Typical FAA Part 107 Questions About VFR Charts: A Comprehensive Guide
The FAA Part 107 exam is a crucial step for anyone looking to fly drones commercially in the United States. One of the key areas this exam focuses on is understanding VFR (Visual Flight Rules) sectional charts. Let’s look at the typical questions about these charts and how to best prepare for them.
Understanding VFR Sectional Charts for Drone Pilots
VFR sectional charts are detailed visual representations of airspace, terrain, and obstacles. They are essential for both crewed aircraft pilots and uncrewed remote pilots to ensure safe and informed flying.
Key Areas to Focus On:
- Classes of Airspace: You should be able to identify different classes of airspace, such as Class Charlie and Class Delta. Each class has specific regulations and requirements.
- Special Use Airspace: Familiarize yourself with various special use airspaces like warning areas, ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone), and special flight rules.
- Symbols and Obstacles: The charts will have various symbols representing towers, airports, and other obstacles. Understanding what each symbol means and the altitudes (both MSL – Mean Sea Level and AGL – Above Ground Level) associated with them is crucial.
- Latitude and Longitude: You might be asked to determine the latitude and longitude of specific points on the chart, such as airports or landmarks.
- Airspace Altitudes: Some questions might focus on the minimum safe altitudes in specific areas. For instance, understanding that a number like 2600 feet MSL indicates the safest minimum altitude to clear all obstacles in a particular area.
- Frequencies: Be prepared to identify frequencies associated with specific airports or regions.
- Hours of Airport Operations: Some airports might not operate round the clock. Knowing how to determine the operational hours and the class of airspace during non-operational hours is essential.
- Chart Supplements: Not all information will be available on the VFR sectional chart. Some details, especially about specific airports, might be found in the chart supplement. Knowing how to navigate this supplement is crucial.
Preparation Tips:
- Download and Familiarize: Before your exam, download the FAA computer testing supplement. Familiarize yourself with the various charts provided. This ensures that you’re not seeing them for the first time on your test day.
- Color Matters: If you’re considering getting a printed copy, ensure it’s in color. The color coding on VFR sectional charts is vital for proper interpretation.
- Practice with Real-World Scenarios: Apply your knowledge by looking at real-world scenarios. For instance, determine the class of airspace over a particular city or the frequency for a specific airport.
In conclusion, the FAA Part 107 exam will test your in-depth understanding of VFR sectional charts. By focusing on the areas mentioned above and practicing regularly, you’ll be well-prepared to tackle any related questions on the exam.
Safe flying!
Download your FAA Part 107 exam study guide here: https://offers.flyelectricmonarch.com/studyguide
What are typical FAA Part 107 questions about VFR charts?
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Discover drones
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and drones in STEM education. I am Dr. Heather Monthie, an FAA certificated flight instructor, commercial pilot, remote pilot and dedicated stem educator. Join us as we discover more about drone safety, urban Air Mobility,
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Welcome back to the Discover drones Podcast. I am Heather Monthie. And this is Episode Four of the Discover drones podcast. This episode I am going to share with you a free snippet of my course understanding airspace and VFR sectionals for remote pilots. This is the audio that corresponds to the video in the in the course. We’re going to talk today about the typical FAA part 107 questions that you will get about VFR sectional charts on that exam. So this is Episode Four in a series of pages. Past episodes where I’m sharing with you a free snippet of that course. So episodes three through eight is the free snippets of the course. So you can get a get a taste of what is covered in the course the type of information that’s in there. These are a it is a video based course. So if you’re interested in seeing the video, the actual video that’s in the course, just go to the link in the show notes. And just click on that it will bring you right to my website at fly electric monarch comm where you can you can get the Episode Notes for the podcast, but then you can also see the actual video watch the actual video that is in the course to see if it’s something that you’re interested in and hopefully learn a few things. So in this episode, we’re going to talk about what are typical FAA part 107 questions about VFR sectional charts. And again, episodes three through eight all free information about the understanding airspace in VFR sectionals for remote pilots. 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. And so before we get into today’s topic, I just wanted to remind you that you can check out other great episodes of the Discover drones podcast at WWW dot discover drones podcast.com. And let’s get into the typical FAA part 107 questions on VFR sectional charts.
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What are typical chart questions on the FAA part 107 exam. So to get familiar with the charts that you will be using on the part 107 exam, I suggest that you go to the FAA computer testing supplements page, just type into Google, FAA computer testing supplements, it will bring you right to this page. If you haven’t already, you should download this document right here the airman knowledge testing supplement for sport pilot, recreational pilot, remote pilot and private pilot. So this is this is the testing supplement that you will be given on Testing Day at your testing center. You do not need to bring this with you. But the FAA does provide it to you now, so you can look at it be familiar with it. And so on testing day it is not your first time seeing this document. And what that is is you’ll have certain questions that will say refer to figure 19 area three or refer to figure 21 refer to figure 82. It doesn’t matter but there will be a specific Figure it will ask you to go look up in that guide. And it will ask you a question about whatever it is there, it might be a chart, it might be a diagram, it could be a couple of different things. But for the purposes of this video, I want to show you the different VFR sectionals that you will encounter on the computer testing supplement. So you’re going to go ahead and download that document. I’ve already got it downloaded here. And I’m on page 53. It looks like I’m on. And this is going to be in appendix two where the sectional charts start. So I’m on figure 20 in appendix two, and so there are a couple of different sort of, you know, just screenshots or prints of just little spots of VFR sectionals. And so you might get a question. So let’s say it says refer to figure 20 area one, and it will ask you it’s just a way to sort of direct your eyes to this particular area of the chart and it may ask you a question, you know, figure 20 area one, what is the floor of the most outermost ring of the class Charlie airspace. And so what you’ll have to do is come out here and look and find the floor of the outermost ring. And you know, we can see that right here that it’s 1200 feet. So you might get a question that is just trying to refer you to a specific spot. So these numbers right here are not something that’s generally printed on the VFR sectional, it’s just there for the purposes of the test and to help you just to help direct your eyes to the right spot. So you’re going to want to know the different classes of airspace, you have to be able to identify that this is a class Charlie airspace, you need to be able to identify that this is class Delta airspace, you need to be able to come down here and identify what these transition areas mean. You also need to know all the different types of special use airspace so we’ve got a couple different warning areas here. We’ve got an A does over here.
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We got it looks like we’ve got some special flight rules. So there’s a lot of stuff going on in this chart. If you can’t remember a symbol, if you can’t remember, you know, you maybe you get a question about like, what is this flag mean right here, and you just can’t remember, if you go all the way back up to the beginning of the document, or if you’re at time Testing Day, it’s the beginning of the book. It’s got the legend. So when you’re looking at the actual printed VFR sectional, the legend is going to be in the margins of the sectional, right? Well, your testing supplement isn’t formatted quite that same way. It’s actual when you get it on Testing Day. It’s actual like workbook booklet type thing. So the very beginning of the book is going to have the legend so if you can’t remember a symbol, you can’t remember what something means. Go look at that legend in the beginning of the book, you’re also going to need to be able to answer questions about the different the different colors of the surface of the sectionals. So you can see here we’ve got a blue, I’m sorry, a green shade here and then we go into more of a beige color over here. You need to be We’ll tie it to really answer the reasons why that why that shading changes. And so if you look on this section all figure 21 sectional chart expert. It’s got a diagram here, it’s a legend to show you all the different what the different shadings mean. So in this we’ve got this darker khaki color, darker green color, you know that we can tell our altitude by looking right here, we’ve got the lighter beige color that shows us our altitude right here. So what this tells me about the surface of this chart wherever this is, is that we’ve got some lower altitudes over here, but then maybe we’ve got some hills that are, you know, maybe 1000 feet higher than the surrounding area. So it looks like we might have a little bit of a hilly area. So you want to be able to answer those types of questions. You also want to be able to determine latitude and longitude of different different things on the charts. So you might get a question saying, you know, look at this. Let’s see. There’s a see there’s A private airport right here. And it will ask you to determine the latitude and longitude. So you’ve got to find your lines of latitude and your lines of longitude here. And so I’ve got 48 101. And I can determine based on these tick marks, what is the latitude longitude of that airport, you might be asked to identify, you know, say Butte, you know, you find the latitude, longitude of Butte, something like that. So you need to be able to identify the lat longs of any, anything that’s on that chart. Again, you’re going to need to know all the different symbols and obstacles. So look right here you can see there are some towers in the area. You need to know what these numbers mean that these numbers are in. Both MSL and ag also mean sea level and above ground level. When you are asked to provide altitudes you need to make sure you are clear whether or not you’re answering in a GL or MSL, So you might get a question saying, you know, is this 340 MSL? Or is this 222 42 agpl. It’s, you know, they’re really trying to help you help determine if you understand the differences between a GL and MSL. Some other things you’re going to need to know are these this blue number right here where it’s a larger number. And then in a smaller font, there’s a second number here.
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What this means is in this quote this like square of latitude and longitude right here, what that means is that 2600 feet MSL is going to be sort of the safest minimum altitude that you will clear all of the obstacles in this particular area. So what that means is there’s probably some sort of obstacle tower, you know, it could could really be anything, that if you fly below 2600 feet, you’re in danger of, you know, colliding with that obstacle. So usually what it is is that like, it might be this One right here, what they’ll do is they’ll find the lock the highest obstacle in that particular area. And then they’ll add a buffer on to it just for errors, you know, maybe maybe this tower isn’t quite that maybe it’s a little bit higher. So what they do is they add on a little bit there to give you to give that buffer. So this is very important for manned aircraft pilots as they’re flying through this area that they need to know that if they’re flying below 2600 feet, there is a danger of collision with an obstacle looks like there’s one right here 2361, that could possibly be it right there, added on a little bit of a buffer. So if we stay at 2600 feet, we’ll clear that obstacle. So you need to know that you need to be able to identify frequencies. So let’s look over here at this airport over here. We’ve got giresun D 05. You might be asked a question of what is this one to 2.9 mean? What is that for? You? Let’s go back up here to some of the controlled airspace or I’m sorry, this towered airspace here, you may be asked to identify what is the control tower frequency of Elizabeth City Airport. So you need to be able to look at all these different frequencies right here and determine which one is the right answer. You also want to be able to identify the hours of airport operations. So we’ve got mine at airport here. It’s got a control tower doesn’t have a control tower all the time. The control tower isn’t open all the time. So to be able to determine the hours of when it is a class Delta airport and it maybe changes to class echo or a class golf airport. You need to be able to know where to find that answer. And so you’re not going to find that on the chart here. You’re going to find that in the chart supplement, so you need to know how to find more detailed information about a particular airport. If you’re asked about anything about an airport, and that information is not on the chart. You need to know how to go look that up in the chart supplement And then you also need to know how to look up. So if my not airport changes from, you know, class delta to maybe class echo or class golf, you know, when the tower is closed, he needs to be able to look that up. So that’s going to be in the chart supplement under the airspace section of the might not airport, so that you want to make sure that you understand what kind of information is going to be printed on the VFR sectional chart. And what kind of information is going to be printed in the chart supplement? And how to determine you know, if it’s not in the VFR chart, probably going to go find it in the chart supplement. So those are a couple of the different kinds of chart questions you will get on the part 107 exam. I highly suggest downloading this document. There are a couple different charts on here that the questions will refer you to so you don’t want Testing Day to be the first day that you see this document. You want to know when you open it up. You want it to be like oh, I’ve seen this before. I’m familiar with this chart, it helps to reduce a little bit of that testing anxiety that can happen. So look them over. There’s several of them here. If you have questions, look at the legend. We’ve got some complex airspace here, you want to make sure that you understand all the different things that are happening with all these smaller airports around the class Bravo airport. So, Testing Day should not be the first time you see these, make sure you download it, read them over, you can also buy a printed copy of this, which is helpful. But if you do, there are some people on Amazon that are selling these and they’re coming in black and white, they’re printing them in black and white. And as you can tell, the color coding on some of these things are a very important part of being able to read these successfully. So those are a couple different kinds of questions that you will get about VFR sectional charts on your FAA part 107 exam.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
