Steve:

We have a reel in our towplane, but it is driven by a rubber band and
certainly doesn't have enough power to act as a winch. In fact I have
to keep the airspeed below 80 Kts when I reel in the line or it stops
retracting. And speaking of Spectra, I'm told it requires extra
strong drums on winches because it has enough stretch that it builds
up tension on the drum, kind of like wrapping a stretched rubber band
around your finger -- the tension could eventually crush the drum of
many winches. Fred