Up, Up and Away: Fenton Resident to Pilot Balloon at Weekend Festival

As soon Brian Prokuda went up in a hot air balloon, he was hooked.

The Fenton resident stared flying airplanes in 1990, but once he met a balloonist, went on ride and he and his wife helped crew for a season, he fell in love.

“I asked my wife, ‘Can we get one?’ and she said yes,” Prokuda said.

The Fenton resident will be among 50 pilots participating in the this weekend in Howell.

The festival kicked off Thursday afternoon at Howell High School and continues through Sunday. All weekend long, attendees can enjoy carnival rides, artist booths and family-centric entertainment, such as jugglers and magicians. New this year are B-25 flyovers and rides from the Livingston County Spencer J. Hardy Airport, a NASA Exploration Experience Trailer and a Balloonfest Basketball Tournament on Saturday. The festival is open until 8 p.m. Sunday. For a copy of the festival schedule, see the attached PDF.

It will be Prokuda’s 12th year participating in the event, and he will be flying his balloon Sunrise, sponsored by Cleary University.

“For us, we consider it a hometown event, and that’s always fun,” he said. “I’ve got a 7-year-old, and a lot of his soccer teammates and classmates come out.”

Prokuda said area pilots have formed a bond.

“Our balloon friends are like family,” he said. “We host other pilots' families for Thanksgiving, and we gather with others for Christmas and E­­­­­aster.”

Prokuda added that piloting a balloon is a lot more social than flying an airplane.

“Flying in an airplane, you are going from point A to point B,” he said. “You need at least four people to fly a balloon, and it's not unusual to go out with three to five balloons. Then we all get together dinner afterwards.”

Prokuda said most balloonists fly “low and slow” from 500 to 1,000 feet, but he said once you get up to 2,000 or 3,000 feet, other cities such as Ann Arbor, Flint and Lansing become visible. He said at about 3,500 feet, the Renaissance Center in Detroit can be seen from the Fenton area.

“We usually go out over woods, skimming tree tops, watching deer and wildlife,” he said. “You can go up with local people who have lived in the area all their life and see things they didn’t know existed. You can see things wouldn't normally see.”