Sporting Badges
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE CIA SPORTING BADGES
By Jean-Claude Weber, CIA President
Nothing. To the contrary, I believe the Sporting Badges to be the perfect instrument to reward excellence in the sport of ballooning. So why the title? Because many pilots are discouraged by the seemingly difficult claim procedures. Mind you, not by the qualifications and requirements, and I am convinced that many more badges would already have been issued if our pilots knew how to apply. And it is exactly the aim of this paper to make pilots see how easily they can apply and obtain a Sporting Badge once they have met the qualification requirements.
The Sporting Code Section 1, Chapter 8, details the Claim procedures as follows:
8.2.5 Claim Procedures
8.2.5.1 Register of Badges.
An NAC or delegated Ballooning Authority shall keep a register of badge flights which it
has validated, and shall report to the FAI information on awards earned as follows:
8.2.5.2 Awarding Badges.
8.2.5.3 The CIA Records Review Subcommittee may appoint observers and act as co-ordinator where National Balloon Federation arrangements have not been made.
8.2.5.4 Inexpensive badges will be available from the CIA for purchase by NAC/National Balloon Federation. Precious metal badges may be commissioned by winners at their own expense if they wish.
This basically means that your National Aero Club or Balloon Federation (your NAC = National Airsport Control) is in charge to handle the CIA Sporting Badges scheme. However, and here we face a problem, most NACs and their CIA delegates don’t know that such a CIA scheme exists, or that it is their responsibility to make it work.
In order to facilitate the claim procedures, you will find attached to the CIA Newsletter a model CLAIM FORM that should be distributed as widely as possible, and that should be available from NACs on request. (The form will also be made available on the CIA web pages).
Once you have met the requirements, you should send your CLAIM FORM to your NAC or CIA delegate. They will then make sure that your performances are properly registered and they will award you the corresponding badge or diamond. In most cases the awarded badge will obviously be the inexpensive one (except perhaps for a few very rich NACs), but you may order from the FAI, at your own expense, the corresponding badge in precious metal (Silver, gold and diamonds) As far as applicants are concerned, that’s it.
Generally, NACs don’t like to get involved in a badge-issuing process, because this means that they have to provide some kind of service. This is where the CIA delegates come in: They have to make sure either that their NAC fully participates, or they have to take over from their NAC and handle the badge scheme on their own. They have also to make sure that the CIA Badge schemes widely publicised and they have to provide assistance for their NAC’s pilots wishing to participate.
Pilots participating in the CIA Badge scheme have to provide big efforts in order to achieve the requirements. The CIA and the NACs have only to provide a small contribution to make sure that our pilots are duly rewarded.
Please let us make things happen
Jean Claude Weber
November 1999
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