From 1935 Taylor operated a succession of Percival Gull Four and Gull Six aircraft on private and charter flying; having visited Britain in 1938, he became agent for Percival Aircraft Ltd in Australia. His marriage on 29 December 1924 in St James's Anglican Church, Sydney, to Yolande Bede Dalley, niece of J. B. Dalley and granddaughter of W. B. Dalley, had quickly proved disastrous; she eventually divorced him in March 1938. On 10 May he married Eileen Joan Broadwood (d.1950) in the Methodist Church, Mosman. He made the first flight across the Indian Ocean from Port Hedland, Western Australia, to Mombasa, Kenya, in the Consolidated flying-boat Guba II on 4-21 June 1939.

Taylor ferried flying-boats from U.S.A. to Australia in 1941. On 9 June 1943 he was commissioned flying officer in the Royal Australian Air Force. Transferring to the Royal Air Force in 1944 as a civilian captain, he ferried aircraft from Canada across the Atlantic Ocean. At his own request, he commanded the R.A.F. Catalina Frigate Bird in September-October 1944 on a pioneer Pacific Ocean survey flight from Bermuda to Mexico, Clipperton Island, New Zealand and Sydney. In March 1951 he flew across the South Pacific from Australia to Chile, via Tahiti and Easter Island, in the Catalina Frigate Bird II.

A writer of distinction, subtle and realistic, Taylor published eight books: Pacific Flight (1935), VH-UXX (1937), Call to the Winds (1939), Forgotten Island (1948), Frigate Bird (1953), The Sky Beyond (Melbourne, 1963), Bird of the Islands (Melbourne, 1964), and Sopwith Scout 7309 (London, 1968). In 1963 he took part in the Australian Broadcasting Commission's television film, An Airman Remembers. Taylor lived at Bayview on Pittwater, where he sailed a 35-ft (11 m) sloop and in 1947 established Loquat Valley School for his daughters. On 4 May 1951 he married Joyce Agnes Kennington at St Mark's Anglican Church, Darling Point. Chairman of the family firm, P. T. Taylor Pty Ltd, and a director of Trans Oceanic Airways Pty Ltd, 'P.G.' operated the Sandringham 7 flying-boat Frigate Bird III from Sydney on Pacific island cruises in 1954-58. A wiry man, greying at the temples, with crowsfeet edging his blue eyes, he belonged to the Union Club and Royal Aero Club of New South Wales.

Awarded the 1951 Oswald Watt gold medal for his Australia-South America flight and the Johnson memorial trophy of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, London (1951 and 1952), Taylor was knighted in 1954 (and known as Sir Gordon). He died in Queen's Hospital, Honolulu, on 15 December 1966. His ashes were scattered over Lion Island where the dreams of his adventurous life were conceived. His wife, their son and two daughters survived him, as did the two daughters of his second marriage. Norman Carter's portrait of Taylor is held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Frigate Bird II is held by the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, and Frigate Bird III by the Musée de L'Air, Le Bourget, France. As a pilot and navigator, Taylor was a perfectionist, fastidious, demanding, sharp and candid. Yet, his character was complex. Those 'with the patience to come to know him discovered a man of immense sensitivity, intelligence and courage'.