Polly Vacher

Polly Vacher

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Show notes

In this interview with inspiring pilot Polly Vacher, she talks about her memoir Wings Around the World: The Exhilarating Story of One Woman’s Epic Flight from the North Pole to Antarctica. She shares how she prepared for this record-setting trip, some of the obstacles that stood in her way and how she navigated them, the very difficult decision she was faced with in trying to achieve the goal she’d prepared for over two years to accomplish, and the highlights of meeting people all across the world, all in the name of charity to raise funds for Flying Scholarships for the Disabled.

Transcript:

LA_Polly Vacher_AUDIO_2024

[00:00:00] Liz: Hello and welcome. I’m Liz Booker, Literary Aviatrix, and I’m excited to talk with the author of the Aviatrix Book Club discussion book for April 2024, Wings Around the World, the exhilarating story of one woman’s epic flight from the North Pole to Antarctica. Fewer than 10 percent of pilots and aircraft mechanics are women.

These are their stories of tenacity, adventure, and courage. Stories with the power to inspire, heal, and connect. Welcome to the Literary Aviatrix community, where we leverage the power of story to build and celebrate our community and inspire the next generation of aviation. Polly

Vacher, welcome.

[00:00:51] Polly: Hello. It’s lovely to be here and be with you. So far away, yet so close.

[00:00:53] Liz: I know. Isn’t it amazing what we can do with technology now? Before we get started talking about your flying, can you give us a synopsis of this wonderful book that we discussed in the Aviatrix Book Club in April?

[00:01:08] Polly: The book is called Wings Around the World, which as you say is probably describes everything pretty well. But what it covers is the story of my solo flight around the world via the North Pole and the Antarctic. And all the things that happened to me. During that flight, but also it includes all the lead up to the flight.

So all the preparation that was done, which is the most, which is why I’m here today, because I did good preparation and everything was well prepared. And therefore, the risk was reduced.

[00:01:50] Liz: It’s an incredible story, an incredible adventure, and very instructive in the way that you did prepare for the trip and the way that you convey that on the page.

It’s a wonderful book for any pilot embarking on any adventure, but even anybody just beginning to learn to fly. You have, You give us so much wonderful information, and then we get to live all these beautiful adventures vicariously through you. Tell us a little bit about how you got into aviation because it’s a really fun and inspiring story.

[00:02:20] Polly: In 1989. I did a sponsored skydive to raise money for charity and I was attached to a very handsome instructor and as we went up in the aeroplane I remember thinking, if ever I get out of this alive I will never do it again. But on that one skydive I totally hooked and I just had to learn to skydive and I have 245 skydives in my logbook.

 But nothing on the earth would persuade my husband Peter to leap out of a perfectly serviceable aeroplane and actually you might agree with him. And so it was, his job took us to Australia, and we lived there for two years, and life is a compromise, and we both decided to learn to fly together. We were just about 50 in age, so we were late starters, but I always say a late convert is a fanatic.

[00:03:18] Liz: Oh, for certain. I mean, I think most aviation converts are fanatics anyway, but yeah. And you know what? I like to talk about how I spent most of my career in the military, which is a very young organization, at least here in the States. You don’t really get to know people who are 50 and older when you’re on active duty.

And so I don’t know what I thought if like, maybe life was over after that or what?

[00:03:36] Polly No, I had my 80th birthday January 6th.

[00:03:40] Liz: This is what I’m trying to say is that now that I have hit 50 and I am surrounded by women like you, especially in my aviation groups, like the 99s locally here. I get to be around so many women who are so inspiring, who have launched new adventures and careers like you did at that age.

And so it’s just like a new beginning and it gives me a whole lot of optimism and hope about what I can accomplish in the next 30 to 40 years. So it’s wonderful.

[00:04:19] Polly: I look forward to hearing what you do accomplish and I hope you’ll be here to hear about it.

[00:04:25] Liz: Yeah. I mean, you, I think you’ve got definitely a few more years in you.

You look pretty spry.

[00:04:35] Polly: I’m working on it.

[00:04:37] Liz: Good for you. And doing an adventure like this, I’m sure helped with that and helped you value your health. And wellness because that’s one of the things that enabled you to be able to do this incredible thing. So tell us how you get from learning to fly in Australia with your husband to deciding that you’re going to fly solo the first time, because this is the second time that you flew solo around the world.

So tell us how you What that leap entails.

[00:05:02] Polly: What happened was before we left Australia, we were both pretty rookie pilots. We had about 80 hours flying each. We decided to hire an airplane and fly around the circumference of Australia. And we did this and we flew around flying one day each and taking it in turns and had the most amazing time.

And this gave me a real urge for long distance flying, and I thought this was great fun, but it is strange how things happen to you because I was thought I must get become a better pilot. So I was doing my instrument rating in Bristol in England. And I had an instructor, a lady instructor.

And she said to me we’re going to live in America. And I said my husband and I had such fun flying around Australia that we thought we’d hire an airplane and fly around the States and Canada. And at that time, we already bought our own aircraft, a little Piper Cherokee it’s with a bigger engine, a Dakota with a two three five horsepower engine, much more powerful but still a four seater ordinary Cherokee, by all looks and things, and so she said these one things to me, and I don’t know to this day whether she realized what a difference she made.

But I said to her, we were going to hire an airplane and fly around the States and Canada, and she said, why are you hiring an airplane? You’ve got a perfectly good one yourself. And I thought perhaps I could fly across the North Atlantic. And so in 1997 with just a few, relatively few hours and a new instrument rating, I flew solo across the North Atlantic.

My husband followed in a jumbo and met up with him in the States and we flew around the States and Canada. So that gave me the love of long-distance flying. And then I thought, and then I flew back, of course across the North Atlantic. And so then I thought what can I do next? And I thought perhaps I’ll have a go at flying around the world, the sort of traditional way down across Europe and Asia and down to Australia and up over the Pacific.

And so in 2001, That’s what I did. And then I thought let’s do something different. I’ll fly around the world over the North Pole and the Antarctic. And that’s what I did. And that’s what the book’s about. Yes.

[00:07:42] Liz: And both of those solo around the world flights were for charity, right?

[00:07:46] Polly: Yes when we got back from Australia we had to do another test, flight test to get our English license.

And the guy that was doing my test said to me I can only do, I can’t sign up all the papers after I’ve done the test because I have to rush off. I’m going to help with flying scholarships for disabled. And I said to him, Oh, that’s really interesting. When I speak to you next, tell me all about it.

And so he did. And we got involved with this program, which helps disabled people come to terms with their disabilities through learning to fly. And so we got quite involved. And then I thought, wow. I can do this flight around the world, the first one, one and the second to promote flying scholarships for disabled people.

And I can also raise some money. And the way we raise money was by asking people to have their name on my wing. And so for 25 pounds, which is what, about 30 dollars or something, anybody could have their name on my wing, and they got a certificate to say they were taking part in the flight, really.

And so they thought that, people thought it was great fun, and we had thousands of names, and raised over the two flights about half a million pounds, which was quite a lot of money in the year 2001 and 2003. So that’s what we did it for. And the most exciting thing was that they started a similar program in Australia, and now you have a wonderful one going in America called Able Flight.

And if you haven’t heard of it do Google it. And have a look and see because they are doing some fantastic work and the Americans been very supportive and good at giving to help this program run in America. And it’s run by a guy called Charles Stites, who I’ve actually met as well, who’s really worked hard to get it off the ground.

[00:09:51] Liz: Oh, that’s wonderful. Yes. And I’m sure that we’ll have lots of listeners who’ll be interested to see how they can get involved in support.

[00:09:56] Polly: Yes, that would be great. Yeah.

[00:09:59] Liz: Yeah. No, that’s wonderful.

[00:10:01] Polly: So that was exciting for me. So yeah. Sorry. Yeah.

[00:10:02] Liz: Yeah. You, when, so you made this decision to do this thing and how did, like you talk about it in the book, but walk us through the things that stand out in your memory from preparing for the trip.

What were the big things that you accomplished to get ready?

[00:10:19] Polly: I have to say, and I’m talking, excuse me. I’m talking to converts, aren’t I, really? Because people fly themselves. But with one engine, if one engine fails, then you don’t have much choice as to where you’re going to land. And so I did a lot of research, of training for survival. For example, two thirds of the Earth’s surface is water. So I did a course in how to ditch and how dunking and they crane you up in a cockpit and drop you over a pool and drop you and you have to wait till you’re fully submerged before you can get yourself out. And they have two divers.

in the pool to pull you out because they don’t want any dead bodies in the pools. But then that’s very solitary because you think if I have to go in you know if I have to land in the in the Atlantic or the Pacific there’s not going to be two divers sitting waiting comfortably to pull me out.

You know so it really concentrates the mind on how best to have your life raft? What your survival suit? Do you have this—I had this little thing called spare air attached to me so that I get five minutes of spare air. So if I’m deep in the water, I can actually get up hopefully with enough air to survive, that was one of the main things, the water survival. A lot of, I did some desert and jungle training with some ex-marine commandos who were as delightful in the classroom and as mean as anything in the field gave me one hell of an awful time really pushing us up through water pipes coming the wrong way in the dark and really toughening us up.

And we did a week of this and quite honestly, halfway through the week, I thought I’m paying to do this. I don’t have to do it. But I thought if I give up then I shall always resent it when I’m flying and should something happen, I’ll think to myself, why didn’t I finish that course?

 So I did finish the course. It was very trying. Then, for example, there are polar bears in the Arctic and I don’t want to, didn’t want to be a polar bear dinner. So I had to get a special—in this country, if you have a firearm you have to have a license. So I had to get, and that’s issued by the police, so I had to get a firearms license and then I had to learn how to shoot.

 I went and had lessons in how to use a proper rifle so that I could deal with a polar bear if one felt like having me for dinner. I thought I’d rather have him for dinner. So you can eat any part of the polar bear except the liver. But of course the other part of, there are some other parts of preparation.

I mean, you’ve just got to map and chart your route. You can’t, the certain fly over high mountains, you have to, you can’t fly over war zones. You have to know, find out where you can get permission to fly over. You have to get visas for different countries, so I had two passports, so I could be, get a team back home to renew my visas for a new country a lot of actual preparation on the route and then I had to make sure the aircraft was in Excellent condition.

And this is really where my husband excels because he, in his interest is in mechanics and rebuilding old aircraft. So he’s was very meticulous. And I had very good engineer over here who looked after the aircraft. And then I arranged for engineers around the world to have my maintenance done.

So that And then, of course, I had to make sure I had fuel, but I was sponsored by Shell, who I’m sure you’ve heard of, so they helped hugely with fuel, except I had to organize for fuel to go to the Antarctic a year ahead, because they have to go in barrels, because they don’t keep avgas in the Antarctic, there was a lot of preparation with that.

I had a good team of British Women Pilots, people from the British Women Pilots Association and some of them also belonged to the 99s, which I belonged to for a short time. And they, I had five on my committee and they really worked, I mean all voluntary tiers, and they really worked very hard.

And then I had the whole flight was actually sponsors, so I then had to, you can’t just get sponsors, you have to, They only sponsor you if they think that it’ll help them. They they’re not doing it out of the kindness of their hearts, so I worked very hard for sponsors and I had to do a lot of publicity for them because I couldn’t really do much else to repay them except publicity everywhere I went.

 Yeah. So there was a lot of preparation for my safety. What would I carry, for example, because there’s weight limitation. I mean my clothes for a whole year I could only take 10 kilos. Can you imagine that? Yeah, I was washing my clothes everywhere. It was all right in hot countries. They drive very quickly.

But yeah, a few challenges on that front too. And then I took about 140 spare parts and I actually had such good maintenance the aircraft. I used one oil filter and that was all. So I came back with 139 spare parts.

[00:16:12] Liz: Wow, that’s amazing.

[00:16:13] Polly: More than the aircraft. I had to get the aircraft tank it’s no point in running out of fuel.

So in the longest leg I was going to do was about 2, 068 nautical miles. So a long way. So I’d have enough fuel. You don’t, you can’t get fuel in the middle of the Pacific or across the middle of Antarctica. So you need a lot of fuel. And then you have to look at things like heat, taking an engine heater with you because in the very cold the engine won’t start because everything’s too cold.

So you have to have a, I had a little device which actually fitted, doubled up as a stove for me if I had to land somewhere. And I managed to have a pipe which went up to the engine to warm the engine. And Had to have special additives to stop the fuel freezing. There’s a huge amount of preparation.

[00:17:07] Liz: Huge amount of preparation. And you haven’t even really mentioned what takes up quite a bit of page space in your book, which is the bureaucracy and politics of getting, even getting to fly into Antarctica. Talk a little bit about that because that was just, that was like probably the biggest saga in the book.

[00:17:26] Polly: I think so, but I have to be very tactful how I wrote it because there was a lot of problems at the end.

[00:17:31] Liz: Do you still have to be tactful about it?

[00:17:34] Polly: I’d like to be careful. I don’t want to upset anybody, but I have to tell anybody who’s trying to get across the Antarctic then for goodness sake, get your permits because if you don’t get the permits you’ll be very unwelcome and people won’t want to help you.

 But there are, there’s the Antarctic treaty covers the whole of the Antarctic with all the countries that claim little bits of it. And nobody’s really supposed to go there without a permit to go. And you have to have a really good reason. And it’s usually for some sort of research or something.

 Because nobody lives there. I mean, nobody. There are different research stations, but they don’t stay for more than a year or two. I had a lot of help from people who’d worked there before. I had my ‘giants’, as you may have seen in the book and somebody called Charles Swithinbank, who has actually done 40 seasons in the Antarctic, more than anybody else, I think, in the world, but I wouldn’t claim that either, but they all helped me a lot with the sort of planning, but I did have to get permits, and the interesting thing, I can tell you this, is that I was introduced to somebody who used to be the ambassador for the States to New Zealand.

And they are responsible for McMurdo, which is the New Zealand side of the Antarctic. And I thought if I can get permission from the Americans to go into McMurdo, then I’ll be all right because everybody else will say hello. Yes. Okay. And I thought, how can I do this? Because no good to somebody saying no to you.

Once they’ve said no, it’s very difficult to turn them around. I was introduced to this ambassador called Joe Beamon, who’s now sadly passed on, so I don’t think you’ll mind me mentioning him anyway. And he said, I think I can help. He said, you better come over and meet me. But I think I can help because the, I can’t remember the names, what happens after 20 years, but the guy who runs the polar section of the National Science Foundation, I think it is owes me a favor.

And so right, so okay, right. So we exchanged a lot of emails and then I went over and he introduced me to, to this guy and he said, we had a meeting before and he said, if there’s a, he said, I’ll let you do the talking, but if there’s a problem then I’ll, chip in. He was a lawyer by profession.

And we walked in and he said, Oh, hello. Hello. Eric Chang was his name. There you are. It’s come back to me. And he said, Hello. Lovely to see you, Joe. And this must be Polly. And how exciting your trip. We can help you. And I thought, what? We can give you permission, he said, and we’ll help you with the weather, and we’ll do And I said I’ll need it in writing, and he said, that’s fine I’ll let you have it in writing.

The minute, the meeting was about 20 minutes, I think, it wasn’t very long. I didn’t have any struggle at all, but the problem came when I went to the British Antarctic Survey, because I had to get permission from them, and they said I met this man, he said, I don’t think you’ll get permission from us at all and so I said that’s a shame, because the Americans have given me permission.

They’ve what, he said? He said, you’ll have to have it in writing. And I had, actually I had the piece of paper in my hand, in my briefcase. So I pulled it out and showed it to him. He goes oh, I think we’ll have to give you permission.

 [00:21:45] Liz: Well-played, Polly, well-played.

[00:21:46] Polly: It was tough, but it’s a matter of working it out, not charging in, and not expecting people, I think. I think that’s the thing about sponsorship. People come and ask me about flying around the world, and they say, Oh Richard Branson should give me sponsorship, and I say no. He shouldn’t.

It’s his choice. You have to make people excited about what you’re doing and then show them that you can give them something in return. And I did a lot of work on that because I was hopeless with television and things. And I went and did two media courses so I could cope with all the publicity I was going to have to do.

And so I learned how to cope with this camera coming right up at you and all that stuff. It was fun to do. I had a lovely time. I was lucky.

[00:22:23] Liz: There’s so much involved that you just, like, it’s not just the flying. There’s so much going on and all of this publicity around, like when you’re, like, considering like the day that you launched on your first flight, you’re surrounded by people, they’re in your face up until the second that you close that cockpit door.

And you have to somehow compartmentalize and focus on the flight, even though all this stuff is happening around you. Talk a little bit about that for you.

[00:22:52] Polly: Actually, I used to get into my airplane and think, Oh, thank goodness. Cause I was so tired often from just. Being nice. I mean I’m not nasty by nature, but being and it makes you think, doesn’t it, about people like royalties, celebrities, and things.

I mean, it’s no wonder they have problems because you being nice all the time is it’s stressful and hard work. And so I used to get into my airplane and Oh I’m glad to be here. Because I had a great time and people were wonderfully generous and kind. And you have to remember that that it’s very important.

They put themselves out for you and what can you do in return? You can’t do very much except be nice, yeah, no it was yeah, it was interesting. It was very challenging, this part on the ground. All the media, you’d land and taxi up and the media would be there with their cameras looking into your airplane and waiting for you to do this and that and the other.

And I was quite strict I would when we landed somewhere, I’d do a bit of an interview and then I say, look, the most important thing for me is to make sure that my airplanes full of fuel that it’s ready for the journey tomorrow or the next day. So I would never leave the airplane without it being absolutely ready.

So I was quite I was a bit like a rottweiler really in a nice way, I said excuse me, but I must, this is a safety issue, I must get the aeroplane right first, and then I’ll talk to you all. So that was how I managed that but, yeah.

[00:24:37] Liz: It’s a lot of pressure though, You’re like an, you’re an ambassador both for the for your country, for starters, then you’re also an ambassador for the charity that you’re representing.

And then all of those sponsors. So yeah, I mean, I have a little bit of experience as a foreign diplomat and yeah, it can be hard to be polite to everybody all the time

[00:25:07] Polly: . It’s just, I mean, everyone is polite to you. It’s not that hard, really. It’s just, you’re tired and you’re perhaps done nice flying and you need to, and you feel like a wash and a brush up and you’re on parade and then you probably go to dinner in the evening and you have to give a speech and so actually the flying was very relaxed. I mean, not flying in the polar regions and over the Pacific.

It’s a bit stressful too, but I’ve done a lot of preparation.

[00:25:32] Liz: Speaking of which, were there any moments that were particularly stressful or hairy for you?

[00:25:39] Polly: Of course, the polar regions were very stressful and that comes out, I think, in the book. I might read you a little bit.

You said you, I could read and

[00:25:46] Liz: I would love for you to do that.

[00:25:49] Polly: I’ve labelled up in my That’s paperback. I’ve got a hard, that came out in hardback first of all, which is that one. I don’t know if that’s which one you’ve seen, but, Anyway, I’ve I’ve put a clip in one or two places, but this one is you asked me about any really stressful moments.

 Here I am, I’ve just crossed the North Pole, and I’m on a 14 hour flight from northern Norway from Svalbard in a group of islands north of Norway over to Resolute Bay in Canada. And so I’ve written here I don’t know how long you want me to read for but it’s not very long, just a paragraph.

[00:26:41] Liz: No, read as much as you like.

[00:26:41] Polly: Yeah, so it says, “More endless miles of ice leaves and sparkling sunshine were ahead of me as I chugged my way southwards. This is after I’d crossed the North Pole. I had a crosswind now and I had timed the flight so that the sun was directly in front of me as I turned at the pole.

Wind fluctuated, my heart rose and sank accordingly. If I had a bit of a tail wind, I was going at it up as fast as 130 knots. My heart rose and then it would sink again as the ground speed dropped to less than 120 knots. My spirit’s moved like the sea rises and sinks beneath that vast expanse of sea ice, but I’ve forbade myself to think bad thoughts.

Then, silence. That sound, yet not a sound, which all pilots dread. My engine had stopped. I was over Axel Heiberg Island, one of the most beautiful and hostile places on earth. Mountains rise out of the flat sea ice in sharp peaks, like whipped up icing on a cake. Three minutes earlier, the engine had coughed, indicating that my massive cockpit tank was about to run dry.

This was perfectly normal. I changed onto my first wing tank, and the engine purred again. I had plenty of fuel, with just two hours left to run, and nearly six hours of fuel in the wings. Then the engine stopped. I went into automatic mode—carb heat on, fuel pump on, change tanks. I muttered to myself. My camera went flying, papers flew to the floor, I rattled through the emergency checklist, which I had practiced over and over again, and suddenly the engine sprung into life, and the relief was enormous.

[00:28:32] Liz: That is incredible and terrifying. Yes.

[00:28:33] Polly: Yes. It was . It was probably the worst moment because then I had two hours to run to resolute Bay in Canada, and I kept thinking, why did the engine fail? Was the ice in fuel? What was the matter with it? Would it fail again? Right. How would I get on, how would I manage and I went out over the sea ice because I thought at least it’s flatter there.

I might survive. How would I manage with polar bears? Because I’ve been told they could break into your cockpit. And how would my husband manage without me? And then when I could see the runway at Resolute Bay in front of me, I thought, please don’t stop now. Please don’t stop. Let me get there.

[00:29:16] Liz: That was a great selection. Do you have something else you wanted to read for us now? Or do you want to wait?

[00:29:24] Polly:  I can, I’ve got loads of bits and pieces here. I’ve got the bits about the Antarctic, which, because I had to turn around in the Antarctic, the winds were too high.

[00:29:28] Liz: Oh, yeah let’s do a little bit of that, because that was definitely a pivotal moment in the trip for you.

[00:29:32] Polly:  I was having trouble in the Antarctic, and this isn’t me reading, this is giving you a little pracy up to it say because, the winds were not as forecast. The forecasting in the Antarctic is the only place in the world that is really difficult ’cause nobody lives there. And there’s all the bases are mostly around the circumference, around the edge.

 There’s only the American one at South Pole, otherwise there’s no other. reporting except from around the edge. So they’re not, it’s very inaccurate and it’s the only time. So they, I’ve been forecast a tailwind. I had 1,800 nautical miles to do across to McMurdo from Rothera and it’s been forecast as a tailwind.

I needed a tailwind and all pilots will know why I needed a tailwind. Yes. So

I had all this going on in my, doing masses of calculations and things. “Would the wind change in my favor? Decision time was approaching. Peter, my husband, I was in contact with him through the Iridium phone. It was amazing. He rang Jefferson. Stronger headwinds between 78 south and 82 south, they said.

I had not even reached 78 south yet, and there were already huge headwinds. Would it improve after 82 south? No one seemed to know. Would it be too late even if it did improve? Thoughts were swirling and rushing around in my head. I spoke to Rothera. It was a poor reception, but they could hear me. I’m considering turning round, I said.

 Roger, came Andy’s professional voice. Calculating. Could I do it? What would happen if I went on? What was the risk? It took time to sink in, but eventually it dawned on me. There really was no other option but to turn back while I still I could. There was a lump in my throat. Exhausted, I was resigned.

I had been flying for six and a half hours. I had been calculating, calculating, leaning the mixture, climbing, descending, trying to find help from the beastly wind. It was like a demon taunting, taunting, testing, testing. In all my flying experience, I had never had to take such a cruel decision. The world seemed to evaporate in front of me.

Then came Peter’s voice over the satellite phone. What is your average speed, he was saying. Stand by, I shouted, but the engine noise drowned me out. Give me time to calculate, I yelled down the phone, so he rang off. I worked out that I could average 95 knots for the remaining distance. It’s not enough. And then I’ve written, it’s perhaps a bit naughty this to hell with my sponsors, to hell with records, I won’t do anyone a favour if I have a false landing, I may kill or injure myself.

I may kill or injure someone who tries to rescue me. I might ruin Golf November, my aeroplane, forever. So there it was. In the end, there was no choice. I took a long last look at the spectacular Ellsworth Mountains. It was no time to appreciate the beauty and I had no mind to appreciate it either. Self pity took over.

Tears trickled down my face. My glasses steamed up. Then Miraculously, I thought of the disabled scholars and wondered how much more devastated they must feel after an accident, ending up in a wheelchair or without a leg. The flight was to help the disabled, but in the end, they were helping me. I sat back and enjoyed the privilege of flying over such amazing scenery.

I even found time to scribble something for the diary.

[00:33:35] Liz: Oh, and you know what? I think that’s probably one of the most important lessons for every pilot out there. I’m a former search and rescue helicopter pilot, and there’s a tremendous pressure when you know that somebody’s in danger and that you might be their only, the only person to help them.

But the culture of my own organization, the Coast Guard, evolved over the years because we used to have a saying that you had to go out, but you didn’t have to come back. We want people to come back and I’m not going to do that victim any service by ending up in the water myself.

And so having that judgment, being able to go through that paradigm shift in the mourning process over the loss of this dream that you had, but it was the responsible thing to do. You didn’t end up a search and rescue case to yourself and you’re still here to talk about it.

[00:34:27] Polly: I know, it’s amazing.

And I was so lucky and interestingly enough, I was even luckier because I was then able to go down to McMurdo on one of the ice breaking ships I was invited.

[00:34:40] Liz: What kind of ship? I think I saw that in the book because I wanted to tell you, my son was in the coast, is in the coast guard. And he, his last. Tour of Duty was on an icebreaker that went to McMurdo for the U. S. Coast Guard.

[00:34:54] Polly: Ah, it must have been the same one It was Captain Klebnikoff. Ask him if it was Captain Klebnikoff.

[00:34:55] Liz: It was, so the Coast Guard has the Polar Star and the Polar Sea. So they’re actually, they actually break the ice so that the other ships, the supply ships, can get in there.

[00:35:10] Polly: The Captain Klemnikov is the only one that takes passengers that actually breaks ice. I don’t know if it’s still going, but that’s okay. The little, it’s just a little gem of these things that happened, isn’t it? But I met, I was introduced there to somebody quite important.

I can’t remember what it was, who he was actually, but anyway, he said, Oh, you’re the responsible pilot. When he met me and I there you go.

[00:35:41] Liz: Yes. And that was in reference to another pilot who happened to be in McMurdo at the same time that you were on the other side who had not filed his papers and permits.

So yeah,

[00:35:53] Polly: and I let him have my fuel in the end.

[00:35:54] Liz: You did, and I thought that was very magnanimous of you.

[00:36:00] Polly: I couldn’t let him have my fuel without asking Shell first because they’d pay for my fuel.

[00:36:04] Liz: Yeah, their fuel, right?

Yeah, no, but that was good. That was, I think that was the right, right decision.

And it would have been kind if some other bureaucrats had been a little more magnanimous with you. I thought it was appalling. The one thing that just was just completely stupefying and unacceptable was the whole prohibition on giving you weather briefings.

[00:36:33] Polly: That was actually that. I mean, that was dangerous. I mean, that was really dangerous. If something had happened to me they would have been responsible, and they had to live with it. But actually, they sent this instruction from the UK to the weather person in Rothera. And I just went up and spoke to her, and I said do you want my life on your hands?

You better give me the weather. So she did actually give me the weather for what it was worth because it’s never very good down there. But yeah. It was shocking. It was absolutely shocking that they were.

[00:37:11] Liz: Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’m trying to wrack your brain about what the thought process was behind some, something like an edict like that.

Like if something bad happens to her and we gave her the weather, then we’ll be responsible. Like, that’s really the only thing that I could think of I, because you were stuck there.

[00:37:33] Polly: I think they were cross that I managed to play the field and get random I think they were really cross.They tried to stop me. They tried to stop my fuel. But having said that the Argentine Air Force were amazing. I mean, they sent a Hercules, a Charlie130 down to their base in Marambio with four barrels of fuel down for me.

[00:37:57] Liz: Yeah, no offense UK, but the Argentinians showed you up on this one, for sure. So we talked about some of the challenging moments. What are the highlights for you all these years later that you still look back to?

[00:38:19] Polly: A certain amount of highlights is the fact that now people are still interested.

It’s 20 years ago. Can’t believe it. I’m still giving talks. People say will you give us a talk. I don’t know, but the real highlight there were several, of course, were the wonderful people that I met all the way around who supported me. I mean, you hear such bad news on the television and the radio.

The world is full of absolutely amazingly wonderful people, and it’s only a few that aren’t so wonderful for whatever reason that you hear about them. I do also have a very deep Christian faith, and I ended the book, I don’t know if you remember, but perhaps I’ll just read you, it is only one sentence, how I finished the book.

The last word must be with Louis in Port Alegre, this is in Brazil, who told me, there are two seats in your aircraft, One for you, and one for God. There was actually only one seat in my aircraft, but that’s what he said to me, and I thought that was very moving.

[00:39:30] Liz: Yeah, and you do talk about some of the cross-cultural religious experiences that you had. And I thought, I loved the juxtaposition of the one that you experienced with the, in Alaska, and then or Northern Canada, wherever it was.

[00:39:46] Polly: Oh, yes, that was amazing. You’ve really done well. You can remember it better than I can.

[00:39:50] Liz: Oh, I just read it.

[00:39:53] Polly: Yes, I mean, when I was landed at Resolute Bay, because I’m actually, I’m a deeply believing Christian, but I’m not one of these people that has to go and Make everybody else believe the same as me I just feel there’s room for everybody and all the different faiths end up in believing most of them in God and if they don’t they have maybe another faiths I’m not one for going out and saying you’ve got to do this, but for me, that helps.

So when I landed in Resolute Bay, after that engine failure, you might remember. Yes. Then there was a service at the little wooden church there. Quite unbelievable. And so I went to the service, they were all Inuit speaking, so I didn’t understand a word, but the priest spoke English. And so she translated and she asked me to go up the front and say what I’d done, what I was doing and everything.

So I did a very brief prece of what I was doing. And then at the end of the service, they asked me to go up to the front again. And the whole congregation, which was probably in about 10 or 12 people, came and they stood in a circle around me and laid hands on me and prayed. For my safe onward journey, and that was a very moving experience, but there’s a link to that because when I landed in New Zealand we were very kindly invited by someone I’d never met, but they read about me on the Internet and things and they’d invited me to stay, and they had this Maori model of a circle of Maori people around. It was in clay a table piece. And I said to the lady where can I get one of those? Because I couldn’t carry anything in the aeroplane, really. But I really was impressed with this because it was so like the Inuit people the circle.

And the lady said, it’s yours and gave it to me. So it’s true. And we did find a box and put lots of stuff around it to make sure it was safe. And we managed to put it in the back of my aeroplane. My husband said he wasn’t going to carry it back on the big aeroplane because he didn’t want anything to happen to it, so we took it back to my aeroplane all the way home. And I still have it and I still use it. Put a candle in the middle.

[00:42:22] Liz: Oh, that’s wonderful. Yeah. Wonderful. Keepsake of the memories. That’s amazing. So you said that people come to you for advice for solo trips around the world, and what advice do you have for them?

[00:42:35] Polly: Prepare really well. It’s the most important thing. Do you know, it can carry across the whole world and you, with all your experiences, must believe that too. It, and not just in the discipline of flying, but in any discipline. I say it to the children at school for their exams and things, prepare really well, and then you’ll be okay.

You can never prepare enough but I did feel that I’d done, I mean, it took me two years to prepare for each of the flights, and I did feel that I’d done everything I could, so I was quite relaxed when I took off with that and that, I worked really hard and had a lot of support. It was amazing.

The support and the people I met and the support for what I was doing was unbelievable. It’s an absolute inspiration. And it’s lovely to talk to you after so long and all the people who are in your aviatrix group, whatever you call, what do you call them?

[00:43:40] Liz: So my, so I promote books and authors as Literary Aviatrix, but we have the Aviatrix Book Club where we actually meet virtually every twice a month to discuss the books so that people can accommodate their times. And I think I mentioned We had a lovely conversation about you in the book and I was able to ask some questions that they had asked.

 I feel good about that, but yeah we are inspired by your story. One of the reasons I did like the lineup that I’m doing is that so in April we discussed your story and in May we’re discussing this fictional story. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it called Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead.

[00:44:34] Polly: Yes, I have. I haven’t read it, but yes, I

[00:44:36] Liz: have. Oh, it’s a wonderful saga and I think that you will find some similarities in the fictional characters experiences in Antarctica, and that’s all I’m going to say because we haven’t discussed the book yet, and I don’t want to spoil it.

[00:44:52] Polly: All right. I understand, but I’ll go get it

[00:44:55] Liz: I always want to hear how a book like this comes to life. So before I ask you a couple of questions about that, is there anything else that you wanted to talk about or convey about the trip itself to everyone?

[00:45:13] Polly: I’ll probably think of a hundred things when we, when you’ve gone.

There are one or two funny stories which I find really amusing. One is I was flying from Iceland, from Reykjavik to Vik. This is my first transatlantic flight. And I’d met up with a guy who was ferrying an aircraft and we, I left from the, for the leg between Reykjavik and Vik.

about an hour before he did. So about a couple of hours into the flight, I thought we had a frequency we could talk and the airlines talk to each other and all that sort of thing. I think, I can’t remember, 138 decimal something. I can’t remember what it was now. And so I thought I’ll call him up and see how he’s getting on.

So I said, called him up and I said, how are you getting on back there? I’m at 8,000 feet and I’m picking up a bit of ice, and he, calls back and says, no, I’m at 7, 000 feet and I’m in the clear and a voice interjects from above and says, have you got some ice down there? We need some for our gin and tonics and it was British Airways jumbo captain. There was some very funny. There were some very funny incidents along the way. I don’t know if I put that in the book or not. I don’t think I probably did that was when the book was really about the polar flight and that was an earlier flight.

 So yeah. Go ahead about the book.

[00:46:55] Liz: Okay, so you give us a glimpse in one section where you’re crossing the Pacific from California to Hawaii, where you actually give us the transcript of your own hourly journaling. So tell us how you went from this incredible, massive experience to putting out a book in such a concise way to convey that experience? Like, how did the writing go? And then how did you publish it?

[00:47:26] Polly: Can I start from the sort of beginning? Because all the time I wrote a diary, because even though the internet wasn’t as advanced as it is now I did send back by email a blog every day so that my team back home put it up on a website, which doesn’t exist anymore because we didn’t keep it going.

 And so I had a diary and then I didn’t think any more about it. And I certainly didn’t think about writing a book. But in the meantime, I think I told you that my husband was very keen on rebuilding old aircraft and he found a Battle of Britain Hurricane in India, which he managed to get them to get out of India, and he restored it to flying condition.

And it is the only Battle of Britain Hurricane that’s flying in the world that actually took part in the Battle of Britain. It’s the only one that actually took part in the Battle of Britain. So we don’t own it anymore, but life has moved on. We’re a bit older and we sold it in the end but it flew and it still does fly for all the air shows around the UK.

It’s a very special airplane and he wrote a book about, about his restoration of this aircraft, getting it out of India and the restoration and everything. And it was published by an aviation publisher called Grub Street. He published my husband’s book.

And several people came to him and said that’s Peter’s book. Where’s Polly’s? So most people have to go through an agent and have an awful job getting a publisher. But I just have luck in my life. He just rang me up one day. He said, They’re saying, Where’s your book? And so I said I don’t have one, and he said can you write one? So I said I’ve got a diary.

 And so he said I need it. I can’t quite remember, but it was, he gave me something like two or three months, not very long for a book, really. Yeah. So I sat down and I preceded the diary, but there’s another side to it. And for my first world flight, one of our newspapers called the Sunday Times commissioned a journalist to follow me and send back articles about the flight.

But this lady was having quite a, had quite a tough time because she had to follow me on scheduled airlines. And I wasn’t always landing at the right place, but she was amazing and it was an amazing challenge for her, brilliant writer. I did not want a journalist following me and I was very angry.

And I, when I first met her, I said I’m very feisty when I’m tired. But she was brilliant and she has become one of my greatest friends. So when I had this business of him, of John Davis from Grub Street ringing me up and saying we want to publish your book, which I mean isn’t very often heard of in that way around.

I realized I was very lucky. I said, Carol I need your help. And so she said you write a chapter, send it to me. And I’ll edit it for you. And so she said, I won’t change it, but I’ll do it so that it becomes more readable. I’m sure it’s in the acknowledgements that she did that for me, because she would she could find a way of making a sentence shorter.

 And cutting out irrelevant words, which the amateur is generally not very good at become very wordy. She, there’s one word I kept putting in apparently was something was nestling in this little cottage nestling in the woods. And she said, don’t you dare use that word nestling.

So I learned a lot about writing and that, that’s helped me a lot. I’ve often been asked to write articles and I do, I did learn a lot from her about doing that, but I don’t think I’m really a writer. I don’t think I write and I’m sorry to disappoint you and all you. The book is mine. It’s my words, but she helped hugely.

And when I took it to John at Grub Street, when I took the finished script to him, he read through it. He said I don’t need to edit anything. It’s perfect. So that was Carol, not me. The story’s mine. I wrote the story, but she edited it for me.

[00:52:31] Liz: So honestly, Polly it’s wonderful to hear this, because this is one of the things that I try to convey because lots of women like you, for whatever reason, have been told they should write a book, but they don’t see themselves as writers.

And so the, to let them know that there are many ways that you can do this where you don’t actually have to trudge through the whole thing alone. You can get help with the help of a coauthor, a really strong editor friend who has that skill. No that’s not a disappointment at all and not a surprise.

And I’m grateful that you did it that way because one of the things that I knew that I didn’t want to be was a pilot writing a book. I wanted to be a writer writing a book and I took the time to go do that and like get my master’s in writing, but not everybody has the interest or the time to do that.

And so the, it’s more important that you do a quality job of writing. Of telling that story with whatever means that you need to use to do that so that it can reach a broader audience and have the longevity that it has. I mean, to be honest with you, if this were a US book, I’m not sure I would, it would still be in print.

I’m not sure I would have been able to buy it becauseBut there are still copies, enough copies out there that we were able to get copies of it. We

[00:53:42] Polly: We sold out of the hardbacks and now they’re all coming back on Amazon and things. And then the paperbacks I’ve got a few in my attic, but not very many.

And that’s a lot of sold. Of course. Because I gave a huge amount of talks when I people wanted me to give talks, and I always did them to raise money for charity. I’d never do them for free, but I didn’t charge astronomical amounts of money. There’s one thing I’ve forgotten to tell you, which maybe would interest Americans particularly.

 But it is in the book. I needed publicity for my sponsors. And so I needed to have a very big send off. And again. I managed by infilling my way in to get the person who is now King Charles. That was Prince Charles at the time. That’s right. To come and see me off and I had to do a lot of letter writing.

Chivying. I even rang up ’cause to see what was happening about it because I’d sent a letter and not had a reply and I rang up Buckingham Palace and I go. Prince of Wales office, as if I was a personal friend, but that didn’t work particularly. I got through to a secretary, but she was very helpful and eventually I get a phone call on my answer, on my voicemail saying please will you ring the Prince of Wales office?

And but there was a lot of jiggery poker, a long strike. I could write, actually, I could probably write a book about how I got Prince Charles to come, but it wouldn’t really be very tactful to do that. But it was very and there’s, by a hang of the tale, because I was giving a talk to some children in a primary school—seven, eight year olds probably. And I have a PowerPoint presentation and I’ve got a picture of Prince Charles, as he was then, King Charles, looking at my wing because his name was on the wing, he didn’t pay 25 pounds, but he came and gave me lots of publicity, which was fun.

[00:55:56] Liz: I was going to ask you if Charles and Queen Noor paid their 25 dollars for that.

[00:56:03] Polly: And anyway, I said, I put the picture off of Prince Charles looking at my wing at his name on my wing with me standing beside and I said does anyone know who that is? And one bright spark puts his hand up and says, your husband.

[00:56:26] Liz: If only, I would have a fleet of planes.

[00:56:31] Polly: So lots of stories and I think of them afterwards. And when I give a talk, I have a sort of a framework and I think of the people I’m talking to, what their interests are and the rest of it. So I do quite a lot of work before each talk, but I never use notes. So I always speak without any notes.

 And so inevitably I forget things because they don’t know what I’ve forgotten.

[00:57:00] Liz: No, and your story is fascinating and entertaining no matter how much or how little we get to hear of it.

[00:57:06] Polly: Then afterwards I think, oh, I forgot to say that or they may ask a question which brings it out, of course but yeah.

[00:57:12] Liz: If you forget anything today, if you have forgotten anything today, feel free to send me a note and we’ll put it out.  

[00:57:21] Polly: Oh, you’re very kind. I’d really I would really like to have a long chat to you about your career, because it actually sounds hugely interesting. I mean, search and rescue is a very, so you’re a helicopter pilot, presumably, I would say.

[00:57:33] Liz:

I am a retired Coast Guard helicopter pilot, but very many other things as well. I only spent 12 years of a 28 year career actively flying. And so I did a lot of other things, and I know, I feel like people they that’s the catchy thing. Like, that’s the party trick that makes me interesting, but I’ve done so many other things as well.

So I gathered a lot of skills and interests during my time. And so this project gives me an opportunity to employ some of those skills in a really fun way.

[00:58:07] Polly: That’s very interesting. But going back to the fact that I was 80 in January and I’m having a ball this year. Yes. And during lockdown, I thought because I used to teach music.

 That was my career for a long time. And I, but I used to teach the piano and I’d never learned the recorder, the little I think, yeah. And so I thought in lockdown, when we’re stuck at home, I’ll teach myself the recorder. And I could read music, I could work out a chart, what the fingering was.

So I got to a certain standard, and then I got on to a plateau, really. And I didn’t, and I had a very cheap 6 pound recorder off Amazon. And my husband then said I found a teacher, and I got better. And then my husband bought me a really nice. instrument. And I’ve just done, we have a system in this country of grades and you can go from grade one to eight.

And so I did five about a month ago and I feel really proud. But what I’ve said to myself is I’ve got to get to grade eight before I die. So I’m 80. So I still have a challenge in front of me.

[00:59:21] Liz: Look at you go. That’s amazing. I have a little musician in my house Transcribed that we’re encouraging. And someday I hope to get back to music.

Yes I have three children, but my youngest is 12 and he performs, he plays rock music, mostly guitar drums. And he’s in violin as well and has done some clarinet. Like we just basically have noise going on in my house twenty-four seven. I have a 31 year old man who is in the Coast Guard, a 21 year old young lady, still young lady.

I’m not ready to call her a full grown yet. She still lives in my house. And then a 12 year old,

[01:00:12] Polly: We have three boys and they’re only two years between each of them, so I had mayhem when they were young. And I could keep order in the classroom with my teaching, but I couldn’t keep order in my children.

[01:00:30] Liz: Yeah. People followed my orders at work. They don’t follow my orders. I hear you.

[01:00:36] Polly: Anyway, now we have grandchildren and they’re doing their. One, the oldest one’s doing her what we call a level, which will then go on to university. I mean she’s 17.

[01:00:48] Liz: Yeah, we have all that to look forward to, too.

I had a couple of things to say. First of all I had the privilege. So my last posting was as a diplomat in Barbados and a couple of years ago, I interviewed Mary S. Lovell, who wrote a book called Straight On to Mourning about Beryl Markham, the biography of her. And she mentioned that she wintered in Barbados and I was like how would you like to have dinner with the U. S. Ambassador? And so I went down with some friends and we got to meet Mary and Barbados and go out to dinner with the U. S. Ambassador. It was wonderful. And so I was going to tell you, I was going to ask you where you live. You’re in the UK.

[01:01:37] Polly: Yes. And I have to tell you. An interesting story. There’s a great link with Beryl Markham.

I live in the middle of England, not far from Oxford. You will have heard of Oxford. But there’s a town about 12 miles from Oxford, south of Oxford, called Abingdon. And England had, it was a big military base, so a big airfield, RAF, Royal Air Force Base. It’s no longer a Royal Air Force Base but they keep the runway there.

It’s run now by the army. They keep the runway as a diversion for the ordinary jets. So if they have an accident or a problem, they can land there. It’s big enough. Right. Anyway, Beryl Markham, when she did her West by the Night because that’s a book she wrote, about her journey from England to America, the first person to fly in the wrong direction against the prevailing wind she left from Abingdon Airfield.

Right around the corner from where I live. So then, when it was, 2006 I think, was it, 75 years since she’d done it or something like that? Right. They asked me if I would fly into Abingdon Airfield and meet the mayor and all that sort of thing to, to replicate Beryl Markham. There are a lot of links.

And she wrote the book West for the Night. What’s your friend’s what’s the book?

[01:03:17] Liz: You’re straight on till morning. It gives us. Yeah. Beryl gives us sort of the surface. Here’s my beautiful life in Africa and how I flew across. And then Mary got into all the scandalous bits for us and all the gossip.

[01:03:27] Polly: Right.

Okay. I mean, that’s why she’s so well known. And I said to the mayor then, you need to have a statue of Beryl Markham in Abingdon, because it would attract the tourists and things. But he didn’t do anything about it. But anyway, that you can’t do anything you can’t run the world.

I just suggested it. I thought you should do it.

[01:04:01] Liz: Polly, this has been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for sharing your story, both in the book and for taking the time to talk.

[01:04:05] Polly: I’m very flattered that you’ve How did you find it, by the way?

[01:04:06] Liz: This is what I do. I promote books that feature women in aviation.

And so I have a website to serve as a central source to find the ones that are still available because the algorithms on Amazon are odd and you can type in women pilots or women in aviation and get an 80 page return, and the majority of them have nothing to do with women pilots. And so I created this website, the Literary Aviatrix website.

 To serve as a central source and yours is one of the books that’s been on there. And as I prepare for the following year’s book club, I’m looking for diversity of aviation, types of flying, whether it’s military civilian, general aviation, professional, like airline pilots.

And then I’m also looking for different periods in history. And so one of my, one of my good friends, and actually the person who reached out to me to help produce these interviews is Shaesta Waiz, who is the previous record holder as youngest woman to fly around solo around the world. I’ve also, we also discussed Jerry Mock’s book Three Eight Charlie and Wendy Hollinger is the lady who kind of is the proprietress who manages the reprint of that book, because that book went out of print and she revived it.

And so it’s still here for us to read because of her. And then both, Shaesta was definitely mentored by I don’t know if she ever had a chance to reach out to you, but she was definitely mentored by Jerry Mock. And then Zara Rutherford, the most recent youngest woman to fly solo around the world, was mentored by Shaesta. It’s, you guys have this little club and I just

[01:06:06] Polly: Sam Rutherford, Zara’s father, belongs to the same club that I belong to. And it’s called the Royal Air Squadron. And we’ve been very involved with the Ukraine war. And we’ve had 50, 50 Ukrainian refugees living in our tiny village.

We’ve got 100, 150 houses roughly in the village. And we had 50 Ukrainian. family of 50, 50 Ukrainians refugees living here, and we were very involved because in 2013, before the Russians went into Crimea, this Royal Air Squadron organized a flight of 25 aircraft to Ukraine and we went with them, and we flew everywhere in Ukraine, Lviv, Kyiv, and down to Crimea and Sevastopol.

Before the Russians came in. We were very involved with that. We had such a great time. So anyway, that’s another story. No, I’m not writing a book about it, but there is a book about it but I didn’t write it.

[01:07:17] Liz: This has been fabulous, Polly. Thank you so much.

[01:07:19] Polly: Nice to meet you. Bye. Thanks so much for listening.

[01:07:21] Liz: Check out the Literary Aviatrix website for this and hundreds of other books by or featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. And while you’re there, sign up for the Literary Aviatrix newsletter to stay up to date on all of the Aviatrix books. News. If you enjoyed this interview on YouTube or podcast, please like subscribe and drop a review.

If the option is available, just like book reviews, podcast reviews, help our stories reach a broader audience. I’d like to thank Michael Wilds of Massif and crew for his help producing this interview and his support of all things, literary aviatrix blue skies and happy reading.