How to read a sectional chart for the Part 107 test

On a sectional chart, solid blue lines are Class B, solid magenta is Class C, dashed blue is Class D and dashed magenta is a Class E surface area. Numbers stacked like 100 over 30 are the ceiling over the floor in hundreds of feet MSL. Obstacles print their top in feet MSL with the height above ground in parentheses, and the AGL figure is the one you compare with the 400-foot rule.

Updated September 26, 2026. Checked against the sources linked on this page.

Colors and lines

• Solid blue: Class B, each segment labeled ceiling over floor in hundreds of feet MSL, such as 100 over 30.
• Solid magenta: Class C, labeled the same way; SFC marks the surface area.
• Dashed blue: Class D, its ceiling in a dashed box. A minus sign, such as -25, means up to but not including 2,500 feet MSL.
• Dashed magenta: a Class E surface area.
• Magenta vignette: Class E starts at 700 feet AGL on the shaded side; below it is Class G.
• Blue vignette: Class E starts at 1,200 feet AGL on the shaded side.

A real example: Camarillo (FAA Los Angeles sectional)

• The airport data block: CAMARILLO (CMA). CT 128.2 with a star: the tower is part-time. ATIS 126.025. 77 is the field elevation in feet MSL; the next figures give lighting and the longest runway (about 6,000 feet); UNICOM 122.95. RP 8 means right traffic on runway 8.
• The airport symbol: blue means a control tower; the star above it is a rotating beacon; tick marks around it mean services such as fuel.
• The dashed box: a number in a dashed box is a Class D ceiling in hundreds of feet MSL: 20 is up to and including 2,000 feet MSL.
• An obstacle: 374 (295) tops out at 374 feet MSL and stands 295 feet above the ground.
• Two Class D areas side by side: Oxnard, also blue, sits right next to Camarillo, each with its own surface area.

Try it yourself: tap the markers on the real Camarillo excerpt on the VLOSready home page.

The maximum elevation figure (MEF)

Each quadrangle carries an MEF: the highest known feature in it, terrain or obstruction, rounded up to the next 100 feet and printed in thousands and hundreds of feet MSL. A 2 with a small 7 means nothing there is known to be above 2,700 feet MSL. It's MSL, not AGL, and it isn't the floor of anything.

Why this matters now

From October 26, 2026 the test adds chart excerpts that aren't in the testing supplement, so you'll read charts you've never seen. See the 2026 test changes.

Chart excerpts: FAA Los Angeles Sectional, 09-03-2026 edition. Not for navigation.