On 11/01/14 23:38, son_of_flubber wrote:
Since I have no experience with winching, the concept of an errant airplane running into a winch cable is new to me and therefore interesting. It's not something that is often mentioned.

You have experience with winching and therefore see the event from a completely different perspective. Your matter-of-fact comment that errant airplanes commonly enter winch zones was also interesting to me.

Have a look at "Airprox Report No 052/07" on p171 of
http://www.airproxboard.org.uk/docs/423/ukabbk18.pdf
which includes
"Several times each year pilots of ac inbound to Kemble
appear to misidentify Aston Down for Kemble and enter a
circuit or even line up on one of the two RWs, ignoring
the different RW direction; the wind; the winch; the
gliders - both in circuit and on the airfields and a
double-deck control bus parked at the launch point on
the runway. It is often the case that these same pilots
are in communication with Kemble throughout and only
realise they are mistaken when Kemble reports no sight
of them on approach."