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Leewan, towbars are so out of date! You need one of those all singing and dancing sexy little pusher thingys for a one man show.
We do have a good mix of towbar and TBL(towbarless) tugs. But some airlines specifically request that a towbar tug be used. It seems that they find pushbacks with TBL have a higher incidence of NLG damage.
For towbars, you have the shear pins that will indicate that you came close to the a/c NLG max limits and inspection be done. I understand that TBLs have an oversteer warning light. Is this programmed to be a/c type specific or just a general angle ?
Headsets should always be used other than during a lightning storm. And if handsignals are to be used, it's better to have a simple "briefing" with the flight crew in the cockpit before hand.