After his wife of 75 years died in December, 94-year-old LakeLand Village resident Albert Stabler penned a bucket list that included skydiving for the first time.

Stabler had always stayed inside the plane. He took his first solo flight at age 16. He piloted his own Cessna 140. He designed and constructed a plane, Fly Baby IA, that hangs prominently in the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

"When we were flying, it was the old saying, 'Why would you jump out of a perfectly good plane?' " said his son, Richard.

Even after Richard and a granddaughter jumped from perfectly good planes, "He still sai...