Skydiving and drug smuggling pioneer Roger Nelson lives life out of the box. Fueled by a love for adrenaline and adventure, Roger goes after everything he wants with gusto. But now Roger is ready to retire from smuggling. With a parachute center to run and a family to raise, Roger knows it is time to stop the cat-and-mouse games he has been playing with the authorities for years.
He and his longtime partner, Hanoi, plan one final run to Belize, where they intend to fill their Douglas DC-3 with enough cannabis to set them up for life. But then Hanoi dies in a plane crash in an attempt to make some legitimate bucks flying fish in Alaska while they wait for the growing season to end.
Left without a partner or plane, Roger remains determined to return to his family for good. To do so, he decides to stay true to himself and follow through with his retirement run. Roger must rely on a colorful cast of characters and the most unlikely airplane for a gig ever Sugar Alpha, the legendary DC-3 with the secret fuel tanks and not-so-secret paint jobto help him complete the most daring run in the history of smuggling.
About the author
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.