Airspace & Charts: reading the sectional

0:00Host: Welcome to episode two, Airspace and Charts. Under the current PSI blueprint, this domain is twenty percent of scored questions. It asks you to read a chart and apply the rule at a specific place and altitude. We will practice the main boundary styles, airport labels, runway positions, and coordinates.

0:24Let me set the scene for what you will actually face. On the real test, you get a figure supplement. That is a printed booklet of real sectional chart excerpts, actual aviation maps. The questions point you to a spot on one of those charts and ask you to do one of three things: identify the airspace at that location, find a frequency, or read terrain and obstacle data off the map. So this is not abstract theory. You are reading a map and answering practical questions about it. That framing should make it feel more concrete and less intimidating.

1:05Read the airspace as a vertical stack, not just a set of colored rings. Identify the location, planned height, and charted floor. Then check airport hours, restrictions, and the authorization rule for that airspace.

1:23Host: Authorization is one common chart question. Others ask you to find a frequency, locate traffic, measure distance, or read terrain and obstacles. Start by identifying exactly what the question asks, then use the matching chart label or symbol.

1:42Prior FAA authorization is required in Class Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and within the lateral boundaries of the Class Echo surface area designated for an airport. Class Echo includes several types, so not every surface extension has the same authorization rule. Class Golf does not require authorization under this airspace rule. You still need to check restrictions, visual line of sight, people below, and every other applicable flight rule.

2:16Identify the actual airspace at the flight altitude before deciding whether authorization is required. A colored ring can surround an elevated shelf, with other airspace below it. A Class Golf result answers the airspace-authorization question; it does not approve the flight as a whole.

2:39Now you might be asking, how do I tell from the chart whether I am in controlled or uncontrolled airspace? That is the whole game, and the answer lives in the colors and the line styles on the sectional. So let me teach you to read them, because that is most of the battle right there.

2:58Host: Sectional charts use two main colors, blue and magenta, and two main line styles, solid and dashed. Learn the combinations and you have cracked the code. Let me walk through each one. Solid blue rings mark Class Bravo, the busiest airports in the country, places like the major international hubs. Bravo airspace is often described as an upside-down wedding cake because of its shape, but for the exam, just remember solid blue equals Bravo equals busiest.

3:35Solid magenta rings mark Class Charlie. These are busy airports with a control tower and radar service, a step down from the giant Bravo hubs. Solid magenta, Charlie. Then dashed blue marks Class Delta. Delta airports are smaller towered fields. The line is dashed rather than solid, and it is blue. Dashed blue, Delta.

4:00A dashed magenta boundary depicts Class Echo at the surface. It may identify the airport's designated surface area or an extension to another surface area. Section one zero seven point four one applies to the airport-designated surface area; do not treat every dashed magenta extension as identical. Check the FAA airspace designation when that distinction matters. A faded magenta boundary, called a vignette, depicts Class Echo beginning at seven hundred feet A G L on its shaded side. Below that floor may be Class Golf, but check for overlapping surface airspace.

4:45Dashed magenta and faded magenta are different marks. Dashed magenta means Echo reaches the surface, and you must identify the type of surface area. Faded magenta means Echo begins at seven hundred feet A G L on the shaded side. Confirm both the floor and any overlapping airspace at your planned altitude.

5:09Here is a memory hook to lock the whole color system in. Say this rhythm out loud a few times. Solid blue is Bravo, the busiest. Solid magenta is Charlie. Dashed blue is Delta. Dashed magenta is Echo to the surface. Faded magenta is Echo up at seven hundred. If you can recite that ladder smoothly, you have got the bulk of the airspace questions handled.

5:38Host: Class Bravo and Charlie often have elevated shelves. Read each sector's floor and ceiling in feet M S L. A flight below a shelf is not inside that shelf, although another surface area may cover the location. Class Delta usually covers the surface around a towered airport while its designated airspace is active. Check operating hours and the Chart Supplement. Authorization depends on the airspace where the drone will fly.

6:13Class Echo is controlled airspace that is not Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, or Delta. Its floor can be the surface, seven hundred feet A G L, twelve hundred feet A G L, or another charted altitude. For Part one zero seven authorization, distinguish the airport-designated Echo surface area from elevated Echo and surface extensions. Read the boundaries and altitude together.

6:41And then there is Class Golf, uncontrolled airspace. This is where a lot of drone flying actually happens, out in the open areas away from airports. In Class Golf you do not need air traffic control authorization. But, and I will keep hammering this because it is a classic trap answer, all your other Part 107 rules are still fully in force. Uncontrolled does not mean unregulated. It just means no ATC permission needed. You still owe the world your four hundred foot ceiling, your visual line of sight, and your duty to yield to every other aircraft.

7:25There is also restricted and special use airspace you may see depicted, things like restricted areas, military operations areas, and prohibited areas. For the exam, the headline is simple: those areas can be off limits or require special coordination, so you do not just fly into them. But the bread and butter of the test is the Bravo through Golf classification we just walked through.

7:54Host: LAANC stands for Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability. At participating airports, an FAA-approved service supplier lets you request airspace authorization. The request is checked against facility maps and other restrictions. An approved request may return in near real time. A facility-map grid value is an automatic-request limit, not permission to fly. Wait for an issued authorization and follow its conditions.

8:27Part one zero seven pilots can use LAANC further coordination for requests above a facility-map value, up to four hundred feet, where supported. That request needs manual FAA review and is not an instant approval. For airports without LAANC, use FAA DroneZone and plan ahead. An operational waiver is a separate approval from airspace authorization.

8:55Blue airport symbols show an airport with a control tower. Magenta symbols show an airport without one. Blue does not prove that the tower is open right now. Check the Chart Supplement for hours and for the airspace that applies when a part-time tower closes. Keep the airport symbol separate from the surrounding airspace boundaries.

9:18Host: Let me close with a tactical tip for actually working the figure supplement on test day, because knowing the rules is one thing and applying them under pressure on a dense map is another. When the question hands you a frequency box or a number you do not recognize, do not panic and do not guess randomly. Find the specific airport the question is asking about, look at the data block printed right next to it, and the answer is almost always sitting right there in that block. Sectional charts are extremely dense, but they are not hiding anything. Every frequency, every elevation, every piece of data is printed somewhere near the feature it describes.

10:06A couple more practical notes on reading the map. Sectional charts use a scale of one to five hundred thousand, and there are tick marks along the latitude and longitude lines that help you measure distance, which matters when a question asks how far something is from an airport. Take your time, locate the feature first, then read the data. Rushing is what causes mistakes here.

10:35Obstacle labels can give an elevation above mean sea level and, in parentheses, a height above the ground. Read both. A G L describes height above local terrain, while M S L lets you compare the obstacle with charted airspace altitudes. A Maximum Elevation Figure, or M E F, is a planning value for a chart quadrangle. It includes terrain or obstacles, calculation allowances, and upward rounding. It is not one obstacle's height or a guaranteed clearance altitude.

11:12And keep temporary flight restrictions in mind, what pilots call T F Rs. These are short-notice closures that do not appear on the printed sectional at all, because they pop up for things like wildfires, major sporting events, or visiting dignitaries. You check for them separately before you fly, through official FAA sources. The exam may remind you that a current chart is not enough on its own, you also have to check for temporary restrictions that the static map cannot show.

11:47Host: Now let us add the part that most basic YouTube reviews skip: spatial orientation. The real test may not just ask what runway one eight means. It may ask where an aircraft is if it reports final for runway one eight. Runway one eight is roughly one eight zero degrees, so the aircraft is landing southbound. If it is on final, it is lined up with the runway before landing, which means it is north of the runway and moving south. Flip it around for runway three six. Runway three six is northbound, so an aircraft on final for runway three six is south of the runway and moving north.

12:32The same trick works for diagonal runways. Runway one three points about one three zero degrees, which is southeast. Final for runway one three means the aircraft is northwest of the runway moving southeast. Runway three one points about three one zero degrees, which is northwest. Final for runway three one means the aircraft is southeast of the runway moving northwest. Do not let the wording bully you. Translate the runway number into a compass direction, then put the airplane on the opposite side, coming toward that number.

13:10Downwind is the next trap. Downwind means the aircraft is flying parallel to the runway in the opposite direction of landing. In a standard left pattern, the runway is on the pilot's left while flying downwind. So for runway one eight, landing is southbound and downwind is northbound. To have the runway on the pilot's left while flying north, the aircraft must be east of the runway. For runway three six, landing is northbound and downwind is southbound. To have the runway on the pilot's left while flying south, the aircraft must be west of the runway. Slow, visual, and mechanical is better than guessing.

13:56Now coordinates. Latitude lines run east and west, but they measure north and south. In the Northern Hemisphere, bigger north latitude numbers are farther north. Longitude lines run north and south, but they measure east and west. In the United States, the longitude numbers are west, so bigger west longitude numbers are farther west. A point at zero seven six degrees forty five minutes west is west of a point at zero seven six degrees fifteen minutes west. That feels backwards for about five minutes, then it sticks.

14:36Distance questions often use minutes of latitude. One minute of latitude is about one nautical mile. So if an airport is at thirty six degrees thirty minutes north and your aircraft is at thirty six degrees forty five minutes north on the same longitude, you are about fifteen nautical miles north of the airport. You did not need a fancy calculator for that one. You just counted minutes of latitude.

15:06Read the airspace at the planned location and altitude. Identify surface areas and shelf floors before deciding whether authorization is needed. Solid blue marks Bravo, solid magenta Charlie, dashed blue Delta, dashed magenta surface Echo, and faded magenta Echo starting at seven hundred feet on the shaded side. A blue airport icon shows a tower exists, not that it is open now. Runway numbers are magnetic headings; use them to picture final and downwind positions. One minute of latitude is about one nautical mile.

15:48This is the episode to study twice. Pair it with our interactive sectional chart reader on the site, drill it until the colors and runway positions are automatic, and then take the practice exam linked on this page. And of course, always verify current airspace and any temporary flight restrictions before any flight at faa.gov slash u-a-s. This is educational, not legal advice. See you in episode three, Weather.