We are making good progress on this. After a break over Christmas, and some redesign of the hydraulic system which operates the winch, we've got a lot more test flying done this week.
This has included the crosswind work yesterday. I found a nice 10,000 foot runway, with a direct crosswind at 18 G 25 (and lots of blowing snow). I expected some "keel effect" from the bird, and it's tails. The aircraft was manageable in this wind, but did require full rudder a few times.
Today was spins, first without the bird, to get familair with the plane, then with the bird strapped on tight. The Caravan is a magnificent spinning plane both ways! I could not hold it in for more that a turn in some cases, it was finding it's way out, even with full pro spin controls held in. A few times it did get up near Vne, with 2.5 -2.8 G force being applied in the pull out, so there is not much margin for a careless recovery! Spinning a Caravan without reference to an accelerometer, would have a very narrow margin of safety...
I've got video from two onboard cameras of the spinning, and will try to edit it to a postable size.
I hope to complete my Caravan testing this week. Then I've on to two different Piper Navajos with external mods....