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Thread: Piper Navajo
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Old 13th Oct 2011, 15:45
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con-pilot

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Join Date: May 2000
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Believe it or not, not all Navajos that were built had turbocharged engines. The first few years of manufacturing Piper made a 'Commuter' version of the Navajo with 300hp un-turbocharged engines.

It was an absolute pig. Forget performance on one engine, it had no performance with both engines. I don't know if there are any of those left around or not.

I had a good friend that lost an engine on a normal Navajo after takeoff. It quit about 2,500 AGL and he was around three miles from the airport when it quit. He made it to about a half mile to the runway and realized he was not going to make it to the runway and landed gear up it in on an open field. No one was injured. The aircraft was repaired and resumed operations.

Oh, he had five passengers and full fuel.
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