A PILOT who grew up in the Eden Valley has been stripped of a trophy awarded to her for flying an 8,000-mile solo trip.

Tracey Curtis-Taylor, who attended Appleby Grammar School, was presented with the Bill Woodhams Trophy in 2014 for flying alone from Cape Town, South Africa, to the United Kingdom.

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That award has now been relinquished however, as it emerged that Ms Curtis-Taylor, 54, had not completed the flight without help.

Members of the Light Aircraft Association (LAA) voted 123 to 65 to strip the self-styled 'Bird in a Biplane' of the award amid allegations she was accompanied on some of the 36 legs of the journey undertaken in her 1942 Boeing Stearman plane.

Ms Curtis-Taylor said: "A small number of recent articles about my flights have suggested or implied that I have misrepresented or have sought to mislead people into believing that I undertook my flights alone and without support.

"I have never made false assertions about the nature of my flights and I dismiss the suggestion that they are 'mired in controversy'.

"As I have stated previously, I began with the intention of trying to fly the Africa flight solo but a combination of elements resulted in fundamental changes being made to the nature of that expedition. Several people flew with me on multiple legs between Cape Town and the UK. These included sponsors, film crew and my engineer, Ewald Gritsch."