The 63-year-old said he copied his landing from a story about the fictional WWI flying ace. Recalling one of Captain WE Johns' adventures about James Bigglesworth, Mr Hagedorn said: "There's a story where Biggles has his engine shot up over enemy lines.
"He tries to get back to the airfield and doesn't quite make it and ends up with no height over a wood. What he does is he flies into the wood, and, as he flies into the wood, he pulls the stick back to pancake onto trees - and I just did that. I just stalled into the tree." Mr Hagedorn added: "I feel I'm very lucky to walk away." When asked if he would ever fly again, the pilot added: "If I had a plane, I'd be up there tomorrow."
Mr Hagedorn's wife, Carole, managed to talk to her husband while he was in the ambulance but did not find out the full details of the crash until much later on. She said her husband had been interested in planes from an early age and was a massive Biggles fan.
She said: "He's always quoting Biggles. My husband is one of life's adventurers really - cars, bikes, planes, he loves them all.
"Also he's a mathematician and a physicist so he knows how the forces work, and it was obvious that in this particular Biggles book that the physics had been right, and he knew that if he did what it said in the story he had a better chance. I think he likes Biggles because Biggles incorporates a lot of the values that he thinks are now lost in society, about loyalty and devotion to a cause and perseverance."
Video. There are more photos here.
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