Barry Tempest said.
In the post war years women like Sheila Scott and Judith Chisholm have
earned our admiration with their long distance flights. Finally, in more
recent times, Polly Vacher has achieved many awe inspiring trips around the
globe.
Polly Vacher's flights certainly got my admiration. She genuinely did circumnavigate solo eastwards around the world, and got a long way towards completing another circumnavigation via North and South Poles.
I was at Rothera on the Antarctic Peninsula when she passed through on the attempt to cross the continent via the Pole to McMurdo. No co-pilot or support team or fanfare. The flight was right on the limit of endurance for her Piper Dakota. She waited a number of days for a favourable forecast for that leg, and eventually set off towards the Pole, but sadly by the time she was reaching PNR it was clear that the hoped-for tailwinds had not quite been enough, and she made the brave decision to turn back. I seem to remember she landed back at Rothera after about 14 hours airborne.
She had planned her logistics well, with fuel depoted at McMurdo for the onward leg to New Zealand - I believe she generously donated that fuel to someone else who had not prepared so well and had ended up stranded at McMurdo in a light homebuilt(?)
While she did have sponsorship for her flights, she used them to raise awareness for Flying Scholarships for the Disabled, and I would say her MBE for services to charity was well-deserved.