On Monday, October 5, 2015 at 9:11:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:

All the winches I flew on in Europe had guillotines to cut the cable in an emergency (mandated in Germany). How do you do that with cars? I witnessed a near fatal accident with hanglider being towed by a car where the pilot flew a neat arc that ended with an impact. When I asked the person on the bed of the towing pickup how he had planned to sever the rope in such an event, he showed me his pocket knife!

Yikes! Like the others, we have a Schweizer hitch on a swivel so it is always line up with the rope tension, and a cable or cord to operate it. On my setup, I also have a hydraulic cylinder between the car and the hitch, with a gauge up front so I can see line tension and use this to help set the right speed.

Steve Leonard