Veteran of the skies, still in the cockpit at 88: the experiences of pilot Franz Finkenzeller (90) from Landsham

Created: 01/15/2022, 18:00

By: Armin Rösl

As a young aircraft mechanic, Franz Finkenzeller initiated the even younger actress Romy Schneider into the secrets of aircraft technology.

© Armin Roesl

Up until two years ago, Franz Finkenzeller from Landsham was in the cockpit.

Now the pilot is 90 and talks about the solo flight across the Atlantic, about meeting Romy Schneider and about "toilet Josef".

Landsham - Hidden from war bombers as a boy underground in a bunker and tossed around by the blasts of the bombs. Climbed back out afterwards, disassembled crashed planes to make one for yourself. In 1956, as a 24-year-old aircraft mechanic at Riem Airport, the young actress Romy Schneider was initiated into the technology of the aircraft. As a pilot up to the age of 88, he flew thousands of kilometers all over the world in large and small machines. In 1980, he crossed the Atlantic alone at night in a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza A36, with the autopilot failing two hours after take-off. And then the story about the “Scheißhaus-Sepp” (excuse me, dear reader, for that Bavarian scumbag expression, but that’s the only way an anecdote can be understood later).Franz Xaver Finkenzeller from Landsham (municipality of Pliening) experienced all this and much more. He celebrates his 90th birthday on Monday and gives our newspaper a little glimpse into his flying life. Ready to take off!

Franz Finkenzeller shortly after landing in the single-engine light aircraft in which he had flown alone across the Atlantic. © Private

Finkenzeller experienced one of his greatest adventures in 1980. He had bought a single-engine propeller plane in America and wanted to fly it home himself. First from Washington to Gander/Newfoundland, from there across the Atlantic to Augsburg. The small sports plane was converted and fueled in America so that it was enough for a flight of sixteen and a half hours. On September 2, 1980, Finkenzeller took off to cross the Atlantic overnight, two hours later the autopilot failed and the then 48-year-old had to steer the plane alone with great concentration. With a rubber life jacket around his torso and a rubber dinghy next to him – in case of a crash in the Atlantic. After 15 hours and five minutes he landed safely in Augsburg. "We were terrified," says Anna Finkenzeller,the 87-year-old sister. The mother in particular had always been afraid when Franz was in the air. He often was.

Records of the first training flights as a co-pilot.

© Armin Roesl

Born in Landsham, he was a pilot with the airline "Bavaria", then 17 years with Royal Air Maroc. During this time he lived with his family in Casablanca in Morocco, later he was a private pilot for companies and company bosses.

Until two years ago.

Franz Finkenzeller gave up flying at the age of 88.

Recording his first flights as a pilot.

© Armin Roesl

He started in 1956. The desire to become a pilot was always there.

"As a child, I read a book called 'Learn to Fly' over and over again.

In the evening I lay in bed and imagined how I would take off, land and fly,” he says.

He moves his hand forwards and backwards like on a joystick and presses an imaginary button with his thumb.

So he lay in bed for hours.

Landsham: Hidden in the bunker as a boy from the war bombers

When American planes hovered over Landsham during World War II, the Finkenzeller family hid in the bunker in the garden.

Once, says Franz Finkenzeller, he was really blown down there by the blast of a bomb.

"I was afraid of the bombers," he recalls of his childhood.

Then he adds: "I was never afraid of flying."

When the bombers were gone and he and his brother Adolf spotted a downed plane in the field, they ran over and disassembled it.

To make an airplane from the parts yourself.

"They were always crazy about airplanes," says Finkenzeller's sister Anna and laughs.

I was a hickey.

Franz Finkenzeller about his beginnings as a student pilot.

In Franz Finkenzeller's flight log, each flight is handwritten with the date.

The first was 66 years ago, on January 7, 1956. "School flight" is in the "Purpose of flight" column.

As part of the training, Finkenzeller was an accompanying person in the cockpit.

On March 13, 1956, the column "Pilot" is noted: "Finkenzeller".

Purpose of the flight: "Solo flight".

His first flight.

"I was a hickey," says the 90-year-old about himself and smiles.

At that time, it normally took about 30 flight hours to be allowed to fly alone for the first time.

He was allowed to do so after a total practice flight time of two and a half hours.

Because theoretically he already knew everything, because he had been preparing for this moment for years, even as a child.

Romy Schneider explains the aircraft technology

1956 was also the year in which Franz Finkenzeller met the then 17-year-old Romy Schneider.

The young actress was at the airport in Riem for a film shoot, the trained car and aircraft mechanic Finkenzeller had installed a device for a camera in an airplane for aerial photographs.

"Romy Schneider wanted to know everything, she wanted to learn to fly herself," he recalls.

But then the effort was too much for her.

After their meeting, Romy Schneider sent Franz Finkenzeller pictures of their meetings at that time.

The two look like a movie couple.

The story of "Toilet Josef"

The paths parted, Finkenzeller's first major employer after training as a pilot was the Munich airline "Bavaria" based at the airport in Riem.

Neither existed for a long time, but the following anecdote will remain for eternity: Franz Finkenzeller had and still has many friends in Kirchheim and Ismaning.

One of his acquaintances was called "Scheißhaus-Sepp".

He got that nickname from his friends because he was a plumber.

This is how the lower newspaper reported on Franz Finkenzeller's Atlantic flight.

© Armin Roesl

When the crew on board made the obligatory announcement “Captain Finkenzeller and his crew welcome you on board” to the passengers before the departure of a passenger plane in Munich-Riem, a man answered, said he was from Ismaning and asked a stewardess, the captain to ask if he could visit him briefly in the cockpit.

Because he knows him.

The flight attendant did as she was told and informed Franz Finkenzeller.

"I replied that she should ask him if he was 'Shithouse Sepp'," he says, laughing.

Great fun: Frightening the farmers in the field with the airplane

The stewardess went back into the passenger compartment, but didn't dare to address a stranger with that expression.

"She was uncomfortable.

She then asked him if he was Josef the toilet man.” He wasn't, but a friend of the same guy.

So he was allowed into the cockpit.

"I could write a book," says Franz Finkenzeller about his life as a pilot.

His sister Anna nods in agreement and asks him not to forget to tell us how he sometimes played with the local farmers.

"I scattered them a bit while they were working in the fields," says the 90-year-old with a smile.

When an airplane flew very, very low over Landsham, "then everyone knew: That's Franz," laughs Anna Finkenzeller.