How to read a sectional chart for the Part 107 test
Chart questions give you a figure and ask you to find one fact on it: an airspace floor, a tower height, a frequency. The figures come from the testing supplement, FAA-CT-8080-2H, which the test center hands you. From October 26, 2026 the test also adds image questions taken from current VFR sectional charts.
This guide goes through a sectional the way a chart question does, one symbol at a time, using the FAA’s Aeronautical Chart Users’ Guide (effective July 9, 2026) as the reference.
What you have at the desk
The test center supplies the supplement, scratch paper and a writing instrument, and it may also offer a basic calculator, a flight computer and transparent overlays. You may bring your own plotter, straightedge, protractor or non-electronic magnifying glass. The proctor decides what is allowed.
A magnifier earns its place. Chart figures are dense, and a tower height in small print is easy to misread.
Three conventions before any symbol
Unless the chart marks something otherwise, distances are nautical miles, altitudes are feet MSL, and times are UTC. Part 107’s 400-foot limit is AGL. Forgetting to convert between the two is an easy way to lose a chart question.
A sectional is drawn at 1:500,000, so one inch is 6.86 nautical miles, or about 8 statute miles. Lines of latitude run east and west and measure degrees north or south of the equator. Lines of longitude run pole to pole and measure degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian. The contiguous U.S. sits between 25° and 49° N and between 67° and 125° W.
Supplement questions can point you to a numbered “area” on the figure, as the FAA’s sample questions do. Find the area first and read only the symbols near it.
Airspace symbols
| On the chart | What it is | For a Part 107 flight |
|---|---|---|
| Solid blue altitude figures, ceiling over floor | Class B | ATC authorization required |
| Solid magenta altitude figures, ceiling over floor | Class C | ATC authorization required |
| Dashed blue line | Class D | ATC authorization required |
| Dashed magenta line | Class E surface area for an airport | ATC authorization required |
| Magenta vignette (fuzzy shaded band) | Class E starting 700 ft AGL | Class G below the floor unless other airspace is charted |
| Blue vignette | Class E floor other than 700 ft, next to Class G | Class G lies beside it |
| Solid magenta line, 30 NM | Mode C required airspace around Class B | Not a Class B boundary |
Class E exists from 1,200 feet AGL unless the chart shows otherwise, and Class G below it is uncontrolled. Class A starts at 18,000 feet and isn’t drawn on visual charts, which puts it far above anything you’ll fly.
Reading altitude figures
For Class B and Class C, each sector shows its MSL ceiling and floor with the last two zeros dropped. A Class C shelf marked 40 and 12 runs from 1,200 to 4,000 feet MSL. SFC as the floor means the sector starts at the surface.
Two special cases are worth knowing:
- A ceiling of T in Class C means the Class C rises to, but not including, the floor of the Class B above it.
- A Class D ceiling with a minus sign, such as -25, means from the surface up to, but not including, 2,500 feet MSL.
Converting to AGL
The conversion is where the points are. Subtract the ground elevation from the MSL figure.
Say you plan to fly at 400 feet AGL under a Class C shelf with a floor of 1,200 feet MSL, and the ground there is 900 feet MSL. The shelf floor is only 300 feet above you (1,200 minus 900). At 400 feet AGL you would be inside Class C, so you’d need authorization.
Over lower ground, the same shelf sits higher. With terrain at 500 feet MSL the floor is 700 feet AGL, and a 400-foot flight stays below it. Always convert with the ground elevation at your site, not the airport’s.
Airports and their data
Airports with a control tower, and their data, are printed in blue. All others are magenta. The data block gives the airport elevation (the highest point of the usable landing area), the longest runway length in hundreds of feet, and frequencies. A symbol after a frequency marks it as the CTAF, and a star means that service is part time.
This matters because the ACS expects you to know how to use a CTAF to monitor manned traffic. The FAA’s own sample question asks for the CTAF at a figure airport.
A magenta airport inside Class G needs no ATC authorization. You must still stay out of its traffic pattern and approach paths and must not interfere with its operations.
Obstacles and terrain
Sectionals typically show man-made obstacles taller than 200 feet AGL. Each one shows the height of its top in feet MSL, with its height above the ground in parentheses below when known. So “1249 (320)” is a structure 320 feet tall whose top is 1,249 feet MSL. UC means under construction. In crowded areas, a group obstacle symbol shows only the tallest one.
That parenthesis helps with the structure exception in Part 107. Within 400 feet of that 320-foot tower you could fly up to 720 feet AGL.
The Chart Users’ Guide warns that wind turbine blade tips aren’t lit, and that the lights on the hub can in some cases sit 200 to 300 feet below the tip.
The Maximum Elevation Figure (MEF) is the number printed in each quadrant bounded by the 30-minute latitude and longitude ticks. It shows the highest terrain or obstacle in that quadrant, rounded up to the nearest 100 feet, with the last two digits left off. An MEF of 35 means 3,500 feet MSL.
Special use airspace and routes
| Marking | Meaning |
|---|---|
| P- plus number | Prohibited area |
| R- plus number | Restricted area |
| W- plus number | Warning area, from 3 NM off the coast outward |
| Name plus “MOA” | Military operations area |
| A- plus number | Alert area |
| VR or IR plus four digits | Military training route with no segment above 1,500 ft AGL |
| VR or IR plus three or fewer digits | Military training route with a segment above 1,500 ft AGL |
Part 107 requires permission from the using or controlling agency to fly in a prohibited or restricted area. You must also follow NOTAM flight restrictions, including TFRs. A TFR is itself a type of NOTAM, and only national security TFRs are printed on the chart, so the chart alone never proves an area is clear.
A method for chart questions
- Find the named area on the figure and circle it on your scratch paper.
- Identify the airspace by line style and color before reading any number.
- Note whether each figure is MSL or AGL, then convert.
- Apply the Part 107 rule the question is testing.
Airspace carries 20% of the test under PSI’s current weighting, and chart reading sits inside that area and inside operations. Drill figures until the four steps above feel automatic.
For the rules behind each class, read airspace classes and when you need LAANC. For what’s coming on October 26, read what changes on the Part 107 test. Then check yourself on the free practice test.