Using DJI Goggles and VLOS rule

[AlanTheBeast]

Seems like that collision would have been worse for the airplane than the paraglider. If the tether was cut I assume that the paraglider could land safely, while if the tether did any damage to airfoils or controls on the airplane it could have been a real bad day for that pilot.

Would depend where the tether hit the airplane. Small aircraft wings are extremely strong for their weight. Hit near the tip and the aircraft would have been upset and likely recover via a spiral dive/recovery. Hit near the root and it could have cut into the wing (and possibly the fuel tank). Assuming the paraglider pilot didn't faint or get injured from the jerking around he could likely release and fly off. With these things you really never know how it could turn out.

Another case - the tether cuts into the wing and gets caught there without breaking... he's going down in that case. Chances of getting "inside" the tension with a short tether are virtually nil. (I've been glider launched from a winch. That cable looked extremely strong. I seem to recall it was made of short links of steel, so possibly designed to break at a certain load level...).

I know one instructor who cut through several 14,000 VAC lines with a C-150 many years ago... was at full power, post take off. His instinct was to hit the rudder so that the prop would cut the lines. It did. Propeller had bad leading edge chunks out...