First off, get someone who knows what they're doing to perform a thorough pre purchase inspection. Type specific experience is a plus but anyone who knows composite gliders well and is willing to look closely at everything should be able to do a fine job. This applies to any glider you're thinking about buying. The 15 year lay up wouldn't deter me from at least taking a good look at it - I've seen fairly new ships that were being flown that were awful and conversely a 20 that a club member recently bought that had also been parked for around a decade that turned out to be an absolute beauty.

The only Phoebus I've flown is a C. Weak airbrakes, but sufficient and it was easy to progressively increase the full airbrake sink rate by applying a slip if needed. General handling pretty good and fairly docile though it does tend to gently drop a wing when stalled. Or at least the C I flew had this characteristic. The drop was gentle though and the ship really needed to be very nose up to stall. The all-flying tail was perhaps a touch more sensitive than an ASW-15 but shouldn't present any difficulty to anyone who flies with any degree of smoothness. I actually found it to be nicer than Bruno Vassel did when he wrote about flying his Phoebus. High speed performance was better than I had expected too and the climb was wonderful. Removable canopies are awkward but the Phoebus has an advantage over the ASW-15 in that the latch can be locked in the open position when you need to get in whereas on the 15 you need to reach in with one hand and pull the release back and while holding it against the spring pressure you then need to lift the canopy away with your other hand. The under each rudder pedal there is a steel tube running fore and aft on which the rudder pedal assembly slides for adjustment so your feet HAVE to rest in the heel cups on the pedals and some find the cups too small. Because of the tubes you can't rest your heels on the floor like you can in most gliders. It wasn't a problem for me as I fit fine - I'm size 11. If you're size 13 and like to wear the sort of shoes John Travolta checks out in the opening sequence of Saturday Night Fever though it could be a problem"-) Rigging is easier than I had expected with the only quirky part being that, as there is no access to the aileron and airbrake connections when the wings are attached you need to connect and safety the L'Hotelliers right before you slide the wings in the last few inches. Support from Lindner (this ship has needed very little but I've had to go to them for the club Grobs) has been excellent and Lindner is owned by the designer of the Phoebus. A nice first generation glass ship and I would have been happy with a good one.

It's also a very pretty ship.