A coincidence, then an inspiration

What are the odds that two brand-new light sport amphibians on transcontinental trips happen to pull up to the self-serve pump in the desolate Nevada desert at the same time? The premise sounded like the beginning of a bad joke.

Ridolfi, a friendly, energetic, outgoing marketing manager for a San Francisco Bay Area consultimg firm, laughed about the long odds and told me he was almost home. A few more hours and he’d have his airplane in a hangar at Oakland International Airport. I was curious about the Super Petrel, a turbocharged, Brazilian-made biplane, but I was just beginning my journey and eager to press eastward.

He knew all about the Icon A5 and had earned his seaplane rating in one at the company’s California school. We shook our heads and chuckled about the long odds of our impromptu meetup, exchanged business cards, and continued our solo treks.

Now, jump ahead four years to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 2022. Ridolfi sent an email reminding me of our chance meeting in Battle Mountain and we arranged to catch up at the AOPA tent. When I saw him there, however, it quickly became clear that he had been through an ordeal since then, and the adversity he was facing wasn’t over yet.

Ridolfi’s loose-fitting long-sleeve shirt, floppy hat, and gloves were sun protection for the extensive burns he had suffered in a fire at his father’s Wisconsin home 12 months earlier. The tragedy eventually claimed his dad’s life. Yet Ridolfi’s recovery had advanced to the point that he had resumed flying just days before our July meeting.

“The support of the aviation community and the aspiration that I’d someday be able to fly again were two of the driving forces that have allowed me to heal,” he said.

“My flying friends have done so much. And preparing to fly again has given me a goal, something to look forward to. I knew that if I could get back to flying, it would feel like such a triumph.”

Ridolfi, then 48, suffered third-degree burns over 75 percent of his body in an explosive fire. In the quick calculation of estimating a patient’s chance of survival after severe burns, add their age (48) to the percentage of third-degree burn coverage (75), and any sum over 100 means the victim is unlikely to survive.

“One thing I had going for me is that I honestly never considered the possibility that I wouldn’t be OK,” he said. “I spent three months in the hospital, and the healing began right away. I could tell progress was being made the whole time.”

During several weeks in a medically-induced coma, friends and family members decorated his hospital room with posters and photos. Later, he played his favorite music, loudly, to raise his spirits.

“The Rocky theme, the Top Gun soundtrack,” he laughed. “All the cheesy stuff I love.”

Ridolfi’s girlfriend, Noa, and her daughter Gracie came to Wisconsin for extended stays until he could return to California.

In the hospital and out, Ridolfi took aviation courses online, and he flew a custom X-Plane flight simulation program with an instrument panel identical to his Super Petrel on a desktop computer.

Ridolfi’s airplane was tied down outside at the West Bend Airport in Wisconsin (ETB) at the time of the house fire. When fellow pilots learned of Ridolfi’s family tragedy, they moved the Super Petrel to a hangar and even performed a condition inspection on it so that it remained ready to fly.

Ridolfi was medically cleared to resume flying in July 2022. He’d logged more than 400 flight hours in his Super Petrel during the previous four years and taken it on trips throughout the Mountain West, but he was concerned that, after his injuries, he might lack the arm strength to manipulate the manual landing gear lever.

But his return to flight on July 19 proved arm strength wasn’t an issue.

“I had spent hours and hours practicing with the sim, and it turns out the sim is a lot harder to fly that the actual airplane,” he said. “Even after a year away from it, flying was still second nature. On that first flight, I’d touch down on the main wheels, ride the wheelie, and all of it just felt so right.”

Ridolfi flew over the charred remains of his dad’s former home on that initial flight, an experience he says was bittersweet. The fire, he suspects, was from a natural gas leak. His father had moved a load of laundry from the washing machine to the dryer, and when he started the dryer, the room exploded in flames.

Ridolfi recently flew his airplane to a college reunion in Minnesota. His next big trip may be ferrying it back to California, probably following the same route he took in 2018.

When he gets to Oakland, he intends to get together with flying friends there and build up seaplane flying in that region.

“I can’t wait to get back there again with my airplane,” he said. “There’s such a rich history and great opportunities for seaplane flying, and I look forward to being part of it again.”

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