Written by APF Technical Officer Heath Baird, on behalf of APF member Adrian Fergusson.

The Jumps We Train For

Most skydiving training focuses on preparation and planning to ensure jumps go smoothly: clean exits, predictable deployments and procedures for familiar emergencies. Emergency training is relatively neat, with focus on predictable scenarios — 'this malfunction calls for that response'. That kind of preparation is important, but skydiving doesn't always fit into neat categories. Sometimes a jumper faces something unexpected and outside rehearsed procedures that needs to be figured out in real time.

Adrian Fergusson encountered exactly that when his reserve deployed prematurely and wrapped around the tail of the aircraft during a climb-out.

Speaking with him, it became clear that the way he processed the situation came from two strengths: deep familiarity with his gear and mental preparation for unusual situations, supported by a structured decision-making approach he knew well, called the OODA loop. Rather than reacting on instinct, he was constantly taking in what was happening, reassessing, and then acting on the best option available.

The OODA loop, developed by U.S. Air Force Colonel John Boyd — Observe, Orient, Decide, Act (a continuous process of noticing what is happening, interpreting it, choosing a response, and acting on it) — is often discussed in military and emergency-response settings. Seeing it play out in a skydiving context made its value hard to ignore. Rather than relying on a single 'correct' procedure, it gave Adrian a way to keep moving forward as the situation kept changing.

Preparation, equipment familiarity and structured thinking combined, helped create a successful outcome in a real, high-stress scenario — all three mattered.

Climb-Out Gone Wrong

The incident happened during Bigways on the Beach, an event designed to educate skydivers toward larger formation jumps. Adrian was on the third load of the morning; it was his first jump of the day. He was positioned in front float; a role he had performed hundreds of times in the past and a position he was confident in performing.

On climb-out, he felt the airspeed was lighter than usual, allowing him to move further forward. As he straightened up, his reserve handle (pud) snagged under the aircraft's wing flap. The reserve deployed instantly. Adrian was pulled backward knocking the cameraman off the plane, flipping him inverted and striking the tail with his legs, ending up suspended beneath the plane with his reserve wrapped around the tail.

At that moment, nothing theoretical mattered. What mattered was working out the problem in front of him.

Knowing Your Gear

One of the first cues for Adrian was colour. Bright orange above immediately signalled to him the reserve had deployed — deliberately the only orange component on his system. That familiarity removed hesitation, shortening the gap between perception and understanding.

How many people know the colour of their reserve? It's easy not to know if you have never seen it. 

The same applied to his hook knife. Its location was instinctive, secured with a lanyard to prevent loss from dropping it under stress.

These were small but deliberate decisions made long before this jump, suggested by his rigger who had experience in Canopy Relative Work (CRW) situations and knew the value from such experience. Muscle memory for his hook knife and a deep understanding of his system meant Adrian didn't hesitate - he acted.

The lessons are simple but important:

• Know your gear inside out, including all the components.
• Understand how it works.
• Set up your gear specific for purpose.
• Practice regularly so you're ready when it matters the most.

Put simply: don't leave things to luck or on-the-spot reactions. Get familiar. Know your gear.

Be Prepared For The Unusual

Skydivers often rehearse the predictable — smooth exits, standard malfunctions, familiar scenarios. But reality doesn't always cooperate. Being suspended under an aircraft by a reserve canopy isn't something someone regularly rehearses step-by-step.

Preparation for scenarios like this is mostly a mental exercise. Talking with experienced skydivers around the drop zone and listening to CRW jumpers' close calls and 'almost worst-case' stories had trained Adrian to regularly ask himself, 'What would I do there?' in a variety of unique scenarios.

These types of exercises teach the mind to treat unexpected events like puzzles rather than shock, allowing awareness and decision making rather than reacting with scripted responses. It's easy to assume that good preparation lives in checklists and rehearsed responses. This incident showed how limited that assumption can be once a situation stops behaving the way it's supposed to. Anticipating unusual events reduces the risk of freezing when they occur. In this incident, Adrian's mental conditioning played as large a role as his physical training.

Although the consequences weren't as high, Adrian credits his preparedness for more critical situations to the skills and decision-making he developed through his time as an AFL football umpire. Making judgment calls on the field required him to pause, think and maintain poise — even while running during a fast-paced game and short on breath. It was this ability to stay calm and keep a clear head, at times when physically exhausted, that he found invaluable.

Address Each Problem — One Step At A Time

With gear familiarity and mental preparation as a foundation, structured thinking guided Adrian's actions.

Hanging off the aircraft: He quickly recognised the implications and risk for himself and all those still in the aircraft: 'cutting away' would remove his only functional canopy without resolving the entanglement. Instead, he accessed his hook knife and cut the reserve lines deliberately.

Separation and freefall: Once clear of the aircraft, priorities shifted. Part of the reserve remained attached to his container and back in freefall, altitude was a decreasing commodity. Adrian weighed spending time clearing the reserve, versus deploying his main higher and addressing the complications under canopy. He chose the latter, to push the reserve material aside, accepting an imperfect solution over a delayed one.

Main deployment complications: The main deployed with line twists and reserve lines wrapped around it, in a dive. Adrian prioritised stabilising the canopy and slowing down altitude loss, then worked out the line twists. 

Regaining control: After he cleared the line twists, the canopy continued diving. He reassessed and noticed a brake fire on the right side, grabbing the toggles and releasing the left.

Evaluating the trailing reserve: With stable flight restored, Adrian assessed the trailing reserve. It wasn't interfering with flight or handle access, so it became a lower priority than canopy control and landing preparation.  

Landing: His priorities were straightforward and deliberately conservative:

• What landing areas were achievable from where he was.
• Fly a standard pattern.
• Focus on a safe landing and PLR.

Adrian had a structured approach all the way to the ground — not just during the dramatic moments.

Each step of the way, each unique problem, Adrian's decisions reflected the Observe - Orient - Decide - Act pattern grounded in his experience and knowledge. A continuous process rather than a single decision.

It shows that preparation isn't just about memorising procedures — it's about training your mind to stay calm, assess situations and make clear, confident decisions, knowing what to prioritise when a problem isn't straightforward. True readiness comes from developing the ability to adapt, prioritise and act deliberately, even under pressure or in uncertainty.

What this really shows is that preparation goes beyond memorising emergency flows. When things don't fit neatly into a checklist, the ability to slow your thinking down, stay composed, and work out what actually matters in that moment beats reacting automatically with a 'learned' response — which could potentially be incorrect if you haven't accurately assessed and understood the situation.

Why Preparation Matters

Looking back at the incident, three things stand out as having made a real difference:

Gear familiarity meant there was no hesitation. Adrian knew exactly what he was seeing and where his hook knife was, which shortened the time between recognising a problem and acting on it.

Mental preparation mattered just as much. Regularly thinking through unusual or uncomfortable scenarios meant the situation was treated as a problem to solve, not a shock to recover from.

Structured thinking helped tie everything together. Rather than rushing to a single action, Adrian kept reassessing what was happening and adjusting his priorities as the situation changed.

None of these stood alone. Each supported the other and together they allowed him to keep making workable decisions as the incident unfolded.

Think Before You Act

Never assume instinct will guide you in emergencies. Instinct played a role, but it wasn't enough on its own. The decisions that mattered came from understanding what the equipment was doing and thinking through the consequences of each option, not from reacting automatically. When speaking to others of the incident afterwards, many admitted to Adrian they would have cut away. In his situation, acting without thinking could have left him hanging from the tail without a functional parachute. Understanding that it was the reserve parachute that was entangled, how it interacted with the aircraft and what standard emergency procedures would do in this scenario made all the difference.

Something Worth Asking Yourself

Picture yourself in that moment. What would you do?

You don't need a crisis to put these lessons into practice. The next time you gear up or run through a briefing, ask yourself:

• Do you really know your system and its functions?
• When did you last run through an unusual or tricky scenario in your head?
• How would you handle new information under pressure?

These small habits quietly build skill and confidence over time.

Final Thoughts

Skydiving will never be entirely predictable. Rare and unusual situations happen and you may need to solve problems you never specifically rehearsed.

Although during Adrian's climb-out he missed a critical factor with how far forward he was, resulting in the snagging of his reserve handle, the incident could have unfolded very differently. What made the difference wasn't instinct alone — it was preparation, familiarity and deliberate thinking, and his ability to combine those together with a clear head.

Know your gear.
Prepare your mind.
Think deliberately.

Because when the unexpected arrives — and it is likely that eventually it will — the way you interpret and respond may matter more than anything else.

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[Photo sources: Jarrad Nolan, Stephen Tonson]