The Prince of Wales waved off a record-breaking Oxfordshire pilot as she took off for her second solo circumnavigation of the globe. The Prince of Wales with Polly Vacher

Prince Charles watched Polly Vacher leave Birmingham International Airport in her attempt to be the first person to fly round the world in a single-engine light aircraft via the North and South Poles.

He is pictured looking at the names of Mrs Vacher's sponsors printed on one of the wings of her Piper Dakota.

In 2001, the 59-year-old mother of three, from Drayton, near Abingdon, become the first person to fly solo around the world via Australia and the Pacific in the smallest aircraft.

She raised more than £185,000 for the Royal Air Force's Flying Scholarship for the Disabled, which will also benefit from the proceeds of her latest flight -- her last big trip.

She will fly from Birmingham to the North Pole via Norway before flying south to cross Antarctica, landing on ice runways to re-fuel before reaching New Zealand.

The homeward route will be via the east coast of Australia, Asia, the Middle East and southern Europe.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference before her departure, Mrs Vacher admitted she was "slightly anxious".

Dressed in an orange flight suit and clutching her handbag, the adventurer said: "Six weeks ago I was a basket case. I could hardly stop crying all day. Every time I turned around I thought: 'What am I doing? This is madness.

"Of course, I am slightly anxious about it. It is something I have not done before. Hopefully the preparation will pay off and be a success."

Her preparation includes survival training in Alaska, the north Arctic and the Alps perfecting techniques such as landing on glaciers.

She has also practised "ditching and dunking" should the Piper go down over the sea, as well as learning how to shoot in the event that she is attacked by a wild animal such as a polar bear.

During stopovers, Mrs Vacher will be kept busy with promotion work, but hopes to meet her husband, Peter, and her three sons, all of whom are pilots.

Mrs Vacher, who is also a qualified physiotherapist, obtained her pilot's licence only in 1997 before joining the ranks of famous aviators.