On Thursday, November 1, 2018 at 7:05:15 PM UTC-4, Soartech wrote:
In case you did not know it, there are many small (~3 foot diameter) parachutes available for minimal cost on Amazon, Walmart.com, etc. Search on running parachutes, drag chutes, exercise parachutes, etc. They are used to add drag to increase effort during exercise.

The parachutes used at the end of the winch cable need to be very heavy duty.
They get dragged along the ground at high speed when the line is rewound onto the spools after the glider releases.

One time I stress-tested the parachute by putting it into a fast moving river that ran parallel to the runway. Newbie me did not adequately compensate for a strong crosswind on a 2000 foot AGL launch. The parachute opened and caught the current.