Becca Jordan flies over Moab with a world record to her name. At 27, she helped take an all-female acrobatic wingsuit team to the FAI World Cup.

Becca Jordan steps to the open door of a Cessna Super Caravan above Moab in a purple wingsuit, a black helmet and a chrysanthemum tucked behind one ear. She is 27, a Moab wingsuiting instructor and a world-record wingsuit pilot.

Her student waits beside her. Below them, redrock formations spread across the desert. Jordan grips the outside door bars, listens to her student’s count and leans into the air.

For the next two minutes, the two do not fall so much as fly – arms and legs held inside nylon wings, bodies angled forward before their parachutes open above the drop zone.

Jordan is part of an American acrobatic wingsuit team with Elizabeth Brott, 29, of Salt Lake City, and camera flyer George Hargis. At the 2025 FAI World Cup of Wingsuit Flying in the Czech Republic, Jordan and Brott were among the first all-female teams to compete in acrobatic flying and set the world record for most “docks,” or hand grips, in a round. The record required them to meet in the air at the same speed 12 times without disrupting each other’s balance or control.

Wingsuiting is an advanced form of skydiving. After hundreds of regular parachute jumps, experienced pilots wear specialized suits that turn the body into a human airfoil, allowing them to fly at speeds near 200 mph. In acrobatic competition, two performers fly a sequence of grips and maneuvers while a camera flyer records the round for judging.

The speed, though, is not how Jordan describes the heart of the sport. “I remember thinking that skydiving would be this adrenaline-ridden sport,” Jordan said. “Of course the first time it was terrifying, but you face that fear and the fear diminishes and it becomes this place of comfort and focus.”

Jordan moved to Moab after doing a tandem jump with her mom. She soon got hired in the office at Skydive Moab, where the job came with skydiving privileges. Jordan then earned a series of U.S. Parachute Association licenses. She has completed around 1,500 skydives, about 1,100 of them in a wingsuit, and has official permission to teach.

The idea of wingsuiting started for Jordan on a climbing trip in the Calanques of France. A friend, standing at the edge of one of the steep limestone cliffs, mentioned that some people fly off mountains in wingsuits like birds. The comment stayed with her.

“I remember getting out of high school, and I wasn’t ready for the standard progression through life,” Jordan said. She and her twin sister took a gap year to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. There, another hiker gave them a piece of advice. “He said that in life we need to listen to things that resonate. Flying off mountains resonated for me,” Jordan said. “People pursuing things wildly out of their element with beauty and grace and focus.”

Keith Macbeth, owner of Skydive Moab, is well suited to assess the competitive skydivers who work for him. Macbeth is an airplane pilot, has done more than 13,000 skydives and comes from a family of skydiving experts. He believes Jordan’s quiet, calm demeanor makes her a better wingsuit athlete. Macbeth described Jordan and Brott as “quiet and nice people but not hey-look-at-me types, which makes them better skydivers.”

Jordan has considered wingsuiting the goal since she was a beginning skydiver. She said her parents, both military careerists, gave her the courage and grit to pursue big challenges.

“I think it’s important having the courage to pursue what deeply resonates with you no matter how silly it sounds in the moment,” she said. “It’s gonna pay off.”