Tribute to Jean Luc Raphaël PRIGNOL

What a funny fellow our JLRP was: quite a character, and always punctual for appointments!

JLRP had several names and a very compartmentalised life: for us he could be called Jean Luc Raphaël PRIGNOL, he cared a lot about the Raphaël in his first names, we also called him “Le Volateur” or the “standard” old-timer (vieux déb’s) - as in the “original” reference for what an old-timer could be, don’t read anything else into it… although…

Aeronautics was probably the most intense compartment of his life, but he had others that did not interfere with it: his family, about whom he remained very discreet or even very closed, the Secours Catholique, the swimming and walking associations where he was very active. Jean Luc, who had been ill for more than 3 months, died in the night of 11 March, the day after his 89th birthday, which we had gone to wish him with a few of his old-timer friends. Already yesterday he seemed to have gone while still being there, as if in transit in a vast airport, between 2 flights.

He had promised himself he would hold on until that birthday. He kept his word, and I have no doubt at all that he nevertheless “heard” what each of us said to him at the time of farewell.

Good flight, my friend, and as you often ended your messages: “Air is life”!

For those who would like to discover a little more of the pilot and pioneer he was, you can do so in the section

JLRP Our Old-Timer

http://www.lesvieuxdebs.fr/fr/information/34378/jlrp-vieux-deb

Guy WARDAVOIR