When moved, they lurch slowly across the field, creaking with the effort, occasionally getting stuck in a pothole.  The uninitiated may think they’re nothing more than hijacked hay wagons.  But that’s where any similarity to their four-legged counterparts and Wisconsin’s farm industry ends.  The FAA’s MOO-COWS (Mobile Operations and Communications Workstations) are hard-working technical bases for controllers to use in departing aircraft in an efficient, safe and orderly fashion.

The MOO-COWS gained their name from the dairy industry.  The name was created to honor the EAA Air Venture’s host state of Wisconsin, and by a stretch of the imagination, platforms that look like the ones used could have hauled hay for hungry cows.  The new bases support permanent communications equipment that enable controllers to talk to pilots, the tower and each other.  These MOO-COWS don’t lie down when a storm approaches – instead, they’re right in the middle of the action, and stay there until the job is done.

The MOO-COWS enable the FAA to split air traffic operations between the tower and the field, and handle departures that on a daily basis can surpass those seen at the world’s busiest airports.  Controllers in the tower handle field arrivals, or landings.  The tower cab isn’t big enough to handle the additional controllers needed to handle all of the departures, so operations are split, and teams go right to the runways on the MOO-COWS to depart aircraft.  

It is a hot, noisy job.

“Sun and airplanes – this is great!” yells a pink-shirted controller, brightly attired for visibility, and straining to be heard over the whir of a nearby propeller.  “It doesn’t get any better than this!”

The air traffic controllers who volunteer for this duty do so because they love to work aircraft.  Normally, a controller spends his or her shift in air traffic control cabs, looking out of windows, or in darkened radar rooms, separating aircraft via radio as their electronic targets glide silently across their screens.  

By way of contrast, time on the MOO-COW may be bright, hot, dusty and noisy, but the controller is able to see the plane, hear the engines and give a smile and a visual thumbs-up to the departing pilots, which means these controllers are right in the middle of the action.  That’s where the controllers who volunteer for Air Venture say they want to be.

Duty on the MOO-COW requires sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, and headphones.  
Controllers speak to pilots via radio, and use hand signals to communicate with the few pilots who are flying vintage aircraft without electronic equipment.  Their bright pink attire may look unusual, but it provides an important safety function by enabling pilots to spot them immediately.  

It’s a fun assignment, but the controllers never forget their number-one mandate of safety, which remains the same regardless of whether they are working in the Air Venture tower, Fisk, MOO-COW, or at their home facilities.  

Their dedication and professionalism have helped create the safest air traffic system in the world, enabling the AirVenture team to handle the amazing number of flights it handles each year.