Sectional chart practice

Sectional chart questions

How to read the airspace on an FAA chart, with practice images.

Last reviewed October 12, 2026

A drone pilot holding a quadcopter shades their eyes to look at the sky beside an orange windsock.

What changes on October 26, 2026

From October 26, 2026, the Part 107 test includes new image-based questions drawn from current FAA charts. These images aren't in the testing supplement. In the FAA's words, the UAG test "will include image-based questions not found in the test supplements" (FAA advisory, August 2026).

That means memorizing the supplement's figures is no longer enough: you need to be able to read a chart you haven't seen before.

How to read the airspace on a sectional chart

Class B: the top and bottom of each section are printed in solid blue numbers in hundreds of feet MSL, with the last two zeros left off (FAA Chart Users' Guide, p. 16).
Class C: the same idea, in solid magenta numbers (FAA Chart Users' Guide, p. 16).
Class D: a dashed blue line. A number in a box shows the ceiling, and a minus in front of it means "from the surface up to, but not including" that altitude (FAA Chart Users' Guide, p. 16).
Class E starting at the surface: a dashed magenta line (FAA Chart Users' Guide, p. 17).
Class E starting at 700 feet AGL: a fuzzy magenta band (a vignette). Elsewhere, Class E starts at 1,200 feet AGL unless the chart shows otherwise (FAA Chart Users' Guide, p. 17).
Obstacles: the top of a tower or other obstacle is given in feet above sea level (MSL), with its height above the ground (AGL) in parentheses below (FAA Chart Users' Guide, p. 11).

Remember the rule behind the colors: you need ATC authorization before flying in Class B, C or D airspace, or in the surface area of Class E airspace designated for an airport (14 CFR 107.41).

Sectional charts are updated every 56 days (FAA Chart Users' Guide, p. 23), so each image below shows its chart edition. The images are crops of FAA VFR sectional charts, for study only and not for navigation.