Autor: Melissa Nelson

Roger Nelson started skydiving when he was sixteen. By the time he died at age forty-seven in a skydiving accident, he had amassed more than 10, 000 hours as a pilot; 9, 000 parachute jumps; 100 hours of freefall time; multiple instructor ratings; national skydiving championships; and skydiving world records. Melissa Nelson, Roger’s oldest child and only daughter, made her first parachute jump with her father when she was five years old. She earned her pilot’s license in 2012 and currently lives in Moab, Utah, where she runs a retail store for BASE jumpers and lives her own “other life” as a BASE jumper, slackliner, and yoga practitioner.