How To Read A VFR Sectional Chart - MzeroA Flight Training

hey everyone Jason shopper here of m0a calm and myself and the mga dot-com team are so proud of our new private pilot online groundswell it's me coming out very soon depending on when you're actually watching this it may already be out now a lot of love has gone into this from animations to great in-flight footage to awesome in studio footage as well and I want to start sharing with you some sneak peeks into the course and inside some of my favorite videos and the team's favorite videos as well so this one is a longer video than a typical Emma's orient comm video but it takes you through and helps you get a better understanding of VFR sectional charts and if you love this video you're gonna love all the courses and all the videos inside the new online ground school there's going to be a link in the video description below or above this video for a 2-week no-strings-attached free trial of our course whichever course you want private instrument commercial doesn't matter that you can check out there so we'll let the ground school video play and afterwards go ahead and take action on that free trial this learn more about VFR a sectional charts you can consider this lesson really like map reading for pilots this lesson by the way is gonna be significantly longer than some of the previous lessons we've gone through it also includes a link for a download of our VFR charts symbology underneath of this video so go ahead and take a moment to download that so you haven't you could have it separately on the iPad it might be a bit much to print it's quite a big document but on an iPad or even in a separate window would benefit you because this is something you're gonna reference through the rest of lesson 10 now now it doesn't matter by the way if you intend to use paper or digital charts in the cockpit this symbology is the same so you need to know this information either way this lesson builds on the previous lesson of airspace as we put it all together now on the sectional chart this is a foundational lesson I guarantee you'll be asked on aeronautical charts on every checkride you take in addition to the knowledge tests let's begin with the facts you need to know for starters visual flight rules or VFR sectional charts are the primary means of navigation we use them to find airports avoid special use airspace find control tower frequencies determine what airspace we're entering we use them to find out what frequency to contact the tower on or to get the automated weather as well there's a lot of information on these charts and they cover the entire United States now the VFR sectional charts are valid for six months on the frontal chart is a date shown when the chart came out and when it expires it appears on both paper and iPad presentations the digital charts well so let's say the VFR sectional chart came out on December 18th it'll be good until June 18th once has expired it's a good idea to take it out of your flight bag assuming you're using paper charts right across bold letters for ground training only because you can still use it for practice but we don't want to navigate off an expired chart because things change radio frequencies even airspace can change you don't want to be flying with bad information the charts are named by the way for the largest airports really within its boundaries on the further chart there's a map showing the continental United States with a chart you're holding actually shade out so you can kind of see which sectional chart we have now a sectional chart covers a good bit of airspace so when the chart is unfolded it expands about five feet across so you want to practice fold in an unfolding so it doesn't take over the cockpit as well when the chart is folded properly one side has a designation plates are in the name of the sectional the issue and the expiration dates and the other side the legend showing the symbology similar to what I had you download now if you're using those paper charts you want to make time to purchase that new chart when the new one comes out with iPads it's even easier though you just download the new one you'll get a push notification and says sign it download the new chart so let's know take a look at what the FA calls the VFR chart user's guide I recommend you download this also a link that is well as you can download free PDF from the FAA what you're looking at here is the symbology for the airports that you'll see on the charts now you can follow along I say use the arrow to really point out what we're talking about this opportunity to make sure this is plane in full screen so you can really see everything now let's start with the basics on the chart blue-blue airports are for towered airports magenta that Airport is magenta is for a non towered airport on the sectional chart will see tab marks on the circle designating the airport now those tabs that you see around that Airport tell us that there services available at the airport now more often than not this means fuel is available at the airport at least part of the time tabs around usually mean fuel available now when the runway is actually longer than eight thousand sixty nine feet it's shown with lines drawing the runway out rather than fit it in the circle you ask why eight thousand sixty nine feet that won't be on a test or anything like that this is more just your fun fact for the day how they print it based on pixels they print it to scale so a smaller runway looks smaller in that circle larger runway it looks bigger that circle so it's somewhat to scale well based on their scale a runway that's greater than eight thousand sixty nine feets using their scale wouldn't fit inside that circle so then break out of the circle and just physically draw the runway there now continuing to look at that Airport the star on top of the circle there that tells us the airport has a rotating beacon now rotating beacon is gonna help us identify the airport at night let's move on now to airport grouping information now this is the detailed information on the airports that's going to appear on the sectional chart over the right side of the page you had the legend that's gonna walk you through everything example F SS that means there is a flight service station there at the airport the flight service station is where we get our weather briefings the flight service station also processes our flight plans beneath that we see the phrase no s VFR which stands for special VFR no special VFR meaning that is flying in limited visual conditions that's not allowed that airport most likely because the airspace just too congested to allow something like special VFR we see the name of the airport we also see the common traffic advisory frequency we can tell that because we have the letters C T next to that frequency well that tells us there is a control tower in this case it reads one one eight two point three which really tells us the tower frequency is one one eight point three zero right they drop that zero off at the end they're all tower frequencies you need to know have five digits it's a the zero is kind of it's left off because it's implied sort of like how we access a website no one types in www.simpleandsensational.com 10 C of the lights if we see the letters RP next to the runway that tells us turns in the pattern for a particular runway R to the right because our P stands for a right pattern you can learn more about that in the US charts supplement to see which runways or or when that applies here now let's take a look at how to identify electronic means of navigation they're gonna appear on the sectional chart VHF omnidirectional radios more commonly known as vor s are identified with this blue compass rose and rectangular box that gives you the frequency to actually listen to the vor the actual vor itself kind of looks like a hex bolt as you can see and if they have dist measuring equipment DME they have that hex bolt in the box as well now if a Vortech if it's considered a vortac which is essentially an old military vor this symbol is shaped kind of more like a roman shield in a way some vo ours are located on airports others are set off away from airports we're learning more about vor s and navigating to vor s in a future lesson but this is just to introduce them how they appear on the sectional chart now we have something called victor airways those are like our highways in the sky you learn about those a few lessons back remember they travel from vor to vor vor s by the way have a five-digit frequency the zero again is always left off where's nice to kind just know it's there just like with our voice frequencies now the name of the vor and the Morris code identifier that series of dots and dashes is also given that you don't need to know Morris code to be a pilot here and you're gonna listen to them we're gonna talk more about that when we get to the vor so you'll be able to tell a difference in a dot and a dash I promise now continuing on here on the right side we see these magenta and really kinda looks like a flower in a way and there's a three number designation well these flowers are actually symbology for what's known as a non-directional beacon we're gonna call it an NDB now ndb's just being honest with you our 1930s technology its modulation radio and it's very very quickly being phased out right it's kind of like payphones and everything else as technology changes we face now it's so much so the FAA is actually said that when these ndb's break we're no longer fixing them no one's making parts to fix them anymore so slowly over time these will be completely faded out now to use an NDB in the airplane your airplane must have an automatic direction finder which is in a DF your aircraft may not even have an ADF so ndb's may be of little or no you to you we're still gonna talk about them though in a future lesson now airspace decoding is key for the sectional charts it's going to be the same across your sectional chart as well as a tack chart which we'll talk about in a future lesson here you'll learn about that one we'll read about some of the others here let's look at our airspace this should be a quick recap Class B airspace is shown in blue class Charlie airspace that's solid magenta line class Delta airspace dashed blue line we just learned about that in that previous lesson those improper fractions well that's associate with our airspace dimensions as well class Eko airspace and was that tough one we covered a little while ago well let's also depict it so we can identify whether it starts at 700 or 1200 based on our domestic enroute or class echo transition areas here now also class echo airspace but still those lines those blue lines those highways in the sky remember those those our victor airways and therefore our IFR traffic and I know we're flying VFR but even on a VFR day there's still someone out there flying IFR and operating on those IFR routes we wouldn't want to be vigilant our cross-country flights because we're just flying there for fun but someone might be on those highways in the sky so important to note when we're flying past that we don't want to be you know the the guy who's playing frog or going across these these highways in the skies without looking at knowing what's coming here and speaking of things that can hurt you by the way here's some symbology we really need to know for special use airspace to help you avoid it this airspace by the way is color coded and it really spells it out for you prohibited airspace restricted warning areas these are all shown with these blue hash marks now magenta hash marks are used for alert areas and moas or military operation areas the solid thin Magette the line here that's our mode C veil which we've spoken about and also has some frequencies around it the controlling agency for any airspace if appropriate to contact them now that we're aware of the samal adji let's take a look at an actual sectional chart and practice decoding the information we're heading to the Ocala Airport where I do a lot of flying Ocala International Taylor field then the three-letter identifier Oh C F by looking at the sectional chart we can see that the Ocala airport is Class D airspace Class D airspace has a control tower we know that because it's two picked in blue we can also read the control tower frequency is one one nine point two five the star next to that tells us the tower is part time the letter is C in the circle tells us the frequency for the tower is also the common traffic advisory frequency meaning when that part time tower closes I still broadcast like a pilot controlled Airport on that frequency we can also see the automated terminal information system or the ADIS frequency it's the frequency it gives us our weather beneath that the number 90 it tells us the airport feel elevation is 90 feet above sea level that's important because very often traffic pattern altitudes a thousand feet above airport elevation so in this case we'd be flying the traffic pattern at 1,100 feet 1,100 feet MSL the letter L with the asterisks tells us there's a lighting limitation it could be some experimental lighting the FAA is testing but more often than not we know it as pilot controlled lighting which means you actually use your microphone switch to activate the lights and the lighting intensity the next number 74 tells us the longest runway at the Ocala Airport measures seven thousand four hundred feet and the last number one two three dot zero is our Unicom frequency Unicom stands for universal can education frequency which we would use to contact the FBO the fixed-base operator on the field to request fuel now we can learn a lot about the region we're flying in by studying that sectional chart we see a lot of magenta circles on the sectional chart which tells me there's a lot of pilot controlled non-towered airports in the area several of them by the way are private airports those are indicated with the letter R in the circle the R stands for restricted most often the private airports are grass strips and you cannot land at a private Airport without prior permission unless it's an emergency and you have to be ready to explain yourself when you land we can see we have a military operations area and a restricted area near the Ocala Airport this tells me we're likely to see some military traffic in and out of the area remember they are a lot faster flying than we are so it'll be extra careful when operating near their airspace if the MOA or the restricted area is in use or hot well we don't fly in a hot restricted area you can fly in a hot military operations area but it's on a you know you decide kind of basis you cannot fly in restricted airspace when it's hot but I could fly through a military operations area with my head on the swivel when it is active now when we start doing our night flights this will be important the sectional chart shows us cities and towns below us and they're actually shown in yellow here this is important because on those night flights you'll be amazed at how accurate the shapes of those cities appear because when it's dark the lit outline of the city is what's prominent in the more rural areas you'll see the name of the community next to in a circle next to it here here we can see Candler the town there's this tiny town actually depending on what part of the country you're in the rural areas stand out because if there's a number of large barge or grain silos or farming right like if we're a Midwest farming community or Pacific Northwest small timber towns look like combination of Matchbox cars and blue tarps right well the white line here tells us that there's a terminal area chart in the Ocala area as well like I said we're gonna learn more about what that terminal area chart means in the next lesson here the sectional chart shows us the frequency box for the Ocala vortac that frequency to receive the vor is one 13.7 zero or Channel 84 if we're flying in our military aircraft which uses a different radio the three level letter identifier for the vor and the Morse code which we use to identify it so we before we can really trust it for navigation to make sure it's actually working the number on the top left side of the box it's the frequency for Gainesville radio this is the folks we open and close our flight plan with now those upside-down V shapes on the sectional chart well those are obstructions they could be water towers or cell phone towers you're just simply TV antennas the top number shows us the height of the object the number of beneath in parentheses shows the height above the ground you can remember this by thinking it this way the top number is what your altimeter will read if you hit the top of it the bottom number is how far you'll fall MSL versus AGL right now this is a quick shot here of the class Bravo airspace over Orlando we know this is class Bravo why because of those heavy blue lines Bravo means busy we need permission to enter the airspace we need to hear the magic words cleared in the class Bravo airspace we can see the shelves of the Bravo marked with our improper fractions we can also see there more obstructions located a little east of the airport those towers with a little lightning bolts coming off them indicate the obstruction has a light at the top of it for your homework get a hold on a sectional chart and if you don't have a current one you can use the chart users guide or I'll give you some websites here in a bit and go through it and see if you can correctly identify things on the if you don't have access to a chart you go to a website like skyvector dot-com skyvector com go to your local area and you can see VFR sectional charts for your local area and start to find some symbols you don't realize and then you go ahead and head down and look at the chart users guide look at the the legend look at the symbols and see what you're going to find and learn and discover in your local area don't trust me you're going to want to spend a lot of time with the sectional chart I mean when you're on the ground or whether you're in the cockpit you want to spend the time on the ground because in the cockpit if you have that map out all five feet of it right it can be a little daunting to try to learn everything here whether you choose to use paper or an iPad I want you to become a master of this here you're hurling to the sky at a hundred knots I don't want you fumbling around with a chart or with an iPad I want you to master up on the ground the next lesson real look at the tack chart which is kind of like a blown-up version of busier airspace on a sectional chart I wrote the Private Pilot blueprint with the intention of if I could do my flight training over what I wish someone would have told me I want that book to be yours for free all I ask is that you pay ship it visit Private Pilot blueprint comm to get your free copy

Channel: MzeroA Flight Training

Views: 305,616

Keywords: VFR Flying, VFR Sectional Chart, Student Pilot, Cross Country Flying, Flight Planning, MzeroA Flight Training

Id: NEp1K-TCmD8

Length: 21min 25sec (1285 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 30 2019