Hang Gliding or a PhD?

There are a lot of metaphors used to describe PhD training, typically centered around the idea that it's a marathon and not a sprint. I've never heard someone talk about scientific training as being like hang gliding, but when I look back at this picture I think it's pretty accurate - you are jumping into the unknown, holding on as tightly as you can and hoping that you follow the right path. I took this picture during the year before I started my PhD at UCSF, and had no way of knowing that it would be symbolic, but now it seems like some kind of foreshadowing.