To address this, I created a simple harness that attaches the winch to the landing gear instead of the tail strake. The amazon.com parts list for this harness is pretty simple:
- 2” x 10 yards webbing (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KT ... UTF8&psc=1)
- three 5.5” carabiners https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GQ ... UTF8&psc=1
As shown in the pictures below, two loops were sewn into the webbing on each end and a third loop was sewn in at the center point. The harness is attached by looping each end over one of the landing gear struts (from behind the wing) and connecting the two sewn-in loops with a carabiner. A third carabiner attaches the winch to the webbing midpoint loop. The midpoint loop is used to make sure the winch pulling point always stays centered.
Press down on the tail to lift the nose wheel off the ground slightly (since it never seems to be aligned straight) as the plane is pulled into the hangar by its landing gear.
See the youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukcsFxnyigQ) to see the harness and winch in action .