After a cup of tea and a royal handshake, Oxfordshire's record-breaking pilot Polly Vacher was due to take off today on another journey of a lifetime -- attempting a second solo round-the-world flight.

After talking to Prince Charles, Mrs Vacher, from Drayton, near Abingdon, will leave Birmingham Airport on the first leg of her second solo circumnavigation of the world, in aid of the Flying Scholarship for the Disabled.

A Hurricane and a Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will escort Mrs Vacher as she makes a farewell flypast over the the airfield before heading north for Wick in Scotland where she will stay overnight. Then it will be on to Norway and later the North Pole.

She will take a route which has never before been undertaken solo in a single engine light aircraft -- via the North and South Poles.

In September 2001, she successfully completed her first solo flight around the world, visiting 17 countries and covering 25,000 miles. Mrs Vacher, 58, flew her single-engined Piper Dakota via Australia and the Pacific Ocean.

From her first journey she raised more than £190,000 for Flying Scholarships for the Disabled and last year received an MBE.

She expects to take her about seven months to complete the journey.