Kirby Kite T.6 BGA.222 "12" glider near Ingleby Cross.
Between Saturday, 24th August 1935 and Sunday, 1st September 1935 a national gliding competition was held at the Sutton Bank gliding site, the home of the Yorkshire Gliding Club. The Kirby Kite was a new glider developed by Fred Slingsby and this particular glider was the prototype, it was registered by the BGA as BGA.222 a few weeks prior to this gliding competition. Fred Slingsby used the event to display his new glider where it carried the tail code "12". The pilot of it on this occasion appears to have been a test pilot working for Slingsby. On Wednesday, 28th August 1935 a competition for a distance flight; out and return to Sutton Bank was competed for. The turning point used was Arncliffe Hall, some twelve miles north of Sutton Bank and only two gliders appear to have reached the turning point. The Kirby Kite launched from Sutton Bank at 12.49hrs, the pilot climbed and eventually found a thermal which took the glider from 1,300 feet up to 4,000 feet in the right direction. Unfortunately the glider then went into what must have been a rain cloud and, because the glider had an open cockpit and the pilot had taken no flying helmet or goggles with him, once into the cloud the rain became a problem for him. He could not see so had to descend and while he then reached the Arncliffe Hall turning point he decided to land near Ingleby Cross. In trying to avoid a collision with a hedge the landing appears to have been heavy, the skid was torn off and a wing tip struck a tree. The damaged glider would have been transported back to Fred Slingsby's workshop where it was rebuilt. While it was initially registered as BGA.222, it was later re-registered as BGA.236 on 14th November 1935. The other glider that undertook the distance flight had to be landed in a field near Sutton-under-Whitestonecliff as it had lost too much height to enable the gliding site at Sutton Bank to be reached.
Pilot - Mr John Charles Stuart Wortley Neilan.