With the tour season hotting up I wanted to give a good write up on choosing a good operator to take your tours with . Our partner company Regis Helicopters strives to provide the best tours in Boston and the south shore. They have bases in Worcester , Marlboro and Norwood . Norwood is THE closest tour departure point to Boston and a tour departure from Norwood will get you into Boston quicker than any other tour operator. It's not just about who gets you into Boston quickest , its about quality of ride including helicopter type , helicopter age , pilot experience and of course the route flown.
Lets first take a look at the distance each airport that provides tours is from Boston center, very important if you dont want to spend most of your tour looking down at the highway !
Norwood Airport - 12 Miles - about 7 minutes to the center of Boston.
Marlboro Airport - 23 Miles - about 14 minutes to the center of Boston.
We operate from theses two airports for the Boston tours, A standard tour from Norwood gives you around 25 minutes to see the sights of Boston and the south shore islands. with the trip in and out over some very interesting landmarks that I will talk about in a moment.
Now some other airports that offer tours ...
Lawrence Airport - 22 Miles - about 13 minutes to the center of Boston.
Bedford Airport - 14 Miles - about 9 minutes to the center of Boston (However this is the busiest airport and you can be waiting up to 10 minutes for take off clearance )
So clearly Norwood airport is the airport of choice when it comes to proximity to the center of Boston.
Now lets tak about the Helicopter ......
Regis Helicopters/ Blue Hill Helicopters uses a 2008 R44 Clipper 2. This aircraft has leather seats, 2 GPS units ,live weather maps, collision avoidance and satellite radio installed. Being a Clipper model it also has the ability to land on water in the event of an emergency with the deployment of 'pop out' floats .In Boston we spend 50% of the tour over water , so nice to have unless you want to go swimming !! The clipper 2 is also equipped with air conditioning , a must in the summer months in Boston especially when starting the aircraft up at a hot airport ! Most people that take tours are going to dinner afterwards and dont want to look like they just left the gym when they get out the aircraft ! Oh and did I mention your can bring your ipod and play your own music whilst on the tour ?
All the other operators use the Raven 1 or 2 , neither of these aircraft are equipped with floats or air conditioning, probably not even collision avoidance or GPS ! In fact they are all used for primary flight training when they are not flying tours , we have training aircraft for that.....
So choose your airport, close to Boston or Not close to Boston ?
Choose your aircraft, leather seats ,air conditioning, classical music in the background etc etc
OR
Old aircraft with cloth seats and no air conditioning ?
Next lets talk about running costs .... Regis Helicopters and Blue hill helicopters own its aircraft outright .We do not use leasebacks period..... some tour operators have aircraft as old as 2001 ! do you really want to be 1500 feet up in a 10 year old aircraft that been overhauled several times ?
An R44 can be leased from spitzer leasing for $225 per hour + fuel + insurance + maintenance .This is what some tour operators are doing, So to provide tours so cheaply where are they cutting costs ? fuel is almost $6 per gallon so no savings there , how about Maintenance ? How about a pilot that needs the flight time and will work for nothing ? all factors to consider when you are choosing an operator.
There are two pilots that fly our tours , Chris and Steve . Chris is an Ex Military pilot with over 25,000 hours of flight time in many types of helicopters and fighter jets . Steve is a flight school owner and ATP with experience all over the world and over 3000 of helicopter flight experience. Check out other operator pilots , have they ever landed on golf courses because they ran out of fuel ? do your research !
Finally some facts and figures about the tours we offer in Boston and the south shore.
Squantum Point Park to right – just left of marina and to right of the gas tank. There were originally two tanks. One was painted in 1971 by Corita Kent, a peace activist and some say that the image was of Ho Chin Minh who worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel in 1912. That tank was demolished and the remaining tank was repainted to match.
UMASS Boston: Home to 12500 students., and JFK Library 10 acre library and museum on Columbia Point completed in 1979.
Islands in Harbor: There are about 30 islands in the Boston harbor. Thompson, (outward bound) , Spectacle, (where they put all the dirt excavated from the Big Dig), Long Island (social services for over 100 years – almshouses, home for unwed moths, chronic disease hospital, nut farm, etc), Deer Island (see egg shaped waste digesters and 2 – 190 ft wind turbines on the treatment plant), Georges (large fort that was used for Civil War prisoners), The Brewsters: Little Brewster (Boston Light 1716 – oldest light station in the US), Peddocks (Fort Andrews, harbor defense until WWII)
South Boston: Old Harbor beach & Pleasure Bay/Castle Island: Fort Independence on Castle Island began construction in 1834 and is the 8th fort to occupy this site.
Logan Airport: located in East Boston. Named after General Logan, a Spanish American War officer from South Boston. Opened in 1923 with a 1500 ft cinder runway and first known as Jeffrey Field. Built out of landfill and incorporates three former harbor islands.
Griffins Wharf (original site now filled in): Site of the Boston Tea Party in 1773 on the tea ships Dartmouth, Eleanor and Beaver where 342 chests of tea were thrown in the water rather than pay the tax. (Just to left of Seaport Blvd
Rowes Wharf: Gateway to Boston completed in 1987. Bosotn Harbor Hotel and 100 luxury condos where a 2 bed penthouse goes for $2.5m. Condo fees alone are over $2 grand a month!
New England Aquarium: built in 1969, it includes an IMAX theater and whale watch tours. Known for it’s 200,000 gallon Giant Ocean Tank which simulates a Caribbean coral reef. 1.3 million people visit each year.
Boston Harbor Cruises leave next to the museum.
Coast Guard:
USS Constitution: Built in Boston, named by George Washington and launched in 1797. It is the oldest floating commissioned naval vessel in the world. Saw action in the War of 1812 and retired in 1881. Berthed at the former Charlestown Navy Yard and one end of the Freedom Trail.
Bunker Hill Monument: 221 feet tall, built in 1827 to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill 1775. Colonel Prescott coined the phrase “don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes”. Actually on Breeds Hill. They lost the battle but won the war.
TD Garden: Home of the Celtics and the Bruins. Originally the Boston Garden which dated from 1928 and designed by the same person who build Madison Garden in New York. Rebuilt in 1997 for $160 million and has had a succession of bank names.
Zakim bridge: Leonard Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge. Built as part of the Big Dig in 2003, it is the world’s widest cable stayed bridge with 10 lanes. Zakim was a civil rights activist who championed “building bridges between peoples”.
Museum of Science: Founded in 1830 by a group of men who wanted somewhere to display their trophies and skins from their travels to Asia and Africa. Now has the domed Mugar IMAX theater and Hayden Planetarium.
Longfellow Bridge: Known as the Salt and Pepper bridge. Combination rail and road bridge opened in 1906 and named for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1927. In 2008, two state employees stole over 2000 feet of decorative trim from the bridge and sold it for scrap. They got $12,000 from the deal but it has cost over $500,000 to replace. They only received 208 days jail time, half suspended and to be served on weekends.
Boston State House: Houses State Legislature and the Governor’s offices. Situated on 7 acres of land once owned by John Hancock, the first Governor. Built in 1798 and covered in copper by Paul Revere. It was gilded in 1874. During WWII it was painted black to help with air raid blackouts. IN 1997, it was re-gilded with 23k gold.
Boston Common: dates from 1634 and the oldest city park in the US. 50 acres of land that has been used for public hangings until 1817, public cow grazing until 1830.
Hatch Shell: Replaced wooden and metal shells and finally this one in 1940. Hosts the Boston Pops 4th of July concert. First used in 1929 by Arthur Fiedler, conductor of the BPO for 50 years.
MIT and the Stata Center: Stata: Opened in 2004, this is a Computer Science and AI Lab designed by Frank Gehry. The Stata's appearance is a metaphor for the freedom, daring, and creativity of the research that's supposed to occur inside it. It cost $283 million. MIT: Founded in 1861. Campus extends for 1 mile along the Charles River. Over 10,000 students
Fenway Park: Built in 1912 and the oldest park in the US. Named after the ‘fens’ that were drained to make the land dry. Every home game has been sold out since 2003. Holds just 40,000 – one of the smallest of the majors. Lone Red seat: right field bleachers – Ted William’s home run hit of 502 feet in 1946.
Fort Hill Tower: Actually an old water tower for Roxbury built in the 1860’s and restored in the 1980’s.There was never a fort, just a land encampment for General Henry Know who placed captured cannons captured at Fort Ticonderoga NY there and this persuaded the British to leave town.
