Justin Fox, Leading Edge PPG
Featured Instructor
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Justin Fox is a USPPA-certified paramotor instructor and has been flying paramotors for almost a decade. As the son of a US Air Force Air Traffic Controller, Justin grew up in Chugiak, Alaska, where general aviation, adventure, and exploration were a way of life. Justin’s childhood is filled with many stories about growing up as a boy in the vast, beautiful, and unforgiving Alaskan wilderness which made him the resourceful and self-assured adventurer he is today. As a child, Justin was inspired towards the life of an aviator by visiting the Elmendorf Air Force base with his father, watching him control aircraft, and playing in the hangars around military jets. Although he dreamed of joining the Air Force and one day becoming an pilot himself, his hopes were dashed when he learned that being colorblind would not only disqualify him from military aviation, but also from getting his FAA medical and Private Pilot License.
His dreams of flying laid dormant for many years until he discovered ultralights, which do not require an FAA medical or Pilot License to operate. Although in hindsight he strongly advises others not to follow in his footsteps, after moving to central Michigan, Justin was determined to teach himself how to to fly flixed-wing ultralights and paramotors from his backyard. While he enjoyed flying fixed-wing ultralights, it was paramotos in particular which captured his imagination and fed his voracious appetite for flying; through a process of trial and error, and a series of trials and tribulation, he spent the next year learning how to fly the equipment and building his skills. After learning how to fly, Justin became a very involved leader in the paramotor community by attending every fly-in he could, participating in online forums, and organizing paramotor adventure trips around the country to places like Moab; he flew from new locations with different people he'd never met before, all while gaining knowledge which honed his skill and experience. Meanwhile, his career as a skilled mechanic and Auto Body Technician gave him the experience to design and build his own paramotor, the titanium "SkyFox", which he now manufactures and sells to people throughout the world.
Justin met Jon Eisele at a training session at Aviator PPG in 2017, which inspired him to start his own school, FlyMiPPG, in St Johns, MI. After hiring ParAmerica to help build the training curriculum at FlyMiPPG and develop his skill as an instructor, Justin continued his education, earning his USPPA PPG instructor rating and tandem exemption. He also continued instructing with Jon on many different occasions and locations throughout the country and became an instrumental founding member of the Airythmia aerobatic team in 2021, which performed at AirVenture that same year.
Now as an experienced pilot and instructor, Justin’s passion has shifted from flying for himself to helping others find joy in running into the sky; he endeavors to pass along his hard lessons-learned to others, and provide them the training experience he wished he had for himself. He believes there’s nothing more rewarding than giving back to the sport of paramotoring, which he does as an EAA Ultralight and Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) Councilman, and volunteer Co-Chairman at the AirVenture Ultralight Area.
Justin loves his family, and in his free time, enjoys building fast race cars and giant trucks, ripping off brodies somewhere in the open desert.
