Transform Your Flight Sim Experience
with In-Depth Tracking & Analysis
Track every flight, analyse your performance,
and master your flying skills with My FS Flights
Get 10 flights free every month!
Tracked and analysed flights over miles
Koksijde Air Base (EBFN) is a Belgian Air Force facility on the Flemish coast near Veurne, best known today as the home of the 40th Heli Squadron and its NH90 NFH search-and-rescue helicopters. Its single long hard runway, wartime Luftwaffe past and gate-guard aircraft make it a distinctive stop for the visiting simulator pilot.
Koksijde Air Base is a Belgian Air Force facility at Koksijde on the Belgian coast, operated as a military airfield but, like several other Belgian air bases, opened to private recreational flying at weekends. It is home to the 40th Heli Squadron, which flies NH90 NFH helicopters on search-and-rescue duties, and the base carries a strong sense of history, having served as a Luftwaffe fighter station during the Second World War. For a simulator pilot the field is notable for its very long single runway, its SAR helicopter operations and its preserved historic gate-guard aircraft.
The base lies at Koksijde in West Flanders, about 2 km north-northwest of Veurne, close to the Belgian North Sea coast.
The airfield has one physical hard-surfaced runway, 11/29, lit, with the 29 threshold direction measured at 8,463 ft and the 11 direction at 8,425 ft. There is no ILS.
Published frequencies for Koksijde are APP 122.5 MHz, EMR 123.1 MHz, SAR EMR 568 MHz, GND 122.1 MHz, TAXI INFO 129.325 MHz, BELGA INFO, and TWR 122.1 MHz.
The base displays a Hawker Hunter F.4 and a Sikorsky S-58C as gate guards, with a further S-58C stored for static display; these preserved aircraft, together with the base's coastal position near Veurne, serve as useful visual references when approaching the field.
Koksijde has military aviation roots going back to the First World War, when it was used as an advanced landing ground. During the Second World War the base was occupied and used by the German Luftwaffe; in 1942 aircraft based there flew fighter protection for the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen during their breakout from Brest through the English Channel to Germany. Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, who went on to become the highest-scoring night fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare, was among the Luftwaffe pilots based at Koksijde involved in that operation. In the postwar era the base became a Belgian Air Force station, home to the 40th Heli Squadron, which for many years operated Westland Sea King Mk.48 and Aerospatiale Alouette III helicopters on search-and-rescue duties before these were replaced by NH90 NFH helicopters starting in March 2012.
Koksijde remains an active Belgian Air Force base and the home of the 40th Heli Squadron's NH90 NFH search-and-rescue helicopters. It retains a Hawker Hunter F.4 and Sikorsky S-58C as gate guards, with a second S-58C kept for static displays, and the base has featured in the television series Windkracht 10 and the related film Windkracht 10: Koksijde Rescue. As with several other active and inactive Belgian air bases, it is made available to private recreational aviation at weekends, though as a military airfield prior permission is required.
