Barry,

In one of my favorite books, Richard Miller's "Without Visible Means
of Support", there is a tale of a Russian Glider air/winch/winch tow.
A twin engined towplane, a bunch of wire, a two place sailplane, a
bunch of wire, and a single place sailplane. Tow plane goes as high
as he can go, lets out his line. The two plane and single place
"kite" themselves up higher. Then, the two place lets out his line,
and the single place "kites" himself as high as he can get. Not
really winching in the classic sense. More like an auto tow using a
towplane and a sailplane.

On their first attempt, the towlane got to 15,000, the two place got
to about 18,000, and the single place got to 21,000. On a later
attempt, the single place got to 28,050 feet.

Fred, have you got reels in your towplanes? How much spectra do you
think it could hold? :-)

Steve