You might think things get really slow in your old age, but that’s not true for 104-year-old Dorothy Hoffner. She set the world record for being the oldest person to skydive. Let’s explore her experience and what you’d need to do to follow her into the skies.
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Age Is Just A Number
“Age is just a number”, she said, and her previous exploits prove that. Dorothy first jumped out of a plane when she was 100, and this was just her second skydiving expedition. Her next adventure? A hot-air balloon ride in December, when she’s supposed to turn 105.
Dorothy left her walker behind as she walked to the Skyvane plane located in Ottawa, Illinois. Despite it being just her second leap, she was grinning from ear to ear on the way to the aircraft.
How High Was the Jump?
According to the team there, the jump topped out at around 13,500 feet (4,100 meters) in the air.
Dorothy noted, “When we just about got off the plane, a big gust of wind came, and it turned us around. That was the fun part,”
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Did She Do It Alone?
Skydiving requires a lot of training beforehand. Many times, people head up to do skydiving and go with a person trained for tandem diving.
Dorothy skydived with a tandem diver, allowing her to enjoy every step of the descent without worrying about her safety.
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Who Had The Record Before Her?
A Swedish woman named Rut Linnea Ingegard Larsson held the record before Dorothy, breaking the previous record in 2022.
Currently, the Guinness Book of World Records is working to verify Dorothy’s achievement so she can be officially added to the book as the current record holder.
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Full Support
Throughout the entire process, Dorothy had the full support and attention of the incredible team at Skydive Chicago.
Everyone was in awe of her determination to do the jump.
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Is Sky Diving Hard to Do?
Tandem diving (which is what Dorothy did) is relatively safe and easy to do. In a tandem dive, you have a trained professional with you so that you can enjoy the experience properly.
Without a tandem diver, it becomes more complicated. You’d have to attend a lot of training exercises before you’d be allowed to go diving on your own.
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This Isn’t the Only Record Set in Ottawa, Illinois
In 2015, 164 skydivers left this same town and set the world record for the most amount of people diving head-first.
The divers fell in formation, making for quite the sight from the ground.
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It’s Not Too Late For Your First Jump
Meet Kimberly Knor, an 84-year-old thrill-seeker, who has set her sights on a skydiving milestone: completing 1,000 jumps. Despite already having an impressive 598 jumps under her belt.
Her passion for skydiving dates back to her childhood, when she was captivated by her uncle’s military parachute. From that moment, she knew she wanted to experience the exhilaration of freefalling through the sky.
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How Long Does It Take to Reach the Ground?
That depends on how far up you are and when you decide to spring your parachute. Typically, skydivers say to count to ten and pull the cord to release the chute.
This isn’t just because you get to experience freefall, however. Counting to ten ensures you’re well out of the path of the plane and other divers when you spring your chute.
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Where is Dorothy Today?
On October 9th, mere days after breaking the world record for the oldest tandem skydiver, Dorothy Hoffner died peacefully in her sleep.
Dorothy showed that you could do whatever you want, no matter how old you are. “Coming down with a parachute over you, it’s such a peaceful thing,” she’s quoted as saying. She certainly showed us what you could do at 104.
