Can someone shed light on how the "gripper" works? I'm assuming it's electrically released at pilot command. Can the pilot actually see it open? What causes my wonder is that in several of the drops, it looks like the aircraft is already in an attitude to begin to transit back to the field at the time that the tree is dropped into the truck. If the gripper didn't open, and the tree is drug back out of the truck, or not
, it would seem to be a nasty end to the day's work. Can the longline itself be pickled from the belly?