VFR Sectional Chart Tips and Example Examiner Questions

Hello members. A presentation that you've been asking for, for quite some time. A lot of people have said, "Hey, when can you do something on VFR charts?" That's what I'm doing for you now, and we're going to break it down, we're going to use the iPad with ForeFlight and we're also going to use a sectional chart. I would say at this point in the game, you want to be versed in both. Just did a recent check ride, commercial and CFI, and two different examiners and they're still saying at this time, you still need the paper charts for the check ride.

VFR Sectional Chart Tips and Example Examiner Questions

May change in the future, will the paper charts ever go away? I don't know. Maybe at some point but as of right now, charts are hard to get. When you get close to check ride, make sure you get these things ahead of time on the CFI check ride, we call the examiner, because we realized a day or two before we were, it was going to expire like the day before the check ride and she had up-to-date ForeFlight, and we said, "Hey, they're on backorder, we tried to getting one. He said, "That's okay. One day we can make an exception for that. I understand they're hard to get."

 
She literally had tried getting one, so what are you going to do over time with this problem? I don't know. For right now, order these things ahead of time and have them until they say that you can use iPads, great. For right now, I would be studying and using both. First, I want to tell you how I studied back in the day. Here's the infamous notebook. The back cover's gone, I talk about this thing's beat up, I don't pull it out very much anymore. What I did when I was struggling to learn all this stuff, I took the legend, I cut it off an old sectional chart, and I taped it to the back cover of my notebook, so when I would sit down and study, I could easily just open it up, sit there, and study the legend.

 
That's one thing you're going to want to do is study the legend because there's so much on this chart and it is really, really confusing, so you have to practice with this. I'm going to go over as much of it as I can, what's a lot of the common things, kind of the what examiners ask on check rides, but you got to spend some time with this. You got to work through the legend. You got to sit down and practice with the sectional chart and we're going to show you that stuff. Anyway, that's what I did. Put the legend in the back of my notebook. First, let's go to this actual sectional chart itself. Every check ride I've done, examiner always says, "All right, well let's pull out the sectional chart.

 
Pretty much any check ride I've ever seen, here's what they do. They come in and go, "Okay, you are about right here, 700 feet, AGL, and you want to get in this little airport. Where are you at right there at 700?" Or whatever the case may be but they're going to give you scenarios, they're going to go out and they're going to say, "Right about here. You're at 1,100. What airspace are you in?" That's one exercise that I'm telling you you're going to want to sit down and do and just practice by yourself and just close your eyes and boom, like this, and think, okay, I'm going to look for a spot at 800 feet. I go down and look and figure out. It's going to be mainly inside or outside a class G is a big one. Every examiner is going to always ask you about class G inside the magenta surface to 700, outside the magenta surface to 1,200. They're going to ask that every single time.

 
Then another good one is there's so many different things on here to identify is you just pick a spot and find, go like that, and go, "Okay, what do I see there?" I'm looking at an antenna, I'm looking at [inaudible 00:03:46] long lines, just different areas around the map. Just put your pen down, go to it, and if you know what it is, great. If you don't know what it is, go to the legend and check it out. Study the legend, practice by just picking points on a map, then the next thing I want to point out to you is the legend's along the bottom, very important. You need to become familiar with this section down here along the bottom because this is special use airspace on sectional chart, restricted, it gives you the information about the certain different special areas, who to contact, times that are open, frequencies, so on and so forth.

 
Spend a little time going over that, too, not just the legend on the front, but also along the bottom. Depending whether you're going for private, commercial, CFI, the more the higher level rating you're going to, the better you're going to need to know these sectional charts. Of course, the big one they always ask, who do I know it's valid? Well you have to look at the front. This is an old expired chart I'm using for training, but you can see right in the front effective from, like this one's April 2nd 2015 to 17th of September, 2015. You always have to know is the chart valid? They're always going to ask you that every single time.

 
Next we'll go to the iPad and we'll pull the screen up and look at some stuff. Okay. First one of my tricks for breaking down the airspaces, and I've used this for years and I really like it, I've even had 135 check rides when I flying EMS. Even on a 135 check ride, you're an experienced pilot, they still pull out the VFR chart and they'll start asking you about airspace. You're learning as the new pilot, every rating you're going to need it, your 135 check rides out in the real world you're going to need it, airspace is tough to learn. We got to just keep going over it and over it and over it. I showed to this a check airman one time and it was a really, really tough one, and he really liked this. He gave me, he's, "Yeah, I've never seen that before but I really like that."

 
To break down the controlled airspaces, not A, because A is not on a chart, A is 18,000 and above, this is for B, C, D, and then we'll find an E in a little bit, but for the towered airports. When you think of Chicago, this makes sense. You've got B, bravo, big is O'Hare, you've got C, Charlie, Midway, and then you have a smaller class D down here, Gary. Most people are familiar with Chicago, so I like using this one again because it's a quick way to break down the towered airports. Let's zoom in just a little bit. I'm amazed that even at add-on pilots, people show up and do a rating, and this is the first thing I do when they're an add-on pilot and they tell me they're ready to go and they're good, I pull out a VFR chart and start asking them airspace questions.

 
You'll be amazed at how many people over time just aren't very good with charts anymore, especially if you're an instrument pilot, get a lot of fixed wing instrument guys or girls that they've been flying instruments for a long time, they come to do an add-on helicopter, so you go start asking them airspace stuff, they haven't flown VFR in a long time. They're always on an instrument flight plan, looking at instrument charts, their VFR skills go out the window. This is one that they mess up is the class airspaces, especially around a congested airspace.

 
Again, O'Hare, we know it's one of the largest airports in the world, big, blue, busy. Right here is Midway, most people have heard of Midway, as well, not quite as big as O'Hare, still a pretty good size airport, it's a class Charlie. Then down here to class delta at Gary, still has a lot of jet traffic, it's in the Chicago area, still kind of a busy airport and kind of a big airport, but it's just not near as big as Midway, so then that's an example of a class delta. There you go. B, C, D. O'Hare, Midway, and Gary.

 
These are things you really do got to spend some time with and really dissect these for the areas you're going to be in for the sectional charts you're going to be using on a check ride because you know the examiner's going to go to one of these areas that's complicated and he's going to ask you some questions about this stuff and you have to look at where certain airspaces overlie other airspace. Here you got Bravo, then you got Charlie, you got G down by the surface, so you got to spend a little bit of time going through these and really kind of get good with it, and you're going to do it through practice, sit and working with it. It's really the only way that you're going to get good at it. Let's just pick on class B for a minute.

 
Let's slide in here to O'Hare and let's check out the information about O'Hare. No SVFR, that means no fixed wing can get a special VFR. Can you still ask for a special VFR as a helicopter? Yes, you can. Will they give it to you? Depends on the airspace. O'Hare, I don't know, that's pretty congested airspace and they have routes set up and whether you're going to get it with O'Hare, that really depends. Here's your [inaudible 00:09:04] for the airport, Chicago O'Hare, ORD, control tower information, ATIS, elevation. Sea ll these crazy runways here, it's marked in blue, these towered, blue, big, busy. Notice these red flags? Those are reporting points, so when you're going to go into that area, you're going to want to be familiar with those because if you're talking to approach or talking to a tower, they may very well reference one of these red flags.

 
Mode C transpondering out here, they like asking you what that is. Another big difference on the bravo, Charlie, and delta, you can see the bravo being big has all these layers. It's the upside down wedding cake. Charlie is the same way but it's not as many layers, it's smaller, and then class delta is only one layer, more of a cylinder shape. Next, I want to move out to like a class G area, so let's just go back here to my home. Class G, inside and outside the magenta circle. Here, class G, inside the circle from the surface up to 700. Outside this circle, it's the surface to 1,200. A lot of class G airports are just, they have their own single circle like that, and that's a little easier to determine when you go to a bigger area, let me find one.

 
Whoa, just move here to the north to South Bend. If you look at this one, look how this magenta goes up and around and here and it's going this way and how it keeps moving around these airports. Class G outside this magenta, all the way around, surface to 1,200. When you're on the inside, this whole thing, it's class G service to 700. I don't know why this one's so difficult, I'm sure I struggled with it in the beginning like everybody else does, but I can just tell you the class G, it really is a problem, and it's a problem for a lot of people, brand new, add on pilots, I'm amazed over and over how many people screw up the class G inside and outside.

 
Since we're here, I see a class echo airport. Let's check that out. There's an example of a class echo. Has a dotted magenta line around the outside. That is a class echo airport. Examiner question on this one, they love asking about class E. Okay? We know the cloud clearance and visibilities are different between class G and class E. Okay? If you want to get into a class E airport and the weather is below a VFR minimum, the question is can you get in there? The examiner is going to post something you're out there, you want to get in there, you'll say like, Ceiling's 900 and 2 miles visibility and you want to get in there. Can you get in there? The answer is no, which is kind of a wrong answer but a good answer because it's a safe answer.

 
You can't just go busting in there. Can you get in? You can but you have to get a clearance from the controlling agency, which could be an airport nearby. This one you could probably call South Bend is probably going to be the closest approach. Because South Bend's right here, class Charlie. You can talk to them and ask for a special VFR to get into that airport. Now you'll see these class echoes out in the middle of nowhere and examiners like to go, "Well you're out in the middle of nowhere. There's no approach. There's no big airport nearby. What are you going to do?" When you see one out in the middle of nowhere, look for a small box somewhere near that class echo with the letters RCO, and that stands for remote communications outlet. By using that frequency, you can talk to the controlling agency to get permission to get into that class echo.

 
Super, super, super important. While we're on the subject. Basic VFR, what is it? 3 miles and 1,000 feet. That's just basic VFR for any field to be VFR, it has to be 3 miles and 1,000 feet. Amazing how many people screw up basic VFR. Believe me, it, happens over and over and over again. Be familiar with this is right here. Compass rows, and that compass rose is around a VOR. I'm going to grab something that can use as kind of a gigantic pencil for getting lost or for finding a quick direction.

 VFR Sectional Chart Tips and Example Examiner Questions

Imagine this is a great big thick pencil. If you're looking at your chart in the aircraft and you're trying to figure maybe a diversion, he's giving you a diversion on the check ride, and you want to figure out a heading real quick in your mind, take your pencil and if you say you're wanting to go from here to here, just put your pencil to get that angle, slide it over here, and you can go, "Okay, that's about a 060 heading to get the direction that I want. A quick idea, compass rose is good to use to help find an actual direction in number of degrees.

 
Information for your VOR is right here in this box. Going to tune in the VOR on this frequency, you're going to identify it by listening to the identifier, which is going to be a long dash, small dot dot dash dot dot dash. That's how you check to verify VOR. South Bend approach. A lot of times for a class Charlie, you will see the approach frequency you need to use when approaching a class Charlie, and a lot of times, they'll have two different ones. Here's a box down below, there's also a box above, so depending on the direction you're going to be entering that class Charlie, there could be a different frequency depending which way you're coming in.

 
Sometimes they are not marked, so if they're not marked on this sectional chart, you can go back to the legend on the sectional chart, you can use maybe your iPad if the frequencies are on there, you could look it up in the AFD, airport facility directory that is now called what? Chart supplement I think is what it's called, they've changed that. Okay. Next let's talk about picking checkpoints on a cross country trip. Let me zoom this out a little bit or zoom it in. Here's a line on a recent trip we did and when you're picking your checkpoints, you get good at checkpoints with practice. You'll find out when you're doing cross country planning and you're picking your checkpoints along your route, sometimes what you think might be a great checkpoint turns out to be a rotten one and sometimes things that you don't think will be good would be a really good one.

 VFR Sectional Chart Tips and Example Examiner Questions

Here is a town. Okay? Towns are usually pretty good. Here's railroad tracks. I like using, I like using rivers. Lakes and ponds. Those are always really good checkpoints to use. When you're picking your checkpoints on your cross country planning for and using these charts, make your best guess on what you think is going to be a good check, a checkpoint, and then when you get out there and start flying it, you'll figure out pretty quick whether it was a good checkpoint or whether it was a bad checkpoint. Always remember, if you're looking for your checkpoint and you can't find it, climb up 500 feet. It's amazing the difference of what you can see just by increasing your altitude by 500 feet.

 
Antennas. Antenna is a big deal for us. Flying into antennas, flying into wires, a lot of fatalities. You got to be aware of the towers that are along your route, what are the tallest towers along your route. Towers are everywhere and I can't help but think about the king videos like let's use this for an example. There's a tower right here, zoom in on it, and as corny as this, I'll never Martha King saying when you're looking at the tower, you look at these numbers, this is what yo8ull read on your altimeter as you're flying along and you hit the top of the tower. This number right here, 260, that's the number of feet that you're going to fall to the ground. Kind of a crude deal but I remember that and it's always stuck with me.

 
Military operations areas. Look at this mess here. 12 mile east MOA, hilltop MOA. A lot of times in a helicopter, we're low enough that we're not even going to be bothered by it, but you're still going to want to be aware of what the MOAs are, when they're operating, make sure that you're going to be below that military operations area. The subject is huge, I'm just trying to pick out things I'm thinking of that I've heard examiners ask. These small airports, what's that little star means? That means it has a beacon. What are the little tick marks mean? The tick marks mean that that airport has services. It really is amazing the amount of things that are on these sectional charts. I can remember starting out and just sitting down and being overwhelmed.

 VFR Sectional Chart Tips and Example Examiner Questions

Even today, if I go to fly in an area that I'm not familiar with, it can really suck. I mean, if it's my home area, I know the area and it's not hard for me to figure it out, but if I go fly somewhere else, I have to pull a chart out and sit and look at it and go, "Oh, yeah. What are those?" Go back and look up things. Happens all the time. Nobody remembers everything, but you want to know the basics, you want to be good with it. You want to know how to quickly find the answer for what that thing it is you're looking at on that chart. I hope that helps. I could go on and on and on for the next hour, picking stuff, finding things, showing you what they are. That's a quick rundown on how to prepare, how to study, what examiners do with pulling out sectional chart and sticking down a pen, studying what the legend, sitting down, open it up, just picking a spot and just going, "What's that? What's that?"

 
Hopefully that helps. Again, this is the first one I've really done on charts in all these years. A lot of you members have asked for it. Hopefully this is a good starter. Put your comments down below, let us know what you think of this one, all the other new content coming in, the new layout of the private pilot sit,e we're going to be organizing the commercial and CFI section, as well. We have a lot of stuff going on that's really, really cool. I'm having a blast.

 
Let us know what you think about this, what else you want like to see added to VFR charts because I'm sure there's going to be a lot of feedback and people are going to say, "Hey, why didn't you cover this, why didn't you cover that?" This is a quick rundown on how to study, how to kind of prepare, how to work with it, kind of expect how examiner is going to ask you questions, and some different tips about sectional charts." Put your comments down below and we'll see you in the next video.

 VFR Sectional Chart Tips and Example Examiner Questions

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