do you perhaps suppose that he, as the pilot, might have had a better grasp of the situation than you ?
Your comment sounds like you're an "armchair quarterback" .
Because at 1:50 you can see him come up to the runway and fly by it. And the bird has a 15:1 glide ratio if he doesn't sabotage it by opening the canopy and with flaps and gear. Even with the mistake of going past to come around, even with the mistake of the gear out and open canopy and the long way he turns at the very end, I'm quite sure he could have made the runway but that wasn't among the big mistakes. If that was his only judgment failure, I could understand. It was losing energy fast at that point but only after several mistakes. I believe he was stressed beyond pilot skill and target fixated on landing in a field from very early on in the panic mindset. I can understand the distress of engine loss forcing a ditch but when he sees he is approaching the runway you go for it, you don't find ways to realize the nightmare.
Yeah he is going to land a 100+ mph P51 at a 90 degree angle (Which he is @ 1:50) onto the runway? SMH Either way he needed to do a nearly 270 Degree Turn to Land, which he was doing when it crapped out entirely.
I watch youtube every night. I watch aircraft videos often. This video is one of the best pilot interviews and accident discussions that I have ever watched. I pilot a hang glider. Everytime. Thank you for posting this interview.
I'm so glad he made it OK!!! I sure appreciate having him share this information and his assessment as things unfolded. Even with lots of flight time under my belt, I find this very helpful. An extra bonus to have the airplane repairable/repaired. Best of all worlds from a very difficult situation. Bravo.
Take home lessons that I gleaned from this excellent interview:
1. Gear up on forced landing is probably better than gear down. You can stop in a shorter distance and lower chance of flipping over the nose.
2. Try to put in all flaps just before impact to dissipate energy. Of course make sure you don't do that when stall a wing is possible. Mark Levy threw in full flaps just before impact when stalling wasn't an issue anymore.
3. If you have an intermittent engine problem (engine off, engine on, engine off, etc...) remember to shut off Magnetos and Fuel prior to impact.
4. Commit engine out checklist and shut down checklists to memory and use a "flow checklist" method.
That was the cleanest emergency landing i've seen. Those P-51s were something else
It was pilot skill, not the aircraft.
The first camera view of the "landing" had me thinking he straight up crashed! Glad he knew what he was doing and walked away
Great Advise from a true professional pilot. My instructors years ago told me to take the 3 to 5 seconds to THINK, just like Mark Levy's advises, and fly the airplane while attempting a restart. I had 52 seconds to decide where to put my fixed gear airplane, into the trees, or flip it in mud or hummocky tundra.. I chose to land on a strip of trees next to a creek and without setting off the ELT, I walked away. My airplane did not let me down, it was my fault. I had ignored a missing section of gasket on a wing tank fuel cap and the tank vapor locked cusing the engine quit from fuel starvation. Fortunately, the damage was minimal and after a mechanic made temporary repairs and provided a FAA ferry permit, I was allowed to fly the aircraft home for repairs. It's the little things that get you. Even if you are far from home, get it fixed before you fly. Flying is awesomely amazing, exciting, constantly challenging and never boring. It is all I dream about, but you can not be complacent like I was.
Fine flying and a great learning discussion. A lot of pilots who lost power have been killed trying "the impossible turn"--a low altitude (1200 or so feet) 180 to get back to the airport rather than picking out a good off field landing site. He did everything just right. In private pilot training you do get some experience in dead stick landing, and those of us who enjoy glider flying get much more. But that's never the same as being in the moment when an emergency happens. Mark obviously thought out what could happen long before it did, and his "inner game" prepared him for the available options. As an old FAA circular used to say, "Don't trust to luck." He did not and so did well.
We saw him very low on downwind, with flaps down, but no gear...and no power from the engine. I guessed he was gliding as he had not put the gear down due to the extra drag. I presumed he was going to put it down the other side of the M11.
However, he banked steeply, put the gear down, which seemed to be dangling down but not locked. He was trying to line up with the runway, but realised he was too low and not going to make the necessary turn. He was now heading straight at all us spectators on the east pan near the ARC hangars. I just remember thinking...this is not going to end well!
The pilot then did an incredibly brave thing. He banked very steeply to the right, so as not to hit the motorway or us spectators. Now, I'm not a pilot, but I have got a lot of hours in the back seats of Harvards, when my friends had them some years ago. I know enough to know that low, slow, with no engine, in a heavy lump like a P-51 does not allow for steep turns. The pilot was sacrificing himself to save all of us.
He disappeared behind the ARC hangars and we all waited for the fireball. Thankfully there was no plume of smoke. Total silence from the spectators. A lot of very concerned faces. Then the announcement...'The pilot is out of the airplane and safe'. A HUGE cheer and round of applause from thousands of us spectators.
Mark Levy deserves a case of beer from every spectator on that pan.
Graham Aindow Wrong. Now go watch the video again. The usual “he turned away to save us all” statement that useless reporters dig out of spectators is again NOT TRUE here either. Pilots have a very short time to decide what they’re doing, and the main decisions are maintaining glide speed and not hitting anything that will kill them. That is EXACTLY what happened here and nothing more. Anything on the ground was nowhere in his vision or on his mind. That is not a shortcoming, but a REALITY.
Don't need to see video again...I was there...watching it live. Many of my friends fly warbirds...and I have hundreds of hours in the back of many aircraft. He would have not made the airfield so turned at the last minute. You have your opinion...I have mine!
Graham Aindow In all honesty, the pilot never mentions the people at the airshow as his reason for the turn. It was because he was not going to make the field and most likely hit the traffic. So he went for the only option there was. Stop the tight turn to the airfield and land in the paddock at his 1-2 o'clock.
However, he did a fantastic job of decision making in a very high stress environment for a relatively short time. And deserves respect for not killing anyone or himself in the process. If you feel he is a hero. Then he is to you and there is nothing wrong with that.
British people don't like to brag and feel embarrassed by compliments, so it should be something to consider
Look at the video again Doc... The spectators are back from the runway, in the spectator area parallel to the runway... If you notice, the aircraft is beginning to be pointed directly at them as he puts his gear down.That whole turn was over 130 degrees before he banks right again and commits to the field. So Graham's account is correct... Just put yourself in the spectators position of watching a plane banking towards them as it tries to make the airfield, then bank heavily away again and go down. You would just assume the pilot has decided not to overfly the highway or bring it close to spectators because he was too low and uncontrollable... which is true.
Richard and Mark, Great discussion and amazing video of a pretty intense situation. This emergency is compounded by the partial regaining of the engine, being in a large formation, and being at a very low altitude. I am a 25+ year airline guy with an additional 10 years of military flying. I have around 19K hours of flying. My observations are this; flying complex military and airline category aircraft is great experience and a great way to make a living, however, I feel the guys/girls who are able to combine these skills with a baseline of General aviation experience really add a facet to their experience that is extremely valuable and carries over to their airline/cargo jobs in a positive way. Duxford is such a great place and would love to take my 3 sons, (2 of whom are pilots) there! Cheers!
Great advice just passed it on to flying friends. When I've had problems in aircraft, my first thought has often been "don't hurt the plane." I'm glad this video just flipped that thinking.
My ground school instructor drilled that into our heads- no matter what, keep flying the airplane! I'm so glad this gent walked away. What a great video!
Great video and analysis! I had a partial engine failure on takeoff on Labor Day last year. Off airport landing in the dry river bed adjacent to the runway. FLY THE AIRPLANE as far into the crash as you can. I managed a perfect point landing (vs stall & spin). But I was in a Stearman, so couldn’t retract the gear :-). Nosed over on impact - no way to avoid that with all the brush and bamboo acting like the arrester wire on an aircraft carrier! Word to the wise...get as slow as possible...crash impact varies as the square of the speed. My big learning...landing upwind (I could have) at 40 mph would have been far preferable to downwind (at 70 mph). I’d still have nosed over and ended up hanging on the straps...but maybe I wouldn’t have broken my back! And for all the armchair critics out there who haven’t been through an engine failure...notice just how quickly everything happens in that last 20 seconds. The ground rushing up at you is scary...made the hairs on the back of my head stand up watching this. Since my engine failure was at 250ft into climb out, I estimate 20 seconds was all I had start-to-finish. Reactions have to instinctive and decisive...there’s no time to think and figure things out! I’m a fellow Brit who used to live near Duxford, by the way...proud of my fellow countryman!
Oh, please please please talk to the people on here who keep saying, oh you should always put the gear down, he is stupid not to, oh he shouldn't have tried to go into the wind to land, I could do it in my glider.... Those people... xD
Did you quickly lean the mixture and added some carbo heat?? I had 2 of those sudden partial power with vibrations that i resolved on take off with that. Both I climbed some more and turned back to opposite runway. Ok landings. Actually I had 3 of those. 2 on old cessnas using auto gas. Another a Cherokee 180 with cargo on board. That one i did the downwind leg at 300 feet at low power. Scary.. I used to fly old cargo planes in South America.
Glad you survived. Great story.
So glad he DIDN'T try for that turn from base onto final and the runway. As I was watching that I was thinking - dont push it dude, get it down, dont push it dude, get it down. He so made the right decession in NOT trying to reach the airport (and crossing over the car traffic) and instead landing in the field. My heart was in my mouth when I saw the runway from that base angle. So glad he accepted the situation he was in and dealt with it as it was and not as he wanted it to be. "Three's down and safe". Well done that man!
Not a criticism of the pilot or of you. Just fact. Also, not one decision, good or bad, can be taken back in time for a do over. So, what we decide is what we have to accept as fate. Review the critical parts of the video where he is on a direct heading to the airfield with altitude and landing fields under him and to his sides. He could possibly make the airfield. Flying over the road sealed his fate by going too far and being too low from the airfield. He wasted time setting up for a normal pattern. In an emergency, doing a downwind, base, and final is insane in this case. Worry about energy management over the airfield. And, I am speaking from over 35+ years as a glider pilot/owner and GA power pilot/owner. Once again, I tell power pilots to take some glider training in case of these not so rare situations.
No he didn't waste time setting up a normal pattern, you need every ounce of help on ditching a heavy aircraft with tiny glide ratios. Downwind is suicide, never mind loss of control is much more likely and spectator casualties. He did absolutely the right thing. he left himself enough time to change his mind and ditch in a field when his engine failed completely.
I don't see it that way at all. He did waste time. He set up for a normal pattern and as soon as he turned downwind he had no more options. Most power pilots never think like a glider pilot. Glider pilots train for and think about these very conditions during every flight. He could have made the airport property and gone cross field into the grass but it looks like he could have made the runway. Point towards where you want to land and forget about downwind, base and final. He still had one or two more options if he did not turn for a normal downwind pattern. He did this most likely out of habit. Not a downwind but a crosswind landing with gear down could have been accomplished. I've done it in my Skyhawk and in my glider many times with power of course. The good things were he got out alive and well and he did not hurt anyone else.
Mustangs don't glide do they, in a engine failure they drop like a brick but if you are skilled as this bloke is the brick does not hit the ground quite as heavy. 120mph in a car can be slowed down with brakes, a aeroplane has no brakes and when you weigh 7 tonnes..............fuck it I can't be arsed to explain. Bare in mind you have Duxford village and also bare in mind the field above Duxfrod are sloped, he did the right thing, that's why he flies airliners full of people, you don't.
saab -- Shitty automobile by the way. Thanks for educating me about flying, aerodynamics, and bricks. Sounds like you know everything about drag coefficients, Lift coefficients, glide ratios, polar plots, energy management, et al. and about my flight experience. Thanks for the flying lesson, too. It never ceases to amaze me that the very people who originated the English language can't spell, punctuate, or compose a sentence worth a damn which "you don't". I just learned that English pilots need not be literate. Good going there, Mr. Saab.
What an amazing pilot and a really nice and humble chap. And the interviewer too, great job, thanks.
Great Video. I think the best info here is, don't over try to save the plane. Use it, to help save yourself. I was flying 4 skydivers, one a static line student), in a C-182. At lift off, engine blew a piston, and became very rough, backfiring, vibrating, and limited power. Flat farm land all around, but runway too short to risk full load landing. Because of the student, I was afraid to open the door, and let the jumpers out at lower altitude. Instead, I went looking for thermos over dark fields, just kept climbing. At 3,500 feet, I let the student out, came back around, and let the others out. I then came down (still with a bad engine, and landed). A crop dusting friend of mine (with a zillion hours), told me later, "remember Rusty, it's not your F'n airplane." So, don't lose the people trying to save the airplane. Just put it down safely somewhere. Me - Commercial Pilot SEL, A&P mechanic, retired USAF aircraft mechanic, and C-130 Flight Engineer.
This makes me appreciate how well the engine is simulated in DCS P-51
Funny thing is, Miss Velma, the mustang in this video, was the mustang used for study and sound recreation of the P-51 in DCS.
27:37 That stiff neck didn't come from the yaw, it came from the 300lb canopy doing a hand spring off the back of your head. 2:32
Reviewing 2:32 it seems like jettisoning the canopy realy would have been the better option.
It does catch him a beauty.
good catch. It nailed him, if he had not had a helmet....
Jettisoning canopy would have induced even more drag leaving him less time for decisions.
I think he made the right choice even if it wasn't as per the manual, it worked fine for that incident.
In fact an open canopy induces more drag than a jetitsoned one would. However Mark still got out safely.
Kind of ironic that McSpadden's last flight was in a similar situation, partial engine out and didn't make the field. RIP to a great pilot.
Seriously, who dislikes such informative videos?
Gentlemen, I found this discussion highly useful. Great work on handling the situation Mark, and super job Richard with the breakdown. Appreciative to you both for putting this together and sharing.
That is the truest comment "fly the airplane to the end"
Donald Parlett jr yes for sure...dont take off and get to altitude then decide to turn it off and stop controling it. If u take off u really should fly it until you land. Its just good advice for anyone. Sheesh!
mike Lazembie ... You’re an idiot. He means to fly your plane through the crash.
That's a good mantra for many things in life.
Blair S. Lmao
I would contend that you fly it until you stop ....
I had a total engine out in March 2017. Scary. They teach you ‘aviate navigate communicate’ and that helped me a lot. I stretched the glide as far as possible (about three miles from 2000ft) and only just made it over the trees into a clearing. Landed well but nosed over because the ground was a swamp, I was flying a taildragger. My wife and I were completely unhurt, and sat on the wings looking out for crocodiles until a chopper came and picked us up.
The failure was a broken connector rod in flight that seized the engine. The aircraft has just returned to airworthy after a replacement engine and other repairs. Nobody hurt but the experience cost us a hell of a lot of money! My wife got her pilots licence that year, despite the crash landing!
Anybody saying that Mark handled the situation badly get real. He put the plane down and walked away... what he did was much much harder than what I experienced. I’m in awe. That’s great airmanship!
A couple of weeks after watching this video I had a 'partial engine failure on climb out' experience. Rather than prepare myself immediately for a forced landing ahead in probably a soft field (fixed tricycle undercarriage, bubble canopy, an almost certain flip-over result) I took a moment to ascertain the options. I saw that although I had reduced power, that power was steady, and enough to even climb a little. Called ATC and told them of my intentions, flew a low level circuit, my passenger keeping an eye on Ts and Ps and landed safely. Thanks Mark, I'll buy you a beer if you ever find yourself at Goodwood, just ask for Baz Davis, normally flying a Zenair Zodiac.
Absolutely brilliant. A must watch for any aspiring or current pilot. Let’s keep this humility in the aviation community. Cheers!
Great interview! Especially liked the frank assessment of what he would have/should have done differently. Also the bits about denial, saturation, panic, and startle reflex were valuable points he made. I think these phenomena are how very experienced pilots sometimes do things that leave us scratching our heads.
A Cub is quite complex enough for me. Maximum respect sir. Thank you.
Flight training to become ATC sounds like a really good idea. I just watched an aircraft accident case study where the VFR pilot had partial instrument panel loss and needed to be routed around clouds, but ATC couldn’t really grasp how serious because they’d never been there.
Yes, that was part of Mark's professional journey I found really interesting, too! I know some towers had ATCs going up with commercial pilots as ridealongs pre-covid (don't know if that's resumed?) To me it seems like the more cross-over the industry can manage in both directions, the more effective communication can become.
Ideally it would be AWESOME to see a supervisor with some piloting experience on every tower shift, esp. at airports with high GA traffic. Great resource to have to hand when anything goes wrong, & save vital time trying to find a CFI to talk them down.
Wonder if it could provide an alternate career path for pilots who have to leave flying for medical reasons, or whether the same constraints would also prevent their being able to take an ATC role...?
I must have watched this a hundred times, Class in every detail.. instinctively spot on in a tight spot.
If the engine fails, the plane belongs to the insurance company!
It didnt fail completly.. He could land on the other runway but got scared of having to do a short approach and went away to other side and crashed it..
@@feetgoaroundfullflapsC He knew it was going to fail before the runway so he decided to ditch in the field.
@@Desertduleler_88 He didn't know it. He trusted his gut instinct of 30 years of prior flight experience. Every human is different.
@@Desertduleler_88 true, plane would never make it to runway. It fell so suddenly and he knew it would happen. He did the right thing.
@@feetgoaroundfullflapsC seasoned pilot will have this instinct that know if can make it or not.....
I wish I could give a thousand thumbs up for this video. A lot of lessons learned, and darn good advices! And he hooked me up right away when he told about Mr. Bob Hoover's phrase "...fly the airplane as long into the crash as you can!" Awesome!
Wonderful. Thank you for allowing us to ride along with you and experience the rapid decision making from formation flight to landing in the field. We also learn from other's tough experiences. Happy you survived.
"fly as far as you can into the crash"
Seeing his hand on the stick through the landing sequence via the helmet cam...
I was surprised to hear this. I did some low level competition driving and I always had the rule of "leave the road in a controlled manner/drive into the crash". It seemed natural to me to point the front crash structure at the obstacle and not "fight until the end" risking a side impact or rolling the car. I was pretty much laughed at.
@@Sensekhmet So what's the prevailing philosophy?
@@December428 with cars you've gotta bear in mind that the crumple zones are setup to trigger sequentially from the nose to the seat, you've also got a great big chunk of noisy metal to take the brunt of the impact. but if you hit say a lamp post sideways its all kinds of bad news.
with planes he pretty much did everything right in those last few seconds he pulls up to cut a bit of speed out and minimize the inital impact but at the same time he's leveled it out so that he will slide and not dig in to the ground and flip over, he could've tried to make the runway but there are 2 possibilities either he makes it and sticks the landing problem solved which is pretty unlikely or he gets just close enough to cause a shitload of damage when he crashes...honestly the field was the best option by a long way cus its not just his life he saved its everyone on the road and at the runway
Fly as FAST as you can into the crash
With having to make a decision I think it would be easier to have a complete engine failure.
Agreed! In that base-to-final turn, with the runway SO close, a lot of less experienced pilots would have fixated and continued turning. He stayed flexible and calm and critically remembered to bring his gear back up. Impeccable decision making, a little luck and of course RA. Hoover watching over, saves the day.
steveo1kinevo. With all respect to this fine pilot, I’m wondering if landing on the downwind would have been a better choice. Would you share your opinion on that idea?
Im not steveo but, Im sure at that point he thought he could still make the field. A downwind landing is a good idea, good idea.
Complete engine out or partial still ends @ maintaining altitude and surviving a landing ...
Yeah, much better to have only one option. Glider pilots constantly face the dilemma of finding a weak thermal when we've made the decision to land - it can be a killer if you try to gain altitude and fail, only to end up in a bad spot!
As a non pilot that was a fascinating listen. Glad it worked out.
Cheers D
Mark kept his cool so well during that incident. Thank you for sharing this information with us. Much respect!
This should be put at the top of any mandatory watch list for all pilots.
I saw him aiming for an open field once he realized he was royally funked...and the ground came up quick and watching this I was like oh SHIT!! Glad he came out fine and is still flyin \m/
I was there that day and had been up in a Dragon Rapide (with gaffa-tape over holes in the wings)....this pilot made all the right choices, well done sir.
Excellent. thank you! Losing hearing? Had a student who claimed the radio went dead so he could not hear my commands. The radio was a alive and well. He did not know that it was a result of his task saturation. Good lesson about keeping your head and flying the aircraft. All turned out well.
Great analysis and thanks for sharing!
Even as a non pilot like myself ( but retired Aircraft Engineer) I found this a great video to watch, and appreciate his skill.
As a student pilot, this video provided huge insight and knowledge. Great interview
I am a former Aircraft Tech, not a Pilot, but appreciate the skill and snap decision making demonstrated here. Well executed Sir.
Fantastic interview guys...thanks. Glad you made it down, superb handling of the P-51
CZcams: Where everyone who's ever seen an airplane is suddenly an expert in flying and ditching WWII era aircraft in the comment section...
I fly FSX and have flown WWII fighters and can say that he landed harder than necessary
I have never flown a plane, but I'm pretty sure even I would land it better. I mean, how hard can it be?
@@MyRealName Exactly. I can do better with my sim controls.
@@abundantYOUniverse like richard russell? the sim pilot who barrel rolled a Q400? I could out-fly you any day of the week noob
@@abundantYOUniverse yikes.
Dang, that was super intense. Good thing he was an experienced pilot that landing looked as smooth as a crash was going to get.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm not a pilot, but as a nuclear reactor operator some of these lessons can be applied to my industry.
This is brilliant and thanks for posting. My training has saved my butt on 2 occasions.
One of my favorite birds ever, so glad to hear you are ok Mr. Levy God bless!
When a man gives this much info in a short amount of time, u know he’s the real deal. He should write a book
Excellent job maintaining mental composure all the way to the ground including remembering the gear was still down and retracting before impact... probably saved your life
Really excellent video. Glad it ended the way it did; a testament to his cool head and flying skills. Thx for this!
Crazy to think Richard is gone... still cant believe it
Neither can we:(
Valid points, very well done. Had a intermittent engine experience with an L-19. Scratched the turn to final & caught a berm/fence row in the resulting off airport dead stick landing. My old school flight instructor talked me all the way down in my mind with similar points. Cheers !
Great discussion. Many useful thoughts and lessons. All critiques have to be made with massive thought about hind sight being 20-20.
As a commercial but more importantly glider pilot, one thing I would think about that you didn't mention in the video is 'get-home-itis'. You covered how you wanted to get back to the airfield, which is completely natural and no one can fault you for, but seem to have a one track mind on flying a normal pattern to do it. It is ingrained very early on as a glider pilot that a conventional circuit isn't the only way to land. You could have landed downwind (around 1:50 in the video, look where he is compared to the airfield) or flown a shorter downwind leg and turned base earlier. There is more than enough runway and better to roll off the runway at 20 knots than in a field. Just a small thing to think about if, god forbid, this ever happens to anyone reading this
I had engine partial engine failure at 1500 feet with a trial flight i was flying. The engine was so rough i committed to landing. Once field in sight i switched everything off save it ripping the engine out the frame and parked the aircraft in a field. Commitment is the key.
I had hoped to watch this with my dad when he came round from his coma. I sent it to him to watch in hospital in case he got bored.
He didn't make it, so sometimes I watch a little bit of this and pretend he's here.
Be strong, Paul. I know you’re strong.
So glad you’re ok, sir. Thanks to you and Mr. McSpadden for the debrief here and on the podcast.
Watched the whole thing just to find out if the P-51 will fly again!!! Good video. Glad the pilot saved himself!