The Flying Bear Goes to Beantown | Part 3, Three if by Air

Like NYC...But Different

Part of aviation's magic is the gift of a unique perspective, a god-like reference frame through which mere mortals can view mountains, shorelines, sunsets, and cloudscapes; the rarer the scene, the more impactful. As an aviator, I crave the novelty of these aerial vistas and compulsively fly to new places to absorb uncommon beauty streaming in through my airplane's windscreen.

Because I live in Upstate New York, lakes, rivers, and farmland are commonplace terrestrial features. Massive cityscapes are not, however. I think this is why I enjoy flying the New York City skyline so much. It is unlike anything from my routine aeronautical back yard. Considering that we were staying near Boston, I wanted to fly the Boston skyline. Exactly like NYC, downtown Boston is encircled by restrictive Class Bravo airspace down to the surface that requires explicit clearance to enter. Although I knew that pilots flew city tours in this airspace, I struggled to find procedural details comparable to those available for New York City.

In addition to searching out information on various websites, I consulted with Carl F, a Williamson Flying Club member who lives in Boston. I learned that there is no set procedure for flying a city tour; pilots wanting to do this need to devise their own route. Boston Skyways -- a Boston Logan Tower frequency dedicated to city tour traffic -- will set restrictions for pilots based on which runways are in active use at Logan. For this reason, it is valuable to be well-versed in key landmarks around the city in order to comply with issued restrictions. Altitude is typically restricted below 1,500 or 2,000 feet with the lower seemingly more common. Carl further recommended using the FAA Helicopter Route Chart for Boston. These named routes follow key highways toward city center and become useful pathways to enter or exit airspace over the city.

I also found several websites with clear, practical information about making this flight. A couple of my favorites are linked below:

• WeFlyIMC
• Aviation Adventure Routes

The latter website includes a downloadable content pack for ForeFlight that labels key points of interest (useful for non-local pilots) plus key areas often involved in ATC-issued restrictions ("The City", "Inner Harbor", and runway 4L-22R). 

The more I learned, the more I understood that a Boston city tour by air is truly a "choose your own adventure" kind of experience within any boundaries set by Skyways. Before attempting the flight, I familiarized myself with key Boston landmarks in the hopes of not sounding like a utter newbie on the radio. Fortunately, Monday's exploration of Boston on foot served as excellent reconnaissance for what we would see from the air.

Tuesday, July 9, 2024: Boston Skyways

The girls decided to go whale watching from Gloucester that day. Mark is prone to seasickness and my resistance to nautical nausea is hit or miss. We decided to pass on the whale watch and fly the Boston city tour instead.

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
09 July 2024	N21481	BVY (Beverly, MA) - BVY	1.2	2849.1

During pre-flight planning that morning, I noted that a southwest wind had Boston Logan using runways 22R and 22L. This was in our favor as it would minimize the number of likely restrictions that Skyways would impose.

Mark and I launched from runway 27 at Beverly Regional. I requested flight following to Boston for a city tour from Beverly Ground and we were handed off to Boston Approach shortly after getting airborne. I climbed to 1,500 feet and made for the TOBIN helicopter route. This route follows US-1 southbound from Beverly to the Tobin Bridge. It was the same route we drove the previous day for our excursion into Boston.

"November Four Eight One, Boston Approach, radar contact, say request."

"Cherokee Four Eight One requesting a city tour," I responded. I was a little nervous. What if they directed me to a landmark that I did not know?

"November Four Eight One, continue inbound, you'll get your Bravo clearance from Tower."

Flying along US-1, the same route we drove to Boston the day before.

I tracked inbound over US-1 (TOBIN route) at 1,500 feet. For reference, I had programmed the VPTOB and VPCGS waypoints into the Garmin 430W. Although US-1 takes a serpentine route into Boston, these waypoints defined the start of the TOBIN route 5 nautical miles southwest of Beverly Regional and the Boston Coast Guard Station at the end of the route, respectively. The surface portion of Boston's Bravo airspace begins about 5.7 miles south-southwest of Beverly. Considering that we crossed this distance in just a couple of minutes, everything happened very quickly after departure from Beverly.

Just before crossing into the Bravo, we heard, "November Four Eight One, contact Boston Tower on 124.72."

I made the switch and was instructed, "November Two One Four Eight One, Skyways, you are cleared into the Bravo for a city tour. Remain at or below 1,500."

Except for altitude, he gave us no restrictions! Other than the obviously unspoken requirement of staying out of the arrival and departure corridors for runway 22R, we had carte blanche to fly wherever we wanted over the city. (Within reason: no knife edge passes between buildings.) We heard no other chatter on the Skyways frequency. With it being a weekday morning, I surmised that it was not a busy time for helicopter tours.

We continued inbound for downtown Boston, still flying the TOBIN route over US-1.

Closer in, we could see Boston Logan Airport with its characteristic two-legged control tower. How many times had I watched that distinctive tower slide past an airliner porthole window?

Tobin Bridge

Tobin Bridge.

On reaching the Tobin Bridge, I chose to circle counter-clockwise around downtown Boston.

One if by Land, Two if by Sea...Three if by Air?

Reaching downtown Boston, we turned westbound to track the Charles River toward Cambridge. We crossed just north of the distinctive Zakim Bridge, one of the many landmarks Carl recommended I familiarize myself with.

Charlestown Navy Yard.

Below, we could see the Charlestown Navy Yard with Dry Dock 1 and the USS Cassin Young visible. Unfortunately, the USS Constitution was just out of frame because I was looking into the sun and could not actually see what I was photographing.

We started an orbit of the city by flying north of the Zakim Bridge that carries I-93 across the river. The golden dome of the Massachusetts State House was visible to the right of frame, glinting brilliantly in the early morning sun.

As we cruised over the Charles River, I spotted the distinctive profile of the Prudential Tower or "Pru". When it was completed in 1964, the Pru surpassed the Custom House Tower as the tallest building in Boston. The elevation of the Pru was later surpassed by the John Hancock Tower in 1975, but it remains the second tallest building in Boston. The tall building immediately to the right of the Pru is One Dalton, a residential tower only seven feet shorter than the Pru.

Per Carl's suggestion, I chose Fenway Park as a turning point to circle back toward the Financial District. From our angle, we could not see the Green Monster very well. Obviously, avoiding game days is an important criterion for conducting a flight like this.

In the upper right corner of frame is Harvard's horseshoe-shaped stadium. 

Outlined in red below were the athletic fields for the Winsor School, a well-regarded 5-12 college prep school for girls.

Visible above are the Pru, One Dalton, and the ornate buildings on the Christian Science Plaza arranged around a rectangular reflecting pool. In the lower left corner of frame with the green roof is Symphony Hall, Boston's celebrated concert hall where Kristy and I saw John Williams conduct the Boston Pops during our first vacation to Boston in 2016 (with gratitude to Ed and Stacey for the tickets).

The Pru, One Dalton, and a distinctive tower at frame center sometimes called the "R2-D2 Building" or the "Juicer Building". The latter is the 12th tallest building in Boston and is more properly known by its address at 111 Huntington Avenue. It may not be as tall as the Pru, but it is certainly more aesthetically interesting.

I liked how nearby buildings were reflected in the mirrored facade of Boston's tallest skyscraper, the John Hancock Tower at 200 Clarendon Street. At 790 feet tall and completed in 1976, the building was once riddled with engineering issues. Early in the life of the building, some reflective glass windowpanes measuring 4 x 11 feet and weighing 500 pounds each came crashing down from the upper levels of the building. A model of the tower was subjected to wind tunnel testing at MIT in hopes of finding a root cause for this issue. Instead, new concerns were raised about the structural stability of a building that could twist under certain wind loadings. The window panels were ultimately replaced with improved versions and the structural stability enhanced with the addition of diagonal steel bracing. Under some wind conditions, the building swayed enough to give occupants motion sickness. Swaying was reduced by adding two sliding 300 ton weights on the 58th floor to act as tuned mass dampers. Those are some heavy Band-Aids.

Over the South End.

From our unique perspective in the sky, we could see where the downtown segment of I-93 plunged below ground in the wake of the Big Dig.

Swinging around to the east, we were flying between the city and Logan Airport. Though no aircraft were broadcasting on Skyways, our controller was performing double duty and we heard him issue a steady stream of landing clearances. Boston was busy, but we stayed west of arriving and departing traffic. 

Continuing our orbit of the city, we approached the Inner Harbor.

The tall towers off our port wing are in Boston's Financial District.

This is a close up of two of my favorite buildings of the Boston skyline. To the left is the cylindrical Two International Place tower (13th tallest building in Boston) and the Custom House Tower (upper right corner of frame) that was the tallest building in Boston from 1915 until the Pru was completed in 1964. Sharp-eyed viewers may even spot Faneuil Hall in this photo. Green space between buildings is the former above-ground path of I-93.

If real life were like an Austin Powers movie, Two International Place would actually be a camouflaged rocket figuring prominently into the supervillain's nefarious plan.

The New England Aquarium that we explored the day prior is directly on the waterfront.

Sometimes, a smidgeon of airplane in the photo provides interesting perspective of our position in the sky.

Boston's North End neighborhood.

I may have missed the USS Constitution when we passed north of the city, but I caught it this time.

USS Constitution, USS Cassin Young, and Dry Dock 1 at the Charlestown Navy Yard.

USS Constitution. "Old Ironsides" (emphasis on old).

We completed one circuit around downtown by returning to the Zakim Bridge. In the absence of any commentary or further restrictions from Boston Skyways, we simply continued the counter clockwise turn westbound along the Charles River and made a second orbit of the city. Because why not?

At the conclusion of the second circuit, I called Skyways and informed them that we were done with our tour and would return to Beverly.

"November Four Eight One, OK, please remain clear of the 22R arrival corridor." I acknowledged and tracked outbound west of the TOBIN helicopter route to keep us clear of arrivals.

When we reached Boston's surface Bravo boundary, Skyways called again.

"November Four Eight One, you're leaving my airspace, radar service terminated, squawk VFR, frequency change approved." Although Boston ATC had cut us loose, we were still beneath a 2,000 foot Bravo airspace ceiling.

"Squawk VFR, Cherokee Four Eight One. Thanks for the help today, that was awesome," I responded in gratitude.

GPS tracks of our two orbits around downtown Boston

"Any time," he answered in a tone that suggested he actually meant it.

Carl had assured me that Boston air traffic controllers were fantastic and they lived up to those high expectations perfectly. Not only was it a great experience, it was astoundingly easy to do.

Delta Transition

From the time we were wheels up from Beverly Regional to when Skyways terminated radar advisories after the city tour, a mere 20 minutes had elapsed. Mark and I were not done flying for the morning, so we decided to sightsee over Cape Ann and Rockport. We were trapped low beneath the Boston Bravo, rapidly approaching the lateral boundary of the Beverly Delta airspace that blocked our path to the northeast, and we were no longer talking to anyone.

I quickly called Beverly Tower and received permission to transit their Delta from southwest to the northeast provided that we climbed to 3,000 feet. Once beyond all controlled airspace, I cancelled flight following and we flew toward our temporary home in Rockport without ATC oversight.

Coastal Survey

Essex Bay.

Harbor at Gloucester.

Updates from Kristy and Dena indicated that fog was an issue for their whale watch out of Gloucester. After a delay, they eventually launched and the ship sailed far enough away from land to escape the fog. As we approached Gloucester, the lingering mist eerily accented the Atlantic shore. I entertained thoughts of spotting their whale watching vessel from the air, but that did not come to pass.

Niles Pond.

Niles Pond (left) and Brace Cove (right).

Inner Harbor, Gloucester.

Good Harbor Beach and Salt Island.

Cape Hedge Beach (left) and Pebble Beach (right).

Loblolly Point and Loblolly Cove.

Gully Point and Straitsmouth Island

Located within view of Rockport Harbor, the Straitsmouth Island Light Station is the second lighthouse constructed on Straitsmouth Island. It was built in 1896, automated in 1967, and is still operational.

Straitsmouth Island Light Station.

We finally reached our "home" of Rockport. The granite breakwater was less impressive from the air than it was when we "pass[ed] at own risk" on the ground.

Rockport Harbor, Front Beach, and Back Beach.

We flew over the Annisquam River that connects Annisquam Harbor on the north (bottom of frame) to Gloucester Harbor on the south (top of frame).

The Annisquam Bridge carries Massachusetts highway 128 over the Annisquam River and was a part of our driving route between Rockport and the rest of the world. Watch out for that road plate in the eastbound lane leading up to the bridge!

Essex Bay.

Satisfied with the sightseeing we had done over Cape Ann, Mark and I set course for Beverly Regional. I called Beverly Tower for landing clearance and was assigned a straight-in to runway 27. While flying an extended final approach, a vibration on my wrist caused me to glance at my watch. It was a text message from Carl. "Looks like you got the city tour in! How was it?" An image of our ground track from FlightAware was attached.

I waited until we were back on the ground with the airplane shut down before answering:

"Stalker!"

But the real answer to Carl's question was that it was awesome. It was a new set of sights and memories that deeply satisfied my craving for novel aviation experiences. Overall, Mark and I were pretty impressed with ourselves. It was a good day to fly! Thanks to Carl for all of his assistance and to Mark for the company!