Boston Helicopter Tours

with East Coast Aero Club and Philip Greenspun, updated August 2009

Boston is one of the world's most beautiful cities when seen from the air. We have a river, a harbor filled with ships, skyscrapers, parks, universities, and impressive bridges. You can see it all in a half-hour helicopter ride from Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts, which is right in the middle of Minuteman National Historical Park and a 30-minute drive from downtown Boston. We typically fly between 500' and 700' above the ground. Tour prices range from $99-$179 per person. Call the East Coast Aero Club at 781-274-6322 or email Philip Greenspun, philg@mit.edu, to schedule.

What's it like? Watch this slide show, listen to a 30-second voicemail message, used by permission, from a friend whom I took up and down the Concord River: http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/testimonials/bonnie-helicopter-ride.wav, or read these emails from our very first paying customers:


What an adventure! This was by far the most incredible way to experience
Boston and the surrounding area. For me, someone from a vast open land
with lots of space, it made it seem like such a friendly place, so much
less intimidating than when you are on the ground.

Lilly Marcotte, Kinistino, Saskatchewan, Canada

I have lived here for over 4 years and never seen Boston in such a
breathtaking and unique way. It will be an experience I remember for a
lifetime! I would recommend this to anyone!

Raychel Marcotte, Cambridge, Mass. USA

What can I say? I'm going to tell all of my friends, my family and my
clients! Philip's helicopter tour of Boston is absolutely the best way
to experience the city. I guarantee you will be surprised by how many
trees there are in and around the area, and how much beauty there is in
the architecture and the landscape. It's gorgeous! And, there is nothing
like hovering over the Zakim bridge, looking into the windows of the
Hancock and Prudential towers or admiring the snake-like curves of the
Charles River.  Wow!! Whether you're new to Boston or a lifer, this
should get on your top 10 list.

Tracy Wemett, Cambridge, Mass. USA

The Pilots

East Coast Aero Club has five tour pilots, with a combined total flying experience of more than four decades.

Philip Greenspun is typical. A former 50-seat regional jet airline pilot, he holds an FAA Airline Transport Pilot certificate with multi-engine, single-engine seaplane, and helicopter ratings. Greenspun has more than 3000 hours of flying experience including trips from Boston to Alaska (twice), and Los Angeles to Boston by helicopter (three times). Born in 1963, Greenspun studied engineering at MIT, receiving bachelor's, master's, and a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from that school. Greenspun teaches helicopter and airplane students at East Coast Aero Club.

Paul Cantrell has been teaching helicopter flying in the Boston area for more than 20 years. He has more than 3000 hours of experience flying Robinson helicopters and is an instrument-rated pilot for both helicopters and airplanes.

The Helicopters

We will be flying in one of East Coast Aero Club's Robinson R44 helicopters. These are simple modern 4-seat helicopters with excellent visibility through a large Plexiglas bubble. All of the seats face forward and there is a good amount of width, i.e., you aren't crammed shoulder-to-shoulder as in most 5-seat helicopters. The R44 is the world's best-selling helicopter right now, with about 500 coming off the assembly line in Torrance, California every year.

The doors are removable, so if the weather is warm and you want to take good pictures, we can fly with some or all of the four doors removed.

When we fly

Wind and mid-day heat produce a lot of turbulence here in New England. It is best to fly on a day that is forecast to have calm winds. Early mornings are usually the least windy and therefore calmest time of day (see this Fox TV news clip regarding a tour we flew on a very windy day). We also try to avoid Red Sox games at Fenway, which result in a temporary flight restriction over most of the city from an hour before to an hour after the game (schedule).

Where we go once airborne

Taking off from Hanscom/Bedford, we fly over the Revolutionary War battlefields of Lexington and reverse Paul Revere's horse's steps back towards Boston over Route 2. We will pass the Mormon Temple and continue in to West Cambridge where we will fly down the Charles River, surrounded by Harvard College on our left and Harvard Business School on our right. We'll continue down the river to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then make a U-turn just past the Museum of Science to fly over Beacon Hill, the Massachusetts State House, Boston Common, and the Public Garden. We will continue over Beacon Street through Back Bay, below the Hancock and Prudential skyscrapers. At the Fenway Park baseball stadium, we'll turn left to give everyone a good look at where the Red Sox play, then over the Museum of Fine Arts and back around the tall buildings of Back Bay and downtown Boston. We'll come around the waterfront, seeing the Boston Harbor Hotel (the one with the hole in the middle), Quincy Market, the New England Aquarium, the North End, the USS Constitution, and the Bunker Hill Monument. We'll begin our trip back to the airport by flying over the Zakim Bridge.

If you want to extend your flight, we can visit your neighborhood or fly up and down the shoreline. The trip from Boston up the North Shore to Marblehead, Salem, and Manchester is very scenic and adds another 30 minutes or so to the flight.

fenway park

universities

the coast

downtown

How many people can fly

There are three empty seats in the R44, but we are limited to about 550 lbs. for passengers and baggage. Anyone bigger than 225 lbs. might not be comfortable in the R44 cabin, which is kept small for high speed and reasonable efficiency.

Safety

We're not daredevils and we got into helicopter flying because we like the view from the air, not because we wanted to take risks. The Robinson is not certified for aerobatics. We won't be doing loops or any scary abrupt maneuvers. We will be flying in good weather and taking off and landing only at airports, which are vast open spaces cleared of obstacles. The flight should be smoother than in a small airplane due to the stabilizing effect of the spinning rotor (though not if is extremely windy, as noted in this Fox TV news clip on our operation).

Unlike helicopter tours in New York City, our standard tour operates in controlled airspace at all times. We take off after obtaining permission from the Hanscom Field control tower. The airspace over Boston is owned by Logan Airport. Your sightseeing flight receives the same clearance and separation services from the Boston Tower as a United Airlines Boeing 767. Everyone inside the Boston Class B airspace must be talking to a controller, identified on radar, and flying in accordance with a clearance issued by the controller. Furthermore, airplanes are restricted to flying at or above about 1200' over the city. We fly our helicopters below 1000' at all times and typically at 500-700'.

East Coast Aero Club has been in operation since 1985 and has grown to more than 35 aircraft, mostly airplanes used for instruction and rental.

Prices

Our price for a 30-minute tour is $179 per adult and $149 for folks aged 14 and younger. Two-passenger minimum. Tour extensions are priced at $179 per half-hour for the entire helicopter.

We also offer a brief tour around historic Concord, Masschusetts and Walden Pond for $99 per adult and $79 per child.

You can pay with Visa or Mastercard at the East Coast Aero Club front desk.

How to Book

Call East Coast Aero Club at 781-274-6322 (8 am to 6 pm, seven days a week). Or email philg@mit.edu. Include passenger names, ages, and fully dressed weight (we use this to calculate how much fuel to load into the helicopter). A cell phone number is helpful in case we need to discuss the weather.

We'll meet at Hanscom Field in Bedford (Google Map), which is one mile northwest of the intersection of Route 2 and Route 128 (Interstate 95). Take exit 30B to route 2A West and follow signs for Hanscom Field/Civil Air Terminal, which will be on the right. Continue straight down the access road and park in the lot on your left. Walk into the Civil Air Terminal and turn right. East Coast Aero Club is on the first floor, down the hall on the left (after the rental car counters and cafe). Hanscom Field should be in your car's GPS system, but you can also type in the street address: 200 Hanscom Drive, Bedford, MA 01731.

If you don't have a car, we can usually arrange to pick you up at the Alewife T station (on the Red Line, a quick ride from the South Station, Downtown Crossing, and Park Street stations in downtown Boston).

Nearby Attractions

When coming out for your helicopter tour, there are a lot of interesting nearby sights to visit on the same day. Here are a few suggestions:

Minute Man National Historical Park, whose visitor's center is about a mile from our office. This park preserves some of the first battlegrounds of the Revolutionary War and the route of Paul Revere.
Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau rusticated from 1845 to 1847 and wrote Walden; you can visit the site of Thoreau's cabin, walk around the pond, or swim in the summer; sadly no dogs are allowed
Gropius House, the personal home of Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus and professor at Harvard; a 10-minute drive from our airport
Decordova Sculpture Park and Museum, mostly contemporary art on 35 beautiful acres; down the street from the Gropius House
Concord, Massachusetts, a quaint New England town with all of the shops from which Thoreau was trying to escape. The town includes a good museum, a cemetery in which numerous writers are buried, canoe rentals on the river, and dozens of colonial-era houses. The center of Concord is a good place for lunch and is about a 10-minute drive from the airport.

philg@mit.edu