Anyone ever had to use a winch guillotine for real?

"Olfert Cleveringa" wrote in message
om...
| Two or three years ago, when I was flying, I heard it
happen on the
| radio at a neighbour airfield. An Astir CS had been
correctly hooked
| up on the CofG hook, but it wouldn't release by pulling
the yellow
| ball or by auto-release. Whe winchman cut the cable, which
dragged
| around some hundreds of meters. The Astir made a 180 deg.
turn and
| landed safely in an acer next to the airfield. When tested
after
| landing, the ring would come out without any problems. I
later
| understood a faulty cable ring had been used, one with a
welding line
| in it. If such a ring would have been rotated slightly
during the
| launch, it could have caused the non-relase.

Interesting observation about welded rings and Tost releases
!
In Australia, it is a regulation that only Tost rings be
used with Tost releases, for the reason that badly finished
welded rings have been known to jam. It seems that the
thicker region around the weld can act like a "cam" action
to lock the beak of the release, so neither back release nor
hand operation will work.
Happy Christmas to all
John G.