"Bruce Hoult" wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Erik mann) wrote:
Or, maybe the design goal should be 40:1 performance at the lowest cost,
irrespective of span?

40:1 isn't actually what people want, otherwise the Phoebus would be a
lot more popular than it is.

They seem to churn through the market slowly, but are a little more
difficult to sell than more modern gliders. There are 2-3 things about the
Phoebus that are not popular. It's performance is at low speed and it falls
off pretty quickly as the speed builds. Age and balsa sandwich, including
fuselage. Repairable, but a few had some real rot problems even years ago,
suffering from neglected maintenance. Rigging is a bit tedious, especially
if you are vertically challenged, due to the high wing position. Many feel
that they should not be winch launched due to the moment between the CG hook
and high wing position and all flying tail. Of the 250 ( or 267?) built, I
wonder how many remain in an airworthy condition, some now 40 years later?
Is there a Phoebus groups lurking around?

Frank Whiteley