pic: 2996 Almost Suspended

[Zholl]

Basically, it's four fiberglass poles with a twin-hook thing at the end (the poles are just bike flags, and the hook is a bent aluminum rod). Attached to that is a long strip of nylon webbing that we just keep loose, and then to deploy it there's just a little loop of parachute cord on the hook that just goes around a bolt on our winch, and when we back the winch up a bit the whole thing springs forward. Then we winch down the webbing. The winch is just a rod driven by a FP motor and gearbox.
(wasn't sure how to answer your question, so I just gave the whole spiel)