Description

The following Piper PA31-310 Navajo first flew in 1979. Fitted with two Lycoming TIO-540-A2C piston engines and initially being registered as N3521C, its life began at the Piper factory in Vero, Florida, USA, before moving into service across the Atlantic, gracing the skies of Belgium, as OO-EJM.  In 1996, the Piper then relocated to the United Kingdom, under the new registration G-FILL and flew with a private owner. On 27th of October 2010, after serving for 31 years, this Navajo flew its final flight touching down on a private grass strip at Wentworth. However, upon landing the aircraft overrun the runway and skidded towards a stone wall and came to a holt, as a result of which the aircraft sustained damage to the left wing, propellers, nose and the right wingtip. Records state, that up until the fall of 2009, G-FILL accumulated over 3,400 hours in the air. The PA31 was declared a ‘write off’ and bought by 2Excel Aviation to be used as a spare parts donor as well as equipment test bed for its fleet of Navajo’s. On 29th of June 2021, the final journey of G-FILL began, when Fuselage Creations and Avro Designs teams dismantled the fuselage of this aircraft at Sywell Aerodrome, to give it a new lease of life as aviation memorabilia.