Part 107 Sectional Chart Questions After October 26, 2026: New Chart Images and How to Read Them

What changed in Part 107 chart questions on October 26, 2026

The FAA announced the change in its Airman Testing Community Advisory. The June 2026 edition gave October 27, the August edition corrected the date to October 26, and the September 2026 Special Edition repeats it:

Beginning October 26, 2026, the Instrument Rating Airplane (IRA) and Unmanned Aircraft General-Small (UAG) tests will include image-based questions not found in the test supplements.

The advisory describes "clearer, up-to-date images from the latest Sectional Charts," sourced from FAA VFR charts and IFR low-altitude charts, and its UAG examples both use sectionals. Three details matter for preparation:

• You can't preview them. Once an image is embedded in a question, the FAA treats it as part of the question, so "the specific images used in active test questions cannot be previewed."
• They look like a real chart excerpt. The advisory's UAG examples show a cropped piece of a named sectional with its edition dates, followed by an ordinary three-choice question. Both samples come from editions dated June 12 to August 7, 2025, so an excerpt on your test may be older than the chart in force that day: answer from the image, not from what you know about that airport today.
• The topics are familiar. The two published UAG examples ask about the airspace class at an airport and whether ATC authorization is needed, and about which frequency to use as the CTAF when a control tower isn't operating. Both are long-standing ACS knowledge elements.

So the knowledge tested hasn't changed. What changed is that you can no longer rely on having seen the exact figure before.

What stayed the same: the Part 107 testing supplement

The FAA's testing matrix lists the supplement for the UAG as FAA-CT-8080-2H, the Airman Knowledge Testing Supplement for Sport Pilot, Recreational Pilot, Remote Pilot, and Private Pilot. The FAA's supplements page dates it 2018, effective June 11, 2018, and posts it as a free PDF. PSI's bulletin says the test center supplies "the required supplement book."

The advisory says the date for removing printed supplements from test centers "has not yet been set," that the public will get "ample notice," and that until then candidates "will continue to have access to the testing supplement for their exam." It also says applicants will have any measuring tools a question needs, and that new on-screen tools will be announced well in advance.

In practice, expect both kinds of chart question on a test taken now: some that point you to a supplement figure, and some with the image on screen.

How to read airspace on a sectional chart

For a remote pilot, airspace on a chart comes down to one decision: can you fly here, and do you need ATC authorization first? 14 CFR 107.41 requires prior ATC authorization in Class B, Class C and Class D airspace, and "within the lateral boundaries of the surface area of Class E airspace designated for an airport." The FAA's Aeronautical Chart Users' Guide describes how each is drawn:

Read the figures carefully. On a Class B or C sector, a figure like 40 over 15 means 4,000 to 1,500 feet MSL, because the last two zeros are dropped. A floor marked SFC reaches the surface. Those figures are MSL, so compare a shelf's floor with the ground elevation below it before deciding whether a flight there would be inside it. Once full Part 107 prep opens, you'll be able to practice the Airspace content area on its own.

Special use airspace has its own colors. The Chart Users' Guide lists prohibited, restricted and warning areas in blue, and alert areas and military operations areas in magenta, with their altitudes, times of use and controlling agency in a table on the chart. 14 CFR 107.45 requires permission from the using or controlling agency to fly in a prohibited or restricted area. Military training routes are labeled IR or VR: four digits mean no segment above 1,500 feet AGL, three or fewer mean at least one segment above it.

Reading the airport data block

The airport label answers the tower and radio questions:

• Color. Airports with a control tower and their data are shown in blue. All others are magenta.
• CT and a frequency. The primary control tower frequency follows "CT."
• A star. It marks part-time operation; the tower frequencies table on the chart gives the hours.
• A circled C. It follows the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency. When a tower isn't operating, that's the frequency to monitor for local traffic.
• The numbers. Elevation in feet, then the length of the longest runway in hundreds of feet. "RP" followed by a runway number means a right traffic pattern for that runway.

An airport's airspace shape, its color and the star together tell you most of what a question needs: a blue airport inside a dashed blue line is a towered Class D airport, and a part-time tower means the airspace class can change when the tower closes, which the chart flags with a note. When one of these symbols keeps tripping you, AI Rescue, planned for full Part 107 prep, can restate an explanation in simpler terms or give you a memory trick.

Obstacles, terrain and maximum elevation figures

For a remote pilot, the useful chart numbers are often about height above ground:

• Obstacles. The Chart Users' Guide says sectionals typically show man-made obstacles more than 200 feet AGL (more than 299 feet AGL in yellow city areas). The top of the obstacle is printed in MSL, with the AGL height "in parentheses below the MSL elevation."
• Maximum elevation figures (MEF). Each quadrant bounded by 30 minutes of latitude and 30 minutes of longitude carries an MEF: the highest terrain or obstacle in it, rounded up to the nearest 100 feet, with the last two digits not shown.
• Contour lines. Basic contours on sectionals are 500 feet apart. Close lines mean steep terrain.

When a chart shows a tall obstacle near your work area, the altitude rule that applies is 14 CFR 107.51(b): no more than 400 feet AGL, unless you stay within a 400-foot radius of a structure and no higher than 400 feet above its top.

Practicing on current Part 107 sectional charts

Because the new questions use images from the FAA's latest charts rather than the 2018 supplement, practice on a current sectional too. Both FAA resources below are free:

1. Get a current sectional. The FAA's VFR Raster Charts page posts every sectional as a GeoTIFF file for public viewing. On October 27, 2026, the current editions are dated September 3, 2026, and the next ones October 29, 2026.
2. Keep the legend open. The FAA's Aeronautical Chart Users' Guide explains every VFR symbol. The edition linked on October 27, 2026 is dated July 9, 2026.
3. Drill one airport at a time. Pick an airport and answer, out loud: What airspace is it in? Is there a tower, and is it part-time? What's the CTAF? Would a flight here need authorization under 107.41? What's the tallest obstacle nearby, MSL and AGL?
4. Then work the supplement. Questions that refer you to FAA-CT-8080-2H remain possible while the printed supplement stays in test centers, so practice with both sources.

Rote recall still helps with the symbols themselves, and the flashcards planned for Part 107 prep drill airspace classes, METAR codes and the cloud-clearance limits. Airspace is about 20% of the test, roughly 12 questions, as the format and passing score guide shows.

Fitting Part 107 chart practice into your schedule

Drone forum threads about the test often mention sectional symbols, and the FAA's own data in the guide to how hard the Part 107 test is shows how thin the margin between an average score and the pass mark can be. A practical approach is short, frequent chart drills rather than one long session. Try the free Part 107 practice questions today, and slot two or three chart sessions a week into a schedule from the Part 107 study plan guide.