On Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 5:33:29 PM UTC-4, Kenz Dale wrote:
I understand that CG hooks are designed to autorelease when the angle of pull passes a certain critical angle. Is this a very reliable disconnect, or is more of an "Eh, it's nice to have but I've seen it fail too many times to trust it"?

Over a couple of hundred winch launches on TOST hooks in a variety of gliders, I have seen one problem, which was caused by one of the two springs inside the hook failing, and the failure caused the hook to release (on a friend's glider, not mine or the club's). I have every confidence in the TOST system when winching; our procedure was to release manually, but if a thermal kept the cable tight, the hooks automatically back-released very reliably.

Keeping track of the number of releases and getting the hook refurbished when due is smart, as is keeping it lubricated and clean.