Mrs Vacher flew solo around the world via Australia and the Pacific

A pilot attempting her second record-breaking solo circumnavigation of the globe was waved off on Tuesday by the Prince of Wales.

Polly Vacher, 59, is hoping to become the first person to fly around the world in a single-engine light aircraft via north and south poles.

In doing so, the Oxfordshire woman hopes to enter the record books for the second time.

In 2001, Mrs Vacher was the first to fly around the world via Australia and the Pacific.

Pioneering spirit

Prince Charles flew into Birmingham International Airport on Tuesday to wish Mrs Vacher luck.

The retired music teacher climbed into her Piper Dakota and took off before performing a fly-past accompanied by a Hurricane and Spitfire.

Prince Charles said: "I take my hat off to her"

Mrs Vacher, from Drayton, near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, will visit 30 countries and travel more than 35,000 miles in the orange and black Piper, crossing the Arctic and Antarctic before returning home early next year.

She piloted the same aircraft for her record two years ago.

Before her departure, Prince Charles paid tribute to the mother-of-three's pioneering spirit.

He referred to the MBE he presented to Mrs Vacher last year for her fund-raising to enable disabled youngsters to learn to fly.

"I must say when she has completed this expedition she deserves something finer than that because anybody who is going to fly a tiny little thing like that out there on her own deserves a very large medal indeed," he said.

"If she is going to fly a 16-hour leg sitting on top of fuel cans andgoodness knows what else, from the Antarctic to New Zealand, I must say I take my hat off to her."