At Skydive Cairns we have done a lot of record jumps but until recently we have not listed them, this is a page we intend to build upon as soon as we gather the information, few members of the jump team have also reached record milestones in their careers as skydivers and we will also post that information on this page as well.
For now one of our proudest and very humbling experiences was to take Frank Moody for a skydive at a very special time in his life, here is Frank's Story!
Frank Moody - 101 skydiver
Frank Moody - At 101 years of age Frank skydived with Skydive Cairns on 16th June 2004. Which just proves that you are never too old for skydiving. It was absolute pleasure and honor to have done this for Frank. “I’ve just come down from the land of heaven” the bright-eyed Holloway's Beach man said on landing. “I came, I saw and I conquered”.
Mr Moody took the plunge after regulars at the Holloway's Beach Football Club put him up to it, not thinking the centenarian would actually make the leap.
“They dared me to jump so I said I would do it,” Mr Moody said. “It was a piece of cake.”
Mr Moody said:“It was a piece of cake.”
Frank was born in Rockhampton & is second generation Australian DOB 22. 4. 1903.
He entered the public service in 1919 and then commenced studies in accountancy and his hobby with “wireless” now called radio. Frank visited Cairns in 1924 & 1925 and liked the town and its prospects so much that he resigned from the public service in Rocky in 1926 to work in Cairns.
In Courtesy Herald / Sun Melbourne Jun 2004
A 101-year old Cairns man floated into the record books yesterday by doing a tandem skydive after a dare at his local football club. Frank Moody, of Holloway's Beach, made the tandem jump with experienced skydiver Karl Eitech, virtually assuring him a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Mr Moody beat by seven years the previous record-holder, a 94-year-old Norwegian who made his jump in 1999, said Amanda Pilkington, a spokeswoman for Skydive Cairns. After a jump, Mr Moody went down to his football club with his son John to have a Guinness to celebrate the event and to tell his mates he had gone through with it….
Watch the Action!
Cairns Post has written on 17th June 2004
Sprightly pensioner Frank Moody made history yesterday as the oldest male tandem skydive jumper in the world – at the ripe old age of 101. “I’ve just come down from the land of heaven” the bright-eyed Holloway's Beach man said on landing. “I came, I saw and I conquered”.
Mr Moody took the plunge after regulars at the Holloway's Beach Football Club put him up to it, not thinking the centenarian would actually make the leap.
“They dared me to jump so I said I would do it,” Mr Moody said. “It was a piece of cake.” Mr Moody was suited and booted at Skydive Cairns and made his record breaking 10,000 ft jump at 8:30am – enjoying 30 seconds of free fall. Skydive Cairns covered the cost of the jump to get him in the Guinness Book of Records. Sales and marketing manager Amanda Pilkington said she did not get a wink of sleep the night before.
“I got such a buzz out of it, he's a really cool guy” she said. The previous record holder was a Norwegian, aged 94, and the oldest woman was a 99-year-old. But Mr Moody is no stranger to the dizzy heights. “My first flight was as a passenger in 1929 with Tom McDonald in his Tiger Moth”, he said. Mr Moody, a former accountant and wireless expert, moved to Cairns from Rockhampton permanently in 1933 and set up a radio communications network for the Cairns Aerial Ambulance.
Frank originally wanted to jump in his 100th year but as the records department back in 1903 wasn’t a sophisticated as today, it took Frank almost an entire year to find the actual records to prove that he was indeed 100 years old! By then he had entered his 101st year!
Skydiving in wedding dress
Nick Souter skydived with Skydive Cairns in his wife’s wedding dress. Nick boldy ventures where no man has ventured before, skydiving in his wife Coco’s traditional Mainland Chinese wedding dress. The dress was originally imported from China by Coco’s mother for their wedding on 1st July 2001 at the Queen Victoria Centre in Melbourne and has not been worn since.
When and where it happened: 16th of September 2008 in Cairns He flyed up 14,000 ft with our famous plane Cresco “Wicked”
Tandem master and hadicam photos – Elisha Walker; additional footage Provided by solo cameraman Matt Shrimpton
Max - our tandem master anniversary 14,300 jumps / 10,000 tandems!
MAX one of our senior tandem masters has recently completed over 14,300 skydives, which more than 10,000 of them were Tandem Skydives. Max is devoting to skydiving for more then 30 years.
Also jumped with the Skydive Cairns
- Caroline Corr famous drummer & vocalist from the Irish Band the Corrs
- Peter Overton from 60 Minutes program
- Ryan Moloney (Toady) from Neighbours the famous Australian TV show
- The dirty Sanchez boys from London the outrageous shock jocks!
