Kassel Professor(?) at Stoupe Brow, Ravenscar.
Following a gliding or "soaring" mishap at Scarborough some weeks previous to this incident the pilot of that mishap, Karli Magersuppe, was keen to prove the new sport to his critics. Gliding had taken place at Stoupe Brow, Ravenscar for a few weeks to prove it was a suitable place to be used for gliding and the meeting was arranged there for the weekend of 23rd / 24th August 1930 by the Scarborough Gliding Club. Flying on the Saturday was limited because of fog and although test flights were carried out no demonstrations were given. Sunday, 24th August 1930 came with more favourable conditions and in front of 2000 people, flights in the morning took place. The flights in the afternoon saw two mishaps. In this incident, the pilot was catapult-launched but could not get lift. The machine came down but struck a rock hidden in the heather damaging the undercarriage and this damage prevented the machine from being used any further on that day. Repairs where carried out and soaring then took place on the Monday.
Following the first mishap at Ravenscar on the Sunday, the Scarborough club's "Zogling" glider was then used and a number of flights took place before it too was damaged late in the afternoon (detailed on this website on its own page). Further flights would later be carried out at the same location in the weeks after these mishaps and the glider would later fly from here to Scarborough.
Pilot - Mr Karli / Carl Magersuppe.
Exactly a year after the mishap recorded at the top of this page Karli Magersuppe was in the papers again, on 24th August 1931 the Airspeed Tern flew fom Stoupe Brow, Ravenscar to Scarborough to gain the first British distance record of 8.3 miles. Flown by Magersuppe the glider flew a total of sixteen miles but only the straight line distance counted towards the record. Before returning to Germany he gained the Royal Aero Club Aviator's certificate (certificate number 9800) while flying with the Derby and District Aero Club on 17th February 1931.
The pilot of the Kassel Professer was one of a number of a talented German pilots of his day, as a result of restrictions on German aviation imposed by the post-WWI Treaty of Versailles a number of German pilots concentrated their efforts on gliding / "soaring" and became world leaders in the field. Karli Magersuppe was one these men, he was born in Kassel, Germany on 28th June 1908 and aged around 21 years old he had arrived in England in 1930 to give gliding demonstrations at English flying clubs. Initially he was employed by the Scarborough Gliding Club but he
later took a job with Airspeed for very little money. He completed the flight trials on the AS.1 Tern glider in 1931 and demonstrated it at meetings and contests around the country. The Tern established new records for height and distance but made little money for Airspeed. After working for Airspeed he briefly returned to instruct at the Scarborough Gliding Club and piloted the Bradford Gliding Club's new Dickinson-type glider on it's maiden flight but the work then simply dried up for him. He then got into debt and was eventually deported back to Germany. His subsequent fate in the Second World War is not clear.
A Halifax would later crash at Stoupe Brow in 1944 with the loss of all aircrew on board, this is detailed on the 1944 North Yorkshire Moors section to this website.