Wings Around the World

A pilot's account of her around-the-world adventure, including color photos.

On May 6, 2003, Polly Vacher, a fifty-nine-year-old mother of three, took off from an airport in Birmingham, England, 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 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 thirty-five thousand-mile adventure in her Piper Dakota that would take her to at least thirty 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 numerous sponsors. However, as she took off on that blustery spring day-flanked by a Hurricane and a Spitfire 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 encounter extremes of weather and emotion, much kindness and obstruction, and a little political intrigue. This is the story of that adventure.

"Truly inspirational." -Aviation News