- Polly Vacher
Polly Vacher (born
1944 ) is an Englishaviatrix specialising in long-distance solo flights. She was awarded the MBE for services to charity in 2002. She lives inOxfordshire .Born in south
Devon , she trained in physiotherapy and spent twenty years inmusic education . Her interest in aviation developed from a charity skydiving event. She obtained herprivate pilot license with her husband Peter inAustralia in 1994 and they followed this up by a circumnavigation of the continent. In 1997 she toured theUnited States by plane, flying solo across the North Atlantic in both directions.Her first "Wings Around the World Challenge" in aid of the charity
Flying Scholarships for the Disabled was in January-May 2001 when she made a solo eastboundcircumnavigation of the world in her single-engine Piper PA-28 Cherokee Dakota G-FRGN, the smallest aircraft flown solo by a woman around the world via Australia, including a 16-hour segment fromHawaii toCalifornia .On 6 May 2003 she set out from Birmingham International Airport on a "Voyage to the Ice" for the same charity, flying over the
North Pole ,Antarctica and all seven continents, returning on 27 April 2004, becoming the first solo woman flyer over the polar regions.On May 21st 2007 she set off from
Birmingham International Airport on her "Wings Around Britain Challenge" in which she landed at all the airfields in the Jeppesen VFR Manual, between 21 May and 31 July 2007. 221 airfields were visited, flying 19,000 nautical miles in 158 flying hours. 96 disabled passengers were flown on legs of the flight.References
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