Vic Noel

[Martin]

If you know the name Vic Noel you would have been flying in the late 70's. It was a very long time ago but Vic was one of the great contributors to the early days of hang gliding in the Fraser Valley.

Vic , Born 1927 and passed away November 8th of this year .

https://www.abbynews.com/obituaries/victor-joseph-noel/

To this day, if you drive into launch on Woodside you are driving on the road punched in with a logging skidder provided by Vic and his connections to the logging industry. If you were a hang glider pilot that used the early ramp at Woodside it was built from wood delivered to the launch by Vic. Take a drive up Benny, or anything up that end of the Mission valley, if it was anywhere near a cut block, Vic would have probably scoped it out for a launch (Pretty sure the old site of Sylvester was first flown by Vic)

Not sure if Vic was still living at his old home on the north side of the highway when you head east out of Mission but suffice to say, every trip you made to Woodside would be right past Vic's place. He was one of the real characters from the history of our sport.

You might say he was a bit eccentric, flew well into his 60's...(into the mid 1980's?)

To be honest, I won't say Vic was a gifted competitive pilot with fantastic skills, in fact on several occasions he could... well.... take your breath away but oh did he love to fly. I think his last glider was one of the ugliest Wills Wing Harriers (single surface) ever made and he was quite proud of the custom colors! He had plenty of wild stories (both flying and logging). For sure, if you got him talking about flying he would have a smile a mile wide.

One great story was back in the day when we started to see a few people trying to motorize hang gliders and a contraption called the "Soar-Master" came onto the market. In essence, a 2 stroke weed eater with a prop on the end of the shaft that you bolted to keel. These things were pretty sketchy and tho I never saw him fly it, his tale of getting it off a frozen lake Ruskin was epic. He claimed all he had to do was to lay down on the ice, with no wheels or skids, throttle up and he was airborne! I have no doubt he pulled it off as he had that great big honest smile.

When Vic retired from flying he would often been seen in Downtown Mission playing cards at a local coffee house with a bunch of his logging buddies. There were more than a few occasions he would catch me as I was trying to keep up with a busy day and bend my ear about the old days or some new launch he was thinking we should go have a look at.... He was a character and a great contributor from our sports past.

To Vic Noel, Cheers and thanks for all the great memories!

Martin and Mia

[George Borradaile]

Although I was flying when Vic flew, and I knew him reasonably well, I was not aware of all his contributions to the flying community. He was just one of those people who just went out and did things and expected nothing in return. Every club should feel blessed if they have a Vic, and if they do, do not take that person for granted, and express your gratitude, which is something I probably did not do and now regret.

Thanks Martin for writing this story.

Cheers,
George

[Ihor]

Anyone have a picture of him?