R.I.P. "Valocity" Val Stephens

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Ridgerunner
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R.I.P. "Valocity" Val Stephens

Post by Ridgerunner »

I am sad to report that we lost one of our own this past week. "Valocity" Val Stephens passed away on December 1st at his home near Park City, Utah. He is survived by his wife Liz, their two dogs Foster and Milo, their cat Shy, their two horses Vinny and Fuzzy, and his brother Jeff. The purpose of this thread is to provide a place for feedback and stories about Val from the pilots and friends that knew him.

Val was a very active foot launch Hang Glider pilot for more than thirty years. He flew many sites throughout the Western United States and met and touched many pilots over his long flying career. He meticulously kept a logbook of all his flights and had accumulated more than 4000 logged hours of airtime by the time he hung up his wings about a decade ago. (His body had simply worn out and he had to give it up.) As a human being, he truly lived life to the fullest with a strong vigor and a love of nature and the great outdoors, all the while following the wise credo: "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life".

He made his living in the winters teaching snow skiing for more than 40 years and by the time he retired he had risen to the very top of his field. His winter earnings allowed him to fly all summer, every summer. It is a rare thing for someone to reach the top echelons of any one sport and Val managed to do it with two: Skiing and Hang Gliding. Although he was not a competition pilot, he would still frequently participate in many events serving as a "wind technician" testing the waters for comp pilots who would follow.

Once he had retired from his job and from flying, he took on the hobby of wildlife photographer and he quickly got really good at that, too. You can see a (very small) sampling of some of his photography on his Flicker page here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/valocity/

This is only a small sampling of his vast collection of photographs - (he has many tens of thousands of wildlife photos on his home computers.)

When Liz called to tell me the news that he had passed, she told me "Val was my best friend!". When I responded that he was also my best friend, she said: "I think Val was many people's best friend".

I think she's right. "Valocity Val" will certainly be missed by many.

Please feel free to post your memories, stories and photos of Val here on this forum thread. Note that Val and his wife and myself never got onto the social media train so it would be nice if folks could re-post here, any material that may exist "out there".

Fly on good buddy!
Jeff Roberson
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Scare!
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Re: R.I.P. "Valocity" Val Stephens

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