Finally...first self-tows! Big deal or no big deal?? (+ Summer 2026 update)

We finally did it...over the past few weeks we hit that milestone of self-towing wirelessly with the Vortex!  Why didn't we make a big deal about it?!  You think we would have told the world about it!!

Well, it's not like it's a World-first - we only towed ourselves on a paraglider...a bit anti-climactic since paragliders have been doing self-tows on other electric winches for years.  So while it is a big deal for us personally and a great milestone to hit we still feel like we have a lot of work to do as we still need to improve on it and of course package it nicely for the masses after some extensive testing.

So why has it taken us so long (5+ years now)?! 

1. Our focus from the beginning is to make the best electric winch for HANG GLIDERS since that is our first and still main passion.  Everything seems simple at first and we knew we would have some challenges but the extra tensions AND line speeds that hang gliders need makes the SUSTAINED power requirements needed to tow hang gliders is significantly more which also puts extra stresses on all the hardware.  So when we were the first electric winch manufacture to introduce a proper mechanical level-wind (2yrs ago) to our lineup it delayed our overall production.  Since then, one other PG electric winch maker has copied it (one winch) and the other PG electric winch maker is trying to figure something similar out.  Gone are the days of trying to use a long boom fairlead (like we initially tried) as they never worked reliably.  All of our Vortex models work with PGs and have much more robust hardware design than any other electric winch on the market...if they are built for towing hang gliders, they can easily handle paragliders!
2. And now we are so danged busy trying to keep up with day-to-day demand for the existing lineup of winches we have ready for production.  That really isn't a bad thing but expanding production takes considerable effort and time...that has taken us away from things like wireless.
3. We got reeled into an exciting project for a custom winch that has taken some time.  I can't give any more details but that project has also expanded our electric-winch product offering.  More on that soon...
4. We still have full-time careers outside of this Vortex project as well as families!  Oh...and we are active hang glider pilots so getting out to fly and road trips are high priority.  I always want to focus that I don't turn into a pilot that just talks about flying and doesn't GO flying!  That IS what it is all about!!!  I went XC yesterday instead of working the Vortex...shame on me!  :)
5. We want to do wireless "RIGHT"

That last one is the main one.  There are lots of rather off-the-shelf wireless products out there and that is what other electric winch makers (DIY or producers) offer.  With us, we never felt that was reliable enough for the Vortex.  We do have the ability in-house to make custom electronics and that has been our plan all along.  We won't be offering off-the-shelf components like Arduino or Raspberry Pi controllers.  We (likely) won't be using RF (RC cars) for the wireless.   

Above:  the entire vx4 with wireless kit after my first PG self-tow.  It all fits into that Dewalt toolbox (other than the battery).

We HAVE created the digital controller that we had been planning on since day one.  That is a custom circuit boards (no Arduino/RaspberryPi) with all the tech needed (wifi, bluetooth, LoRa, etc) that will be the brains behind the future of the Vortex.  This will allow us to automate more of the winch operating than you can imagine.

The recent revelation...our current wireless system does use our digital controller mentioned above with an off-the-shelf car RF RC.  The digital controller is in that little box at the top of the antenna in the pic above.  I've always thought that clunky RC controller was a pain even for PG self-towing but I thought I would give it a shot.  That tiny little finger-trigger throttle was WAY too sensitive.  I tried it once and gave up on it as it was beyond my risk tolerance and pulled the plug on flying that day.  Back to the drawing board and a 'quick' re-write of our digital controllers Vortex Operating System and we changed the throttle on the transmitter to be a deadman kill switch that is required to hold while self towing (releasing it gives a nice ramp-down of tension at any stage).  The thumb-buttons now provide the pilot the ability to easily step through pre-programmed phases of the tow that sequentially adds suitable tensions at desired stages along the tow as the pilot self-assesses the need.  I'm pretty proud of it of course, but it is incredibly easy to operate.

Above:  Me self-towing last week.

Our next phase is to make a much sleeker custom transmitter that is easy for either a PG or HG to use foot or cart launching.  It may be RF to start but we will be moving towards LoRa for longer range and better reliability of signal.  Self-towing is too critical to skimp on that.

So thanks for watching us evolve.  It's always an exciting time at the Vortex Lab here.  Thanks to all of our buyers that have had incredible faith in us from around the world...we already have Vortexes in South Asia, Korea, Guatemala, Australia and Europe so we do ship world-wide.  Also many in North America of course!  

Self-towing is the holy-grail that all pilots WANT.  But believe me from my recent PG self-tow epiphany mentioned above, when it comes time to self-tow you really have to be on your game.  And if you have never stationary winch towed before, I can't stress enough that you need to have a team to get started with this form of towing that can look out for each other.  So my recommendation is there is no better time than now to ease yourself into this form of towing with our current wired controller offering.  All of our future wireless options will be plug-and-play to our currently shipping offerings.

And we do have online training available to all of our Vortex buyers.  If you want to learn about our systems without buying a winch, you can also buy those courses online to prepare yourself for Vortex'ing (a new verb!) when you come across one in the wild!