{{Short description|English aviator (born 1944)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} [[Image:polly vacher closeup arp.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Polly Vacher]] [[Image:polly in flight riat2008 arp.jpg|thumb|right|Polly Vacher arriving at [[RIAT]] 2008 in her [[Piper Cherokee|Piper PA-28 Dakota]]]]
'''Polly Vacher''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|MBE}} (born 1944) is an English [[aviator]] specialising in long-distance solo flights. She was awarded the [[Order of the British Empire|MBE]] for services to charity in 2002. She lives in [[Oxfordshire]].
Born in south [[Devon]], she trained in [[Physical therapy|physiotherapy]] and spent twenty years in [[music education]]. Her interest in aviation developed from a charity [[Parachuting|skydiving]] event. She obtained her [[private pilot licence]] with her husband Peter in Australia in 1994 and they followed this up by a circumnavigation of the continent. In 1997 she toured the United States by plane, flying solo across the [[Atlantic Ocean|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 eastbound [[circumnavigation]] of the world in her single-engine [[Piper Cherokee|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 from [[Hawaii]] to [[California]].
On 6 May 2003 she set out from [[Birmingham 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 21 May 2007 she set off from Birmingham 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 {{convert|19000|nmi|km}} in 158 flying hours. Ninety-six disabled passengers were flown on legs of the flight.
==References== * {{cite book|author=Vacher, Polly|title=Wings Around the World|publisher=Grub Street|location=London|date=2006|isbn=978-1-904943-54-9}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vacher, Polly}} [[Category:1944 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:People from Devon]] [[Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:English music educators]] [[Category:British women aviators]] [[Category:English women music educators]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Reading]]