Warbird Information Exchange

There were half a dozen aircraft designed over the years by the engineer George Owl (including the above mentioned "Pogo"). I don't think Mr. Owl built any of them himself. Performance varied widely, especially as the ones raced longest ended up very highly modified, just as did Cassutts and Shoestrings. Pogo may well be the last one flyable. Since there was no single design called the Owl, I doubt if any plans exist. This was the last one racing -- and the cowling, prop, canopy, wing, tail etc etc etc were not even close to what was designed back in the 70s. This aircraft will almost certainly not race again, as it was very badly damaged at Reno...

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Neal Nurmi

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Interesting, I didn't know there was not an "owl" design, but a few different airplanes.



Can someone list handling/performance differences between shoestring and Cassutt, aside from speed difference? Is the shoestring a good sport plane? Can plans be bought?


( I need to find some more things out about the snoshoo...)


Can someone think of an obvious f-1 race-worthy plane aside from Owl, snoshoo, cassutt, shoestring?



Many thanks for all the replies,

Evan Byrne

Bud Davidson, the writer and photographer, years ago did a neat flight report on one of the early Shoestrings. I don't have the web site handy, but I know the report is posted on his site. Try Googling his name (and I may well not have spelled it right)...

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Neal Nurmi

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Thanks for the info Neal. The Pirep you spoke of is here http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepShoestring.html. Where is Pogo these days? The last I heard it was for sale, but that was back in the mid-late 90s.

I haven't seen that site, but I picked up the magazine that has that article in it out of a stack of old aviation mags a while ago.


Pogo is at KSZP (Santa Paula). John Richards owns it, has never flown it though. My dad constantly asks him if he wants to sell it, unfortunately he never does.

Too bad, as Pogo is reputed to be a really lovely, forgiving airplane to fly...

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Neal Nurmi

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Sorry to kinda hijack here but I had another Owl related history question for you Neal. Who was it that had the Nitrous tank hauled into the F1 hangar by a delivery guy that yelled "Delivery for Mr Ray Cote" or something to that effect? I have heard about that prank several times, but never knew who started the whole thing.

I remember that story too -- have no idea whether it's true or not! Why don't you post your question over on the AAFO.com board? Several Formula racers post there occasionally.

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Neal Nurmi

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Pogo is collecting dust...

I also found a picture of the finished snoshoo, looks pretty slick and fast. I want one.

Is Miss Lyn the one that crashed at the race in Oaklahome a few years back? If so, I am not sure that is really a Sno Shoo. I know it was listed as being one, but Miss Lyn had been around for a long time before the Sno Shoo deal got started. I think is is a HIGHLY modded Cassutt with a Sno Shoo cowl and maybe a few other parts.

Not the Snoshoo, but a beautifully built modified racing Cassutt, built up a few years ago by some friends of ours in Nebraska...

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Neal Nurmi

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Thanks for the clarification Neal. It is a VERY pretty airplane. How is the pilot doing after the accident?

I noticed the tail and turtle deck were a bit different than the snoshoo prototype pictured on the snoshoo.com site. Thanks for clearing that up.

Never say never, Neal.

Gary