Airspace

How to Read a Sectional Chart for the Part 107 Test

✓ Reviewed against current FAA sources on October 12, 2026

Airspace is about a fifth of the Part 107 test, roughly 12 of the 60 scored questions, and most of those hand you an excerpt of a VFR sectional chart and ask you to read it. Since October 26, 2026, some of those excerpts have been embedded in the question itself rather than taken from the testing supplement. The conventions are consistent, so this is a skill rather than a memory exercise. Learn the six things below and most chart questions fall in under a minute.

Step 1: find the airspace boundaries

Airspace class is carried by line color and line style, and the two together tell you everything.

Authorization for Class B, Class C, Class D and surface-area Class E comes from air traffic control under 107.41, in practice through LAANC or the FAA's drone portal. Class G needs none.

The distinction that catches people is between the two magenta depictions. A dashed magenta line is Class E at the surface, and 107.41 reaches it. A faded magenta band is Class E starting at 700 feet AGL, which means the air you are actually flying in at 400 feet is Class G and needs no authorization. One is a boundary, the other is a floor, and the test knows the difference.

Step 2: read the altitude figures

Numbers inside Class B and Class C sectors are stacked, ceiling over floor, in hundreds of feet MSL. A sector reading 70 over 25 is 7,000 feet MSL down to 2,500 feet MSL. SFC in the lower position means the floor is the surface.

A Class D ceiling appears in a dashed box, so [30] means up to and including 3,000 feet MSL. A minus sign, as in [-30], means up to but not including that altitude.

Step 3: understand Class C and Class B shelves

Class C has an inner core, typically surface to about 4,000 feet above the airport, and an outer shelf whose floor is typically 1,200 feet AGL. Standing beneath that shelf and outside the core, a drone at 400 feet is below the shelf's floor entirely. That spot is usually Class G, with Class E beginning above you at 700 or 1,200 feet AGL, so whether you need authorization depends on what the chart says about the surface underneath rather than on the shelf overhead.

Class B is the same idea with more layers. Read both the core and the shelf figures before deciding, and remember that the question is always about the airspace you occupy, not the airspace somewhere above you.

Step 4: check obstacles and the maximum elevation figure

Each quadrangle carries a large maximum elevation figure, printed in thousands and hundreds of feet MSL. A large 4 beside a small 5 means 4,500 feet MSL. It represents the highest thing in that quadrangle, terrain and obstruction together, and it is an MSL value like everything else on the chart.

Obstacles carry two numbers: the height above sea level in bold, and the height above ground in parentheses beneath it. The parenthesized figure is the one to compare against your own altitude. Remember that 107.51(b) permits flight within a 400-foot radius of a structure up to 400 feet above that structure's uppermost limit, so a tall tower can lawfully put you well above 400 feet AGL, provided you satisfy both halves of that rule.

Step 5: read the airport data block

Towered airports and their data are printed in blue, non-towered airports in magenta. That single color cue answers a surprising number of questions on its own. A typical block reading CT 118.3, a star, 2440, L, 72, 122.95 decodes as:

• CT 118.3: control tower frequency, and its presence means the field is towered
• star: a rotating or flashing airport beacon, operating from dusk to dawn
• 2440: field elevation in feet MSL, which is your datum for converting to AGL
• L: runway lighting
• 72: longest runway in hundreds of feet, so 7,200 feet
• 122.95: UNICOM frequency

Three more markings on or near the airport name are worth knowing. Right traffic is shown as RP followed by the runway number, as in RP 18, and an asterisk on it (*RP) means there are conditions or restrictions and sends you to the Chart Supplement. NO SVFR printed above the airport name means fixed wing special VFR operations are prohibited there. A boxed airport name marks a field operating under the special air traffic rules of 14 CFR Part 93.

Step 6: look for special use airspace

Special use areas are outlined with a hatched border and labeled with a letter and a number. P is prohibited, R restricted, W warning and A alert. Military operations areas are named rather than numbered, as in a named MOA.

Section 107.45 (opens in a new tab) prohibits operating in prohibited or restricted areas without permission from the using or controlling agency, as appropriate. Warning areas, alert areas and MOAs do not carry that prohibition, which is exactly the distinction a well-built question will test. Knowing which letters are restrictive and which are advisory is worth more than memorizing any individual area.

Military training routes, and the digit count that gives them away

Gray lines labeled IR or VR followed by a number are military training routes, flown low and fast. IR routes are flown under IFR regardless of weather. VR routes are flown under VFR, but with flight visibility of 5 miles or more and not beneath a ceiling of less than 3,000 feet AGL. They are generally established below 10,000 feet MSL for operations in excess of 250 knots.

The useful part is the numbering, because it encodes altitude:

So a route labeled VR1219 has four digits, which tells you no part of it climbs above 1,500 feet AGL. That is low-level, high-speed traffic sharing the altitudes nearest your own operation, and it is a reason for heightened vigilance rather than a prohibition: an MTR is not special use airspace and requires no authorization.

A note on Victor airways

Thin blue lines labeled with a V and a number are VOR federal airways. They extend 4 nautical miles each side of centerline, and their base is well above a Part 107 operation, so they rarely constrain you directly. They matter as an indicator of where en route traffic concentrates, particularly near the navigation aids where airways converge.

What the chart will never show you

Temporary flight restrictions and NOTAMs are not printed on a sectional, and neither is the current status of special use airspace. A chart is a snapshot of the permanent structure.

Section 107.49 (opens in a new tab) requires the remote pilot in command to assess the operating environment before flight, which includes airspace and flight restrictions. That means checking the FAA's TFR list, a NOTAM search or an approved app on the day. Also check the chart's own effective date, because an expired sectional can show airspace that has since been redesignated.

The 60-second routine for any chart question

1. Find the point the question is asking about, and the nearest airport to it.
2. Identify the boundary lines around that point, by color and style together.
3. Read the altitude figures, then convert MSL to AGL using the field elevation.
4. Check for obstacles, special use airspace or an MTR nearby.
5. Decide which class you are actually in at your altitude, and whether 107.41 requires authorization.

Practice it on current charts rather than on a fixed set of plates. Our guide to the airspace classes covers what each class requires, and Part 107 rules at a glance covers the operating limits the chart figures feed into.

Sources: 14 CFR 107.41 (opens in a new tab), 107.45 (opens in a new tab), 107.49 (opens in a new tab), 107.51 (opens in a new tab); FAA Aeronautical Information Manual, paragraphs 3-4-1 through 3-5-2; FAA Chart User's Guide; FAA-CT-8080-2H.