I have only just found the posting with the link to pictures of the
Permian Soaring winch [
http://www.permiansoaring.us/ ] and was a bit concerned that there is
apparently no guillotine, to be able to sever the cable in the event of
a hang-up at the glider end. Is there one and it is just not visible?
If not, what is the emergency procedure to ditich the cable?

There has been one fatality that I know of in the UK (maybe more) when
the release hook on the glider failed to operate and the glider flew in
an arc pivoting round the winch until it hit the ground. There have
been escapes where the cable wrapped round the axle or caught in some
other part of the glider (e.g. diving under the cable and getting it
over a wing, when there was a power failure or whatever) and the
guillotine saved it from being a disaster.

Did the operators pick up from experienced winch users how best to set
up the cable - hosepipe, weak links, swivels etc.?

Are swivels necessary and/or beneficial with the synthetic cable?

Is the winch earthed before use?

Not trying to teach grandmother to suck eggs, but anyone starting up use
of a winch needs to find a lot of know-how from others - or learn it the
hard way. My club started using winches again after a long gap, would
not pick up expertise from others, and had some hard lessons,
fortunately without major accidents but certainly with some near misses.
Like the guy who had a huge electric shock getting down from the cab one
day and then realised why there was an earthing (grounding) spike
provided.

Chris N.