Introduction
Understanding airspace is crucial for remote pilots, whether you’re flying for commercial, recreational, or educational purposes. One of the most common airspaces that drone pilots encounter is Class E airspace. In this blog post, we’ll look at identifying Class E airspace on a VFR sectional chart.
What is Class E Airspace?
Class E airspace, or Class Echo airspace, is a significant portion of the National Airspace System. It typically extends from 1,200 feet above ground level (AGL) to 17,999 feet mean sea level (MSL). However, there are instances where the floor of Class E airspace varies from the standard 1,200 feet AGL.
Identifying Class E Airspace on a VFR Sectional Chart
1. General Characteristics
- Class E airspace is primarily found outside the core controlled airspace designated for an airport.
- It is the airspace that isn’t Class A, B, C, D, or G.
2. Transition Areas
- Around airports, you’ll often find transition areas where the floor of the Class E airspace drops from 1,200 feet AGL to 700 feet AGL.
- A shaded magenta line on the VFR sectional chart indicates these transition areas.
3. Surface Areas
- There are specific regions where Class E airspace extends right down to the ground’s surface.
- These areas are identified by dotted magenta lines on the VFR sectional chart.
4. Examples
For instance, when examining the Wiley airport (MLS identifier) on a VFR sectional:
- The dotted magenta line indicates where Class E airspace extends to the ground’s surface. Remote pilots wishing to fly within this airport’s radius need authorization as they would be operating in Class E airspace.
- The shaded magenta circle signifies a transition area. Outside this circle, the Class E airspace starts at 1,200 feet AGL. Within the circle, it drops to 700 feet AGL. Within the inner radius, it extends to the ground.
Important Reminder for Remote Pilots
Always ensure you have the authorization to fly in Class E airspace. Just because an airport has no control tower doesn’t mean it’s uncontrolled airspace. Always check the airspace you’re operating in to ensure you have the proper authorizations for your drone operations.
Further Resources
For those in the United States interested in flying drones commercially, passing the FAA part 107 remote pilot exam is a requirement. To assist with this, a free FAA part 107 study guide is available. You can find it at https://offers.flyelectricmonarch.com/studyguide
In conclusion, identifying Class E airspace on a VFR sectional chart is essential for safe and legal drone operations. Always stay informed and fly responsibly.
How to Identify Class E Airspace on a VFR Sectional Chart for Remote Pilots
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Discover drones is your go to resource for learning about drones, drones in business, emerging drone technology and drones in STEM education. I am Dr. Heather Monthie, an FAA certificated flight instructor,
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commercial pilot, remote pilot and dedicated stem educator. Join us as we discover more about drone safety, urban Air Mobility, business and education. Let’s get started.
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Welcome back to the Discover drones podcast. I’m Heather Monthie, your host for this podcast. This is episode eight of the podcast and if you have been listening to previous episodes, you’ll know that this is the final installment of the free preview of my understanding airspace and VFR sectional charts for remote pilots course. So if you’re just finding this podcast now, if you go back to Episode Three, it’s what is the fastest way to get an airspace authorization for remote pilots. Episodes three through eight are a free preview of My course on understanding airspace for remote pilots. So, airspace is a big chunk of the exam the part 107 exam, it is a big chunk of what you are responsible for as a drone pilot, whether you’re flying commercially or recreationally or even for educational purposes, you have to understand airspace you have to get the the air that in which you’re flying. So episodes three through eight are a free preview of that course. It’s a video based course. So I pulled the audio out of that the videos and I’m delivering them to you here in this podcast so you can listen to them. You’re walking the dog, you’re up for your morning run, or maybe you’re just sitting on the couch, or even driving to work. It could be anything really. So you can go back listen to those episodes, get a free preview of those particular videos pick the particular pieces of the course. In this episode we’re going to talk about how to identify class echo airspace or Class E airspace on VFR sectional charts. Now sectionals VFR section are very visual, there’s color coding, there’s all sorts of different stuff that you need to be able to see, which obviously, you’re not going to be able to do on this podcast. So if you go to the link in the show notes to my website, it’ll bring you to the website, you can watch the video that corresponds to the audio in this podcast. And it’s the actual video that is in my course understanding airspace and VFR sectionals for remote pilots. So you can go to www dot fly electric monarch comm slash courses to check out that particular course. And as always, you can go to discover drones podcast comm to check out all of the other episodes. In this free preview again, it’s episodes three through eight, starting with what is the fastest way to get an airspace authorization all the way through to episode eight which is this episode how to identify class echo airspace on VFR sectional charts for remote pilots. Let’s get to it.
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How to identify class echo airspace on a VFR sectional chart. So class echo airspace or Class E airspace is all of the airspace in the National Airspace System that extends from 1200 feet agpl to 17,999 feet ADL for the most part, there are certain cases where the floor of class echo airspace does range from that 1200 feet a GL marker. So over here you can see that there are certain sections where the class Gulf airspace extends up to 414 thousand 500 MSL but what you’ll see mostly on VFR sectionals are these transition areas where around airports there will be transition areas where the floor of the class echo airspace goes down from 1200 agcl down to 700 agpl or above ground level. Then you’ll also find other areas where the class echo airspace extends down to the surface of the ground. And those are identified by the dotted magenta lines. And the class echo airspace transition areas are indicated by a shaded magenta line. So let’s go look at a VFR sectional and take a look and see what it looks like in play. So right here we’re looking at the Wiley airport MLS is the identifier. And you can see right here that we’ve got an airport that has got a couple different services, a couple different facilities, you can find out all what all those are either in the chart legend or in the chart supplement. So you can see right here is the dotted magenta line. And so this is where the class echo airspace extends all the way down to the surface of the ground. So if you are a remote pilot and you want to fly anywhere within this radius of this airport, you do need to have an authorization because you are flying in class echo airspace. Now we’ve got the shaded magenta circle around here. And what that indicates is the floor of the Class, Class echo airspace extends from 1200 feet, so it’s 1200 feet out here. Now at this area in Word, it extends down to 700 feet, a GL, so we’ve got a step down right here. And then once we get into the, the inner radius of this circle right here, the class echo airspace extends to the surface of the ground. So in play, what you see here is it’s 1200 feet a GL, and then inside that magenta circle, it extends down to 700 a GL, and then this is an example here where you’ve got the dotted magenta line where it extends down to the surface of the ground. So that is how you identify class echo airspace on VFR sectional. As a reminder, you do need to have a airspace authorization to fly and class echo airspace as a remote pilot. So even if your airport doesn’t have a control tower doesn’t mean that it is non controlled airspace. So you want to make sure that you are checking the airspace that you are flying in to ensure that you are receiving the proper authorizations to fly your drone.
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Have you been thinking about buying a new drone to use in your small business? Or maybe you’ve been interested in getting started flying drones as a business? If you’re in the United States and are interested in flying drones commercially, you’ll need to pass the part 107 remote pilot exam. I’ve prepared a free FAA part 107 study guide to help you learn what you need to study to pass the FAA part 107 exam, head over to fly electric monarch.com slash FAA part 107 Test Prep To pick up your free download today. The link is also in the show notes of today’s episode.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
