St. Omer   LFQN

Date of Visit = May 1994, September 1997

Pilot: = Chris Belton

e-mail = chris@yarboo.freeserve.co.uk

Field Report = Another one of those quiet, easy-going little French fields, often deserted except weekends and evenings. Fuel on request, there's a bar, you can camp or there are plenty of cheap, atmospheric little hotels in St Omer. Make blind calls on the club frequency, 123.5, prefixing the call with the name of the airfield since, if you didn't know this, all the small airfields without a specified frequency use this one. Bear in mind that the official language on this frequency is French.

It's not a customs field, so stop first at, say, Calais. The first time I did this, the man in the Chambre de Commerce lent me his "Guide Delage" so I could do the radio calls in French, and told me the frequency: 123.5 does not appear in the Bottlang. If there is no frequency marked, that is generally the one to use.

So what's so special about St.Omer? It's best-kept secret: "La Coupole", the rocket museum at Wizernes, within walking distance (just) of the airfield. Or cadge a lift! You pass over its enormous concrete dome on left base to 03. It was built to assemble and house the V2 rockets prior to firing them against London towards the end of the 2nd World War. There are other V1 (Doodle Bug) and V2 launch sites in the area, which is also part of the Audomarois national park: the canal area just north of St. Omer is quite uniquely charming.