On Sun, 02 Nov 2003 09:27:15 +0000, tango4 wrote:

Perhaps a blade heated by the engine exhaust

Maybe in an emergency the winch driver could climb out of the cab, grab
hold of the (hopefully stationery) plasma rope and pull it over a hot
exhaust pipe to cut it. Worth thinking about if you fortunate enough to
winch with plasma.

We have a set of bolt cutters mounted in the winch cab to function as a
backup to cut our steel cable in the unlikely event that the winch
guillotine fails to function in an emergency. It is part of the equipment
that must be present on the winch before launching commences. (Normally
they only get used for cutting off scrap cable after a tangle on the
drum).

Cheers

Ian