Bill,
I also wonder if you have considered gusts and turbulence on elevator
authority. The winch RPM speed is not affected by this and will
continue accelerating if that 's what you want, when gusts or
turbulence affect the elevator. Even Tension controlled winches may
not be able to reduce tension quickly enough if this happens. That's
why the initial tension should not be too high to begin with.

I would like to hear your description of how winch settings should be
with some metrics. I know you advocate high initial tow acceleration
launches. But that doesn't really tell me the specifics.