PLANT CITY, Fla.

-- When Alice Dangerfield turned 100 years old, she decided to take to the sky.

Literally.

After studying photos of her 50-year-old granddaughter, Cindi Davis, hang gliding for the first time, Dangerfield decided to give it a whirl.

“Right then I knew I wanted go up,” said Dangerfield, who was born in July 1909, lived in South Haven until adulthood and now lives in Plant City, Fla. “I’ve been in a hot-air balloon, and I’ve always loved to fly.”

When Davis, along with other family members in Florida, heard about her grandmother’s request, she scheduled the flight for Aug. 22.

“She’s very active, and she gets around just great,” said Davis, also from Plant City. “But at her age you just don’t want to wait for anything. She wanted to go so we took her.”

Accompanied by several relatives, Dangerfield arrived at Wallaby Ranch Hang Gliding Flight Park in Davenport, Fla., and, apparently with no trepidation, soared 2,000 feet into the air in tandem with an instructor.

“They hooked us up to a little plane and flew way up into the air,” Dangerfield said, “and then they just cut us loose.”

After the tow plane released Dangerfield into the sky, she was thrilled with the gliding experience and particularly impressed by the gentle landing.

“I just loved it. It was so much fun and so interesting,” she said. “We flew around for at least 10 minutes. It was real smooth, not jerky at all.”

Now she’s featured in an online video titled “Great Granny Goes Tandem Hang Gliding (100 Years Old),” posted by the company that took her to the skies.

The spry centenarian fell in love with flying at age 17 during an open-cockpit excursion over Lake Michigan when a friend treated her to her first flight in a private aircraft.

Although Dangerfield is very close to her sister, Alegra Appleyard, 96, of South Haven, she didn’t tell her about the hang gliding until afterward.

“She thought I had lost it,” Dangerfield said. “She wanted to know what in the world made me do it and kept asking, ‘What next?’”

Appleyard, however, said she wasn’t terribly shocked when she heard about the flight during one of the siblings’ weekly phone chats.

“My sister isn’t really a daredevil, but she’s got a granddaughter that does all kinds of crazy things,” Appleyard said, chuckling. “I’m not surprised by anything that goes on down there.”

The “crazy things” that Dangerfield’s granddaughter, Davis, enjoys are kayaking down Florida rivers, canoeing and rock rappelling. Davis also has gone parasailing and white-water rafting and has her eye on another escapade.

“I’ve never been skydiving,” Davis said, “but it’s on my list.”

Davis’ interest in extreme adventure is rubbing off on her 100-year-old grandmother.

“She asked me to take her canoeing in July so I did,” Davis said. “And now she wants to go kayaking. I told her that meant that she’d have to paddle and it’s much more difficult than canoeing, but she said she can do it.

“I’m going to take her after she works on her arm strength for a while, so she’s been lifting soup cans to build up muscle,” Davis said. “And why not? If she can do it, she can do it.”

Dangerfield’s daughter Margaret Fraser, 75, also of Plant City, agrees.

“At 100 years old, she’s still healthy so we help her do whatever she wants to do,” Fraser said. “Whatever it is, we try to make it happen for her.”

Dangerfield said that growing older, although difficult, does not mean that life necessarily turns sedentary. With only the occasional use of a cane, Dangerfield pulls weeds, feeds birds and prepares some meals. She works on jigsaw and word-search puzzles daily and makes a variety of handcrafts.

“It’s not easy being 100, but too many old people just sit around,” she said. “I think they should do everything they can do for as long as possible.

“I’m going hang gliding again. In fact, I’m going to do it really soon, before winter sets in.”

By Kelle Barr | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette