LOOP News

7 AUG 07: POLLYS GRAND FINALE

POLLY Vacher touched down at Oxford Airport on 31 July having fl own to 221 airfields around the UK on her ‘Wings Around Britain’ tour.

Britain’s top female flyer achieved her aim of landing at all 206 airfields listed in the Jeppesen UK airfields manual – plus a few more strips!

She flew for a total of 158 hours and covered more than 19,000 nautical miles despite this being the worst summer weather in memory.

The weather had disrupted many days’ flying schedule, leaving the outcome in doubt right up until the final moment. Polly had been up since 0400 on the final day to rack up four airfields that had been waterlogged through the summer.

“Two I still couldn’t actually land at,” said Polly, “but I did a very very low pass over them so that Graeme [Graeme Bowd, an observer flying with Polly] could sign them off in the book. I could however, land at Milson, a delightful grass strip in Gloucestershire, and also at Newbury racecourse.”

The flight was to raise the profile of the charity ‘Flying Scholarships for the Disabled’ (FSD) and this was achieved with TV, radio and press interviews wherever she went. In addition, almost every airfield she visited celebrated her arrival, despite many having to wait hours, even days, as the weather caused delays.

On each leg of the trip, Polly flew a combination of disabled and able bodied passengers. In total, she flew 96 disabled people, many with serious conditions.

On arrival at Oxford, 11 weeks after departing from Birmingham International, she explained how FSD granted ten full PPL scholarships per year. “The aim is not to produce pilots but to help disabled people come to terms with their disabilities and change their lives.”

To emphasise the point, she introduced the three disabled passengers who had fl own into Oxford with her. They were Martine Wright, who lost both legs in the London tube terrorist attack two years ago and who was a 2006 scholarship winner, Richard Hewitt and Tony Combes.
Another of the flight’s objectives was to promote the Air Training Corps and meet as many air cadets as possible.

A parade of honour with a line-up of local cadets was there to receive Polly as she joined the large crowd which had gathered to meet her at Oxford.

Around £20,000 was raised for FSD during the flight although this was not meant to be a fund-raising exercise. Donations and sales of Polly’s book, Wings Around The World about her previous world flights, boosted the funds. The book has now virtually sold out but Polly’s publisher was on hand to confirm it was going into reprint.

W: www.worldwings.org

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7 AUG 07: POLLYS GRAND FINALE