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Fatboy
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Where is he now?: Capt. Francisco Muñoz
Reading older books on Baja (1960/70's) the name Francisco Munoz keeps popping up. What happened to him? Did he just quit flying and one day passed
away?
In Hovering Over Baja there is picture of him and he looks to be in his forties back then. The book was published in 1961 so if he is still alive he
would be in his 90's.
So what is his story, does anyone know?
[Edited on 12-6-2011 by BajaNomad]
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Ken Bondy
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Niemann's "Baja Legends" book, published in 2002, says that Munoz and his wife Lisle live in "the San Diego area." p.155
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Paulina
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I'm sorry to report that "the Kissing Captain" passed away in March of '06.
I thought he was a wonderful man. I miss seeing him in Bahia.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060401/news_1m1mun...
P<*)))><
edit: added link
[Edited on 15-5-2008 by Paulina]
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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Fatboy
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Thank You!
That link was great! He sounded like a really interesting person.
Another book I will have to look into getting... 
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capt. mike
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they threw a huge party for him at the Serenidad shortly before he passed.
i think Larry Hahn was there too.
i talk air to air with one of his 1st hires, Capt. Chavez, occasionally. he flies caravans for GN areo servicios. he flew 440s once for Munoz. as well
as the gamut of DC3s and twin B 18s.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
www.facebook.com/michael.l.goering |
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David K
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| Quote: | Originally posted by capt. mike
they threw a huge party for him at the Serenidad shortly before he passed.
i think Larry Hahn was there too.
i talk air to air with one of his 1st hires, Capt. Chavez, occasionally. he flies caravans for GN areo servicios. he flew 440s once for Munoz. as well
as the gamut of DC3s and twin B 18s. |
I made a web page for the Serenidad's 40th party and on the first photo is Capt. Muñoz with Don Johnson and Larry Hahn: http://community-2.webtv.net/boojum1/serenidad
Here's the caption for that photo (below):
Larry Hahn (www.BajaDreams.com) on the left and Don Johnson (www.Serenidad.com) on the right with Baja's most famous pilot, Capt. Francisco Munoz. (photo from Larry)
[Edited on 5-15-2008 by David K]
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David K
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Capt. Muñoz talking with Dr. Margain, the archeologist that Erle Stanley Gardner had Muñoz fly into San Ignacio to examine the 're-discovered' giant
cave paintings.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Bahia Concepcion:
Baja Air Service's Captain Francisco Muñoz has a chat with Erle Stanley Gardner
(seated in one of J.W. Black's off-road inventions, the 'Butterfly').
Photos from Choral Pepper... See more at http://choralpepper.com
[Edited on 3-22-2019 by David K]
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sd
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David,
A great link and photos.
Is that a dual front tire on the butterfly?
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David K
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Yes, JW experimented with various tire types for the Butterfly... and the dual set up seemed to work the best.
Pompano can probably add more, as JW Black is a friend and neighbor of his, at Concepcion Bay...?
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Fatboy
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| Quote: |
Pompano can probably add more, as JW Black is a friend and neighbor of his, at Concepcion Bay...?
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WHAT!!!!!
There's gotta be some GREAT stories there!!!! I would love to listen to him...
[Edited on 5-16-2008 by Fatboy]
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David K
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Do it soon... all the Gardner expedition members are 'leaving' us! I spoke with JW over the phone, as well as others from the 1960's Gardner trips for
my 'lost mission' search. The one inspired by my late great friend, Choral Pepper.
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David K
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Bumping this because I got a request to provide photos of Captain Muñoz for his wife Leysl... They lost all their photos in the 2003 Crest fire.
I have several thanks to Choral Pepper and my Erle Stanley Gardner book collection, but I am sure there are more out there...
Any of you who have photos of Captain Francisco Muñoz during his Baja Air Service years or anytime, please post them here or email them to me so I can
make an album for Leysl.
Thank you!
info*at*vivabaja.com for emailing (put BAJA in subject line please)
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DENNIS
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Didn't he fly with/for Ed Tabor as well?
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David K
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Never heard that, as Tabor's resort operated the same years as Baja Air Service... but he did fly for the salt company at Guerrero Negro after his
years of flying his own 'Baja' airline.
edit: I see in the obit that Paulina posted a link to, Baja Air Service ran from 1955 to 1970. Perhaps he did fly for Ed Tabor between 1970 and 1975?
Although, I kind of think that the government shut both air operations down at the same time because they didn't want their airline (Aero Mexico) to
have any competition...?
[Edited on 12-2-2011 by David K]
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tiotomasbcs
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Damn, I didn't think Pompano was that old? Altho I'm a newbie, I have
gathered he has been around for many years! I feel Thankful for the little history I have garnered here on Nomads! Good posting, Gordo. Tio
ps I flew in with Capt Munoz, I suspect, to the Fishermans Lodge in 75?! Tio
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David K
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In 1967, Baja Air Service flew a route from Tijuana to Bahia de los Angeles to Mulege to Puerto Vallarta, then back. Not sure about his other years,
but that year is when my dad flew with him, and the captain invited my dad into the co-pilot's chair as they flew over Baja. My dad always remembered
how kind Muñoz was to him.
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David K
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Francisco Munoz, 86; founder of Baja Airlines loved to fly
By Jack Williams
STAFF WRITER
April 1, 2006
He was a famed author's passport to Baja California, a daringly resourceful pilot and the inspiration for a song – “The Kissing Captain” – that
glorified his nickname.
Francisco Munoz logged close to 25,000 hours of flying in his lifetime, many of them as the founder of Baja Airlines, which he operated until its
closure in 1970.
It never would have happened, however, had he not left seminary school after one semester to follow his dream.
“He realized he would never be a priest, although his family wanted him to be,” said his daughter, Amy Munoz Friedlund. “He had been building
airplanes since he was little, and he wanted to fly.”
Mr. Munoz, who at 19 became the 237th commercial pilot licensed in Mexico, died March 20 at his home in Crest. He was 86.
The cause of death was complications from Parkinson's disease, Friedlund said.
Much of Mr. Munoz's colorful career was tied to his decade-long relationship with author/adventurer Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of fictional lawyer
Perry Mason.
The pair met in 1960, when Mr. Munoz began flying Gardner to sites in Baja that inspired six nonfiction books. One of Gardner's books, “The Hidden
Heart of Baja,” described Mr. Munoz as a “quick-thinking, quick-talking aviator, who has been flying long enough to have developed an uncanny skill as
well as an encyclopedic knowledge of the country over which he is flying.”
Some of the flights were at an unusually low trajectory and slow speeds so that Mr. Munoz could make an impromptu landing on sandy beaches at
Gardner's request.
When they first met, Gardner's celebrity status failed to register with Mr. Munoz.
Then, as Mr. Munoz flew Gardner from Guerrero Negro to San Diego in his twin-engine Cessna, he realized this was no ordinary passenger. “I thought,
'Oh, my God, I've got Perry Mason on board!' ” he told the San Diego Reader in a 1995 interview.
Mr. Munoz, known to Gardner as “Don Francisco,” practically made a career out of shuttling scripts, mail and secretarial replacements between the
author's Temecula digs and the Baja outback.
Fred Astaire, Leo Carrillo, James Arness, Chuck Connors and Desi Arnaz also requested his services. And he was the private pilot of Miguel Aleman,
president of Mexico from 1946-52, during a presidential campaign.
In 1967, when Dean Jones was critically injured on a motorcycle deep in Baja, Mr. Munoz flew the actor to safety and was credited with saving his
life.
Mr. Munoz's “Kissing Captain” moniker stemmed from the way he greeted female passengers as they boarded and left. A Mexican quartet wrote a “Kissing
Captain” song describing his warm and affectionate demeanor.
“He was the kind of a person you knew well even if you only talked to him for 15 minutes,” Friedlund said. “People were attracted to him.”
The eldest of nine children, Mr. Munoz was born April 15, 1919, in Parras, Coahuila, Mexico, and raised on his well-to-do grandparents' ranch.
He fell out of favor with a bishop in seminary school by asking too many questions, he later recalled.
Mr. Munoz finished high school in Monterrey, Mexico, and worked as a butcher to pay for flight lessons. Two months short of his 18th birthday, he
earned his private pilot's license after fewer than 10 hours of training.
After two years of flying passengers on sightseeing trips, he earned his commercial license and joined Aeronaves de Mexico.
In the late 1940s, he briefly changed career paths by working in the concrete industry in Coahuila.
“He had a house made of concrete,” Friedlund said. “Then he bought a plane for use on the weekend and little by little starting flying people again.”
On a business trip to San Diego, Mr. Munoz learned that Tijuana was lacking an air service. In 1955, he started Baja Airlines with a four-passenger
Cessna 170 and established residences in Imperial Beach and Bahia de Los Angeles.
Mr. Munoz began flying deep-sea fishing parties up and down the Baja peninsula, shuttling supplies into fish camps on the Gulf of California and its
islands.
He expanded his service to fly teams of oceanographers into Baja for research. The oceanographers' projects led to the establishment of D.K. Ludwig's
expansive salt works at Guerrero Negro Lagoon.
From 1974 until his retirement in 1983, Mr. Munoz worked full-time as a pilot for Exportadora del Sal, the operators of the salt works. His
assignment: shuttling plant personnel back and forth to San Diego and to mainland Mexico.
After a divorce from his first wife, Guadalupe Valdez, in 1968, Mr. Munoz moved his main residence from Imperial Beach to Crest. He lost the home in a
1970 fire and rebuilt. Then he lost it a second time in the 2003 Cedar fire.
Again, he rebuilt, refusing to abandon his panoramic view and the apple and avocado trees he loved.
Survivors include his wife, Anne Leysl Semler; daughters, Olivia Munoz of Imperial Beach, Amy Munoz Friedlund of Rancho Peñasquitos and Rebecca Munoz
Sanchez of Chula Vista; son, Francisco Munoz Jr. of San Diego; sisters, Pilar Aguirre of Ensenada, Genoveva Tames of Queretero, Guanajuato, Mexico,
Refugio Marca of Mexico City, Socorrina Hernandez of Queretero and Clemen Junco of Mexico; brother, Jose Luis Munoz Ceballos of Guadalajara; eight
grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
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Hook
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| Quote: | Originally posted by tiotomasbcs
Damn, I didn't think Pompano was that old? |
I think Pompano and Munoz would agree..............the key to longevity is
co-pilots.
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tiotomasbcs
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Very good, Capt. Hook! Pomp will agree wholeheartedly I'm sure! Tio
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mcfez
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This the same that guy had a helicopter down in Baja during the 60's?
Old people are like the old cars, made of some tough stuff. May show a little rust, but good as gold on the inside.
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