{"id":3648,"date":"2015-12-13T09:06:28","date_gmt":"2015-12-13T17:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=3648"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:55","slug":"whuffos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/whuffos\/","title":{"rendered":"#144 Whuffos"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of people have asked me about the term \u201cWhuffos\u201d, with which I generously pepper many of my articles.\u00a0 There\u2019s even a little section on it in \u201cBrian\u2019s Flying Book\u201d (available at the Tailwheeler\u2019s Mercantile<\/a><\/span>). Just for a little background, it\u2019s a word borrowed from our Skydiving brethren.\u00a0 Evidently, back in the old days, sport skydivers in the south would sometimes encounter unbelieving locals, who would ask, \u201cWhuffo you jump outta dem airplanes?\u201d.\u00a0 That\u2019s where the term came from.<\/h3>\n
\"Brian
“A Whuffo! Who, me?”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But recently I\u2019ve discovered what I believe is a very appropriate meaning for the word.\u00a0 Many of us always assumed that it referred to non-fliers, people who don\u2019t fly and don\u2019t know a thing about it.\u00a0 But I think there is another type of Whuffo.\u00a0 I think there are many who fly and still don\u2019t understand much of the pursuit about which they think they are knowledgeable.<\/h3>\n

If they see someone like Steve Henry, performing his somewhat famous \u201cDead Stick Takeoff\u201d, they will remark that \u201che\u2019s crazy\u201d.\u00a0 That statement alone proves they are Whuffos.\u00a0 They watch the landing in a turn and, because it transcends their own fumbling attempt to land their airplane, they immediately condemn it as \u201cnuts\u201d!\u00a0 That, too, brands them as a Whuffo.<\/h3>\n

And you know something which I\u2019ve lately figured out?\u00a0 Most of these folks don\u2019t fly little, lightly wing-loaded taildraggers.\u00a0 No, they mostly fly heavier, more complex airplanes and they are far more concerned with the operation of those airplanes\u2019 nav systems and powerplants than with the fundamentals which those airplanes share with all others.<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ve figured something else out, too.\u00a0 Many of the rest of us are Whuffos.\u00a0 Huh?\u00a0 Yup!\u00a0 I hold an instrument rating, but my instrument flying skills are largely atrophied because I specialize in the proximity flying and landing precision which is promoted at Tailwheel Town.\u00a0 If I were truly a well-rounded aviator, I\u2019d be proficient at virtually all aviation pursuits.\u00a0 So I guess it\u2019s the \u201cpot calling the kettle black\u201d!\u00a0 I guess I\u2019m a Whuffo, too.<\/h3>\n

Does that mean that I\u2019m going to stop using the term?\u00a0 Absolutely not!<\/h3>\n

I once knew a young woman who was fond of declaring, \u201cWe\u2019re all bozos on this bus!\u201d.\u00a0 Maybe she was right.\u00a0 And maybe, when it comes to flying airplanes, we\u2019re all Whuffos, to one degree or another.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“If I were truly a well-rounded aviator, I\u2019d be proficient at virtually all aviation pursuits. So I guess it\u2019s the \u201cpot calling the kettle black\u201d! I guess I\u2019m a Whuffo, too. “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,67,173,178,196],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}