By Jim Roberts
Jeff Coffey spent 30 years as an air traffic controller, including 15 years working SUN ’n FUN, and nine tours wearing the distinctive pink shirt of an EAA AirVenture Oshkosh controller. Now retired from the FAA, in 2023 Jeff traded in his pink shirt for a colorful Hawaiian Aloha shirt, the uniform of the day at Tiki Tower.
Never heard of Tiki Tower? Maybe that’s because, as Bob Kamm put it, “Tiki Tower is not a location, it’s a state of mind.” Bob should know. When he reported for work at the North Tower in 2021 and introduced himself as “Aloha Bob,” another controller, Mike Eisele asked, “Can I be Mahalo Mike?” And Tiki Tower was born, along with the traditions of wearing the Hawaiian shirt uniform, presenting visitors with a souvenir lei, and generally embracing the Aloha spirit.
During the daily air show, you can find Jeff Coffey, Aloha Bob, and Mahalo Mike working traffic at the North Tower. The operation sits atop the EAA Warbirds flightline operations building, and as Jeff noted, “When you’ve found an orange and white building with yellow luau shirts on top of it, you’ve probably found the right place.” Scott Strader and Jim Hovic round out the cast of characters, and all are volunteers.
From their perch high above warbird country, the crew controls traffic on Runway 9-27. While the air boss runs the show from his station at show center on Runway 18-36, his line of sight does not encompass Runway 9-27. Consequently, the North Tower handles any aircraft using that runway, including most of the warbirds.
In the words of Aloha Bob, “Some of us attend the daily air show briefing, and others attend the warbird briefing. I’m there listening and watching to get an idea if there’s anything that I need to be aware of that would be of value to the performers. We’re support to the main show, and if we can accomplish that, it’s a win for us.” Then he added, “We’re here to do the right thing, but we’re also here to have fun.”
Though the group has decades of AirVenture experience between them, they are still required to qualify as controllers on Runway 9-27. That’s done through a review of local ATC procedures and passing a written test on the surrounding airspace, radio frequencies, runway layout and lengths, and approaches available.
While the Aloha spirit reigns at Tiki Tower, it’s not all fun and games. Jeff Coffey recalled one day in 2023 that was particularly challenging: “On the first day of the air show, we were recovering all of the warbirds, and 40-plus airplanes were coming to the overhead. There was a group that declared minimum fuel and broke up everything like a bowling ball, and Aloha Bob was up to his eyeballs in airplanes. We were all trying to help spot for him.” Bob added, “It was smoky from the Canadian wildfires, and for a minute I couldn’t see where they were.” With the help of his fellow controllers, he sorted out the situation, prioritizing the minimum-fuel birds, and safely recovered all aircraft.
In retrospect, Bob Kamm summed it up best: “Our number one job is to make sure that runway’s safe, and that the people who use it can be comfortable knowing that they are gonna get taken care of. That’s our goal. That’s the number one thing. After that, it’s all a state of mind.”