Scary …

… My Parachute - Perfect Duluth Day. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

You hear a whoosh, then a godawful cracking and creaking and breaking. You feel the new air. It is an extreme deceleration and pitch up. You are forced down into your seat as the nose rises. I remember feeling the whole weight of the plane rise underneath me as the nose swung up. You linger there for a brief second, slowing, and then the worst thing happens, and the nose drops very violently straight down, and you are looking straight down at the ground rushing up at you, hanging from the shoulder straps, absolutely helpless, in shock, and at the mercy of who knows what.

My brother, who got his pilot's license while he was still in high school, used to say that the only way he was ever jumping out of a plane was if he absolutely had to. No sky diving for him.