Fundació Parc Aeronàutic de Catalunya (FPAC) – English

Last year I celebrated my first Father’s Day at the Paris Air Show. Since my boy was only a few weeks old, I had to go solo. There is no Paris Air Show this year plus we find ourselves in Barcelona on this Father’s Day. Just by chance, the Fundació Parc Aeronàutic de Catalunya (FPAC) was having their monthly open house at Sabadell Airport (ICAO: LELL).

FPAC is a non-profit organization made up of volunteers that restore and fly vintage aircraft. Their collection includes a Piper Cub, an AT-6 Texan, a Dornier Do-7, A Zlin Z526 Akrobat, a Bücker 1131-E3 Jungmann and a MBB/CASA 223 Flamingo, to name a few. The Piper Cub and the Texans are airplanes that I am used to seeing in the USA but the others are a rare treat for me.

Walk in to their hangar and you will see skeletons of fuselages and wings of other aircraft they are working on. And from the looks of it, FPAC does not restrict itself to just powered airplanes: inside the hangar you will find helicopter and glider projects, too. (Outside they also have an F4 Phantom they are restoring but there are no plans for it to fly.) What is great about this group is that, they not only restore and maintain these beautiful aircraft, they fly them.

We arrived shortly after 11AM for the static display. This gave me a chance to take a few snapshots of the airplanes with my boy, walk around the FPAC hangar, to chat with the FPAC volunteers and the other airplane aficionados. At 12:15 they fired up many of the airplanes that were on display (bring ear protection for the little ones) and taxied out. At this point, most of the spectators moved to Aeroclub Barcelona’s clubhouse (and what a great club house it is!) to watch the takeoffs, flybys and landings.

If you’re in the Barcelona area on the third Sunday of the month, make your way to Sabadell Airport to see these beautiful airplanes. Be there at 11AM to get an up-close look and stick around for the flybys. Of course, if you live in the area and want to get more involved with airplanes and socialize with a good group of people, consider volunteering with FPAC.

FPAC Open House
Where: Sabadell Airport (ICAO: LELL) (just 20Kms or 12 miles from Barcelona)
When: Third Sunday of the month starting at 11AM.

For more information: www.fpac.org