I've only once been in what feels like proper extreme turbulence - but that was in a small friendship crossing Norwich to Amsterdam in a storm so bad the man next to me went white when we were just getting buffeted by the wind whilst being still on the runway.

I've also dropped what felt like thousands of feet on a Mozambique Airways Embrauer that really did scare me. I suspect it might have been a rare case of the clear air turbulence that I've heard occurs around monsoon time in East Asia.

Otherwise just lots and lots of low and moderate turbulence which for an odd couple years in my mid twenties briefly really scared me.

When I was a kid I was once in the jumpseat in the cockpit with my father in the Captain's seat when the radar (or whatever that screen down by the side is) suggested we were flying into the most extreme weather he'd ever seen. He got everyone sat down properly in advance and as we approached it, the pressure area just dissipated. Very odd, but scary to see my dad's face go white.