Threaded bridle system:
http://www.youtube.com/user/maygoli#p/a/f/1/2dvr9P_w5VQ

Dan Guido <<flyboy5131>>
writes:

A couple years ago we discussed locking out on tow with a heavy
passenger. I just remembered the old threaded bridle system we used and
explained it on a YouTube video (see above).

Easy to wrap the bridle around the ring at the carabiner?

Jim Rooney writes:

He even mentions this in the video, so yeah. Yes, extremely likely
in my estimation. I'd not only want a weaklink on the ring, I'd want one on the
biner attached to the harness, and a barrel release as well. I wouldn't be keen
to use this anyway. Tow bridles love to wrap up when you release them under
load.

Dan writes:

Yeah, getting the bridle wrapped around something was always our
concern. We even put the release at the end of the bridle at the tow ring but
didn't like carrying it all. A barrel release at the pilot is a great idea but
we only had three ring releases at the time. Burying a weak-link in the winch
made us feel better as well.

We used a payout winch mounted on a boat and did hundreds of tows some up to
3000ft and thankfully never had an issue other that getting whipped in the
gonads a couple of times. Anyways I just wanted to point out the 2/1 pull on the
pilot which was the original way Don Hewitt designed it when we started pulling
from the pilot rather then the glider. I am sure if some though was put into it
there would be some other way to do it which would allow for a safer tandem tow
with the big boys.

Jim Rooney writes:

A barrel at the pilot attachment would make me feel a whole lot
better. My average for a wrap around is about 1 in 500 flights. It drops to
about 1 in 1,000 if you pull in before releasing so it's lightly loaded. We did
testing to see if we could reliably replicate wrap arounds. Basically, we'd push
out before releasing. Wrap arounds were exceptionally common that way.

In winch towing, you've got a pressure limiter, so this doesn't happen.