Listen to this episode below:

Join us as Polly Vacher gives us insight into her inspiring pilot journey.

It may have been over 20 years since Polly Vacher MBE gained her pilots licence but she’s packed a lot of flying into those years.

Polly achieved incredible feats as she’s circumnavigated the Australia, the United States, and the entire globe.

In 2004 she became the first solo woman to fly over the Polar Regions and she did all of this to gain scholarships for the disabled.

In 2007 she completed the Wings Around Britain Challenge where she landed at all the airfields in the UK Jeppesen VFR Manual.

An admirable achievement that has seen Polly rewarded with an MBE for her services to charity.

Starting Out

• Even as a child, Polly always wanted to fly; she even tried “growing” wings!
• She was 19 and a student in London when a friend offered to pay for a glider flight session which she really enjoyed.
• In 1989, a friend encouraged her to skydive with an instructor, which did while raising money for charity. She learned how to skydive and got totally hooked on jumping out of aircraft.  Today Polly has 245 sky dives in her logbook!
• In 1995, she and her husband acquired their pilot’s licence in Australia.

Initial Training Challenges

• Polly found it weird to steer the airplane on the ground using her feet.
• Another challenge for Polly was learning how to land the airplane which she overcame by practicing!

The Aircraft Types

• She loved flying the Piper PA-28 Cherokee Dakota, the aircraft where she learned how to fly and the same type of plane she used during her trans-atlantic and worldwide flights.
• Polly flew a Harrier Jump Jet once which she found quite responsive compared to her Piper Dakota.

Best Flying Advice

• Good, careful, precise preparation for every flight.

The Journey

• After obtaining her licence in Australia, Polly and her husband, Peter circumnavigated the continent.
• When sharing the idea that they were planning to hire a plane to fly around the United States, Polly’s Flight Instructor told her that she already had a perfectly good plane to do it in.  This advice changed Polly’s life forever.
• Polly successfully crossed the North Atlantic Ocean with her Piper Dakota, the same make and model of aircraft in which she learned how to fly.
• Next logical step was to fly around the world which she did during her first Wings Around the World Challenge in aid of the charity Flying Scholarships for the Disabled
• Next, she had to prepare flying over the North Pole, Antarctica, and all seven continents which, in her own words started with “an atlas, a pen, and a ruler.”
• She successfully became the first solo woman flyer over the polar regions.
• Her last long-haul flight was Wings Around Britain Challenge in 2007

Current Flying.

• Currently flying for fun, even fly to places to have lunch.
• Once or twice a year, Polly and her husband Peter, fly somewhere in Europe.

Proudest Flying Moment

• Polly’s proudest flying moment was flying over both poles and calling her husband at 90 degrees North via a satellite phone telling him she’s literally “on top of the world!”

Future Plans & Aspirations

• It was difficult for Polly to give up flying but realised it is much better to stop and make a clean break.
• Polly bought two donkeys, training them to drive with a carriage to give people rides.

Flying Internet Resource

• None

Best Aviation Book

• Wings Around The World: The exhilarating story of one woman’s epic flight from the North Pole to Antarctica by Polly Vacher

On May 6, 2003, Polly Vacher took off from Birmingham airport seeking to become the first pilot to complete a solo flight around the world via both Poles in a single-engine aircraft. Despite having only a few years of flying experience, Polly, a 59-year-old mother of three, had already completed a lateral solo circumnavigation of the world in 2001 for the charity Flying Scholarships for the Disabled; this second challenge, for the same charity, would make that achievement look like a casual jaunt. There would be no margin for error. Her voyage to the ice was a 35,000-mile adventure in her Piper Dakota that would take her to at least 30 different countries on every single continent. She had prepared meticulously for two years, was fully insured and had all the requisite permits and visas. With her kinetic enthusiasm, charm and persistence, she had already garnered multifarious sponsors ranging from multinationals such as Shell to private individuals. However, as she took off on that blustery spring day, flanked by a Hurricane and a Spitfire from the RAF Battle of Britain Flight, and waved off by her family and the Prince of Wales, she suddenly felt so alone. She had begun a remarkable expedition that would gain her three world records, but would also see her encounter extremes of weather and emotion, much kindness and obstruction and also a little political intrigue.

Favourite Cockpit Gadget

• Bendix/King KLN 90B GPS – Although very old but still recognised for IR flying (Instrument Rating) flying.

Interview Links

• You may contact Polly via her email address by clicking HERE ( pvacher AT aol.com ) .
• Visit Polly’s website here: worldwings.org