This was accepted by the 2014 Plenary
Proposal from
Richard Meredith-Hardy, CIMA President
Introduction of Absolute Records
Existing text
none
New text
S10 3.18 ABSOLUTE RECORDS
Absolute World Records represent the best World record performances from all classes of Microlights or Paramotors regardless of class.
Six Absolute World Records shall be awarded as follows:
3.18.1 Fastest Microlight
The greatest speed achieved by a microlight in any speed related record category.
3.18.2 Fastest Paramotor
The greatest speed achieved by a paramotor in any speed related record category.
3.18.3 Greatest Microlight distance (furthest microlight)
The greatest distance achieved by a microlight in any distance related record category.
3.18.4 Greatest Paramotor distance (furthest paramotor)
The greatest distance achieved by a paramotor in any distance related record category.
3.18.5 Highest Microlight
The greatest altitude achieved by a microlight in any altitude or height related record category.
3.18.6 Highest Paramotor
The greatest altitude achieved by a paramotor in any altitude or height related record category.
Note: New Absolute records are eligible for the De La Vaulx medal.
Reason
Have you ever wanted to know what is the fastest, furthest or highest that a microlight or paramotor can go?
These are known as absolute records, and are implemented by many other FAI Air Sport Commissions.
Of course Absolute records in microlights and paramotors already exist, you just have to hunt through all the FAI current record files for Microlights or Paramotors until you find the fastest, furthest and highest; or you can look at a list here .
Since these effectively represent the most difficult kind of record to break, FAI actually has a special award for them, the De La Vaulx Medal , which is automatically awarded to the holders of recognised absolute world records set during the previous year. They cannot be awarded for any microlight or paramotor record at the moment simply because the concept of Absolute Records does not exist in S10. This proposal seeks to rectify that.
It is important to note this proposal does NOT recommend De La Vaulx medals should be awarded to existing absolute record holders, simply that any new holders of absolute records subsequent to the inclusion of these provisions in S10 should be eligible.
It should also be noted that this is not the first time a similar proposal has been put to CIMA, it was proposed before by the same author in 2006 , and declined. The difference here is that absolute records are proposed separately for microlights or paramotors (six in total) whereas previously only three across all classes of microlights and paramotors were proposed.