Community Highlights: Meet Don Youngker of Freedom PPG

Today we’d like to introduce you to Don Youngker.

Hi Don, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I got my private pilots license about 10 years ago. I flew for a few years but it got expensive. I started to look at other forms of aviation and found Powered Paragliding. I trained for that and started flying pretty much daily. After doing it for a few years I decided I wanted to try starting a school to train other people how to do it. Been doing that for almost 4 years now and really enjoy it!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Biggest struggle is finding new students to train.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We train people how to fly Paramotors also know as Powered Paragliders. We also sell all major brands of equipment. A lot of schools have trainers that work part time. We are one of the few schools that train full time and can work with pretty much any schedule. We incorporate simulators, tandem flights, ground school, radio communication for first flights as part of out training. We are USPPA certified instructors and have a FAA Tandem exemption to fly tandem for training.

Pricing:

• Training cot is 2500.00 and includes everything you need to fly.
• Paramotor wings are around 4000.00
• Paramotors are around 8000.00
• Figure another 1000-1200 on helmet, radio, wind sock and pole, and other misc items

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.freedomppg.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freedomppg