National Airspace System

The distinction to say precisely: Class B needs the words "cleared into"; Class C and D need only that two-way communications be established — meaning ATC used your call sign without a restriction.

• Class A, B, and C airspace areas
• All airspace within 30 NM of an appendix D section 1 airport, from the surface to 10,000 ft MSL (the Mode C veil)
• Above the ceiling and within the lateral boundaries of Class B or C, up to 10,000 ft MSL
• All airspace of the 48 contiguous states and D.C. at and above 10,000 ft MSL, excluding airspace at and below 2,500 ft AGL
• Surface to 10,000 ft MSL within a 10 NM radius of an appendix D section 2 airport, excluding airspace below 1,200 ft outside the surface area

Aircraft never certificated with an engine-driven electrical system, balloons, and gliders get carve-outs (91.215(b)(3), (b)(5)).

• Class B and C airspace areas
• Within 30 NM of an appendix D section 1 airport, surface to 10,000 ft MSL
• Above the ceiling and within the lateral boundaries of Class B or C, up to 10,000 ft MSL
• Class E in the 48 contiguous states and D.C. at and above 10,000 ft MSL, excluding airspace at and below 2,500 ft AGL
• Class E at and above 3,000 ft MSL over the Gulf of Mexico from the U.S. coastline out to 12 NM

Plus Class A under 91.225(a). Aircraft never certificated with an engine-driven electrical system, including balloons and gliders, are excepted in the airspace at 91.225(d)(4) and, with conditions, (d)(2) (91.225(e)).

Request an ATC authorized deviation from the facility having jurisdiction. The timing depends on what is broken:

• Operating with a working transponder but no Mode C — request may be made at any time
• Operating with an inoperative transponder to the airport of ultimate destination, including intermediate stops, or to a place where repairs can be made, or both — request may be made at any time
• Operating an aircraft not equipped with a transponder — request must be made at least one hour before the proposed operation (91.215(d))

That one-hour item is a favorite oral question, and it's also a real dispatch problem when you are ferrying an unequipped airplane.

Whenever operating an aircraft equipped with an operable transponder maintained per 91.413, while in the airspace of 91.215(b) or in all controlled airspace — including Mode C if installed — replying on the appropriate or assigned code, unless ATC directs otherwise because transmitting would jeopardize safe execution of ATC functions.

"All controlled airspace" is broader than most pilots remember: if it works, it is on.

With an ATC clearance, inside a surface area, you may operate with at least 1 SM flight visibility and clear of clouds (91.157). At night, the pilot must be instrument rated and the aircraft IFR-equipped.

The commercial answer is about when not to. SVFR is a legal tool that puts you a mile from cloud in a surface area with an unknown escape. Requesting it because a customer is waiting is exactly the external-pressure failure this checkride is testing. If the field is marked NO SVFR on the chart, the question doesn't arise.

• Prohibited — flight prohibited, period
• Restricted — invisible hazards; permission from the controlling agency required when active
• Warning — 3 NM or more off the coast, hazards equivalent to restricted, over international waters
• MOA — military training; VFR flight is permitted but exercise extreme caution
• Alert — high volume of training or unusual activity; both parties responsible for collision avoidance
• Controlled Firing Area — not charted, because activity stops when a spotter detects traffic
• National Security Area — voluntary avoidance requested, may be temporarily made prohibited

• Before: the Chart Supplement's SUA table, a Flight Service briefing, and a NOTAM check. TFRs are issued as FDC NOTAMs and appear with no notice, so the check must be immediately before departure.
• In flight: SUA status is one of the FIS-B products (PHAK ch. 13), the controlling agency can be raised by radio, and the nearest ATC facility can tell you whether a restricted area is hot.
• Practically: if you cannot confirm a restricted area is cold, treat it as hot and route around it. A MOA is legal to enter VFR; a hot restricted area is not.

Charted times and altitudes give you the published schedule — but published is not actual.

Special Air Traffic Rules and Special Flight Rules Areas are airspace where Part 93 imposes procedures beyond the ordinary class rules — specific routes, altitudes, frequencies, transponder codes, and in some cases mandatory training and flight plans.

The commercial obligation is simple to state and easy to fail: read the actual rule for the specific area before you go, not a summary. Requirements vary area to area, and some carry certificate action for a violation rather than a phone number. If your operation regularly touches one, the procedures belong in your briefing every single time.

Speed:

• Below 10,000 ft MSL — 250 KIAS
• Beneath a Class B shelf, or in a VFR corridor through Class B — 200 KIAS
• Within 4 NM of the primary airport of Class C or D at or below 2,500 ft AGL — 200 KIAS

Minimum safe altitudes:

• Anywhere — an altitude allowing an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface
• Congested area — 1,000 ft above the highest obstacle within a 2,000 ft horizontal radius
• Other than congested — 500 ft AGL, and not within 500 ft of any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure
• Open water or sparsely populated — not within 500 ft of any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure

91.119 matters more commercially than privately: pipeline patrol, photo missions, and banner tow all live near these numbers, and several of them operate under specific exceptions or waivers rather than by ignoring the rule.

• Sectional — the most common chart, scale 1:500,000 (1 inch = 6.86 NM, roughly 8 SM). Revised semiannually for most of the conterminous US.
• VFR Terminal Area Chart (TAC) — for flying in or near Class B, scale 1:250,000 (1 inch = 3.43 NM, roughly 4 SM). More detailed topographic display; revised semiannually except several Alaskan and Caribbean charts.
• World Aeronautical Chart (WAC) — scale 1:1,000,000 (1 inch = 13.7 NM, roughly 16 SM), revised annually. Symbols are the same as the sectional with minor exceptions.

The commercial catch is currency, not scale: check the sectional chart bulletin in the Chart Supplement for changes that postdate the chart's edition date. A current chart is not the same as complete information.

Class E is the one applicants fumble. Sectionals depict all locations of Class E with bases below 14,500 ft MSL; where no base is charted, Class E begins at 14,500 ft MSL, and it typically extends up to but not including 18,000 ft MSL. The charted base varies:

• Most areas — 1,200 ft AGL
• Many others — the surface or 700 ft AGL
• Some — a charted MSL altitude rather than an AGL one

Special use airspace is identified by letter and number:

• Prohibited — "P" plus a number (P-40)
• Restricted — "R" plus a number (R-4401); details on the back of the chart
• Warning — "W" plus a number (W-237); extends from 3 NM outward from the coast
• Alert — "A" plus a number (A-211)
• MOA — not numbered, named instead ("Camden Ridge MOA"), depicted on sectional, TAC, and en route low charts, with times of operation, altitudes, and controlling agency on the back of the sectional
• Controlled firing areas are not charted at all — they do not require a nonparticipating aircraft to change its flight path

TRSA is a solid black line with altitudes for each segment; the Class D portion inside it is a blue segmented line. Isogonic lines — connecting points of equal magnetic variation — are magenta (PHAK ch. 16).

No — they are separate rules, though 91.225(g) mirrors 91.215(d)'s deviation timing exactly. Request to the ATC facility having jurisdiction over the airspace:

• Inoperative ADS-B Out, continuing to the ultimate destination (including intermediate stops) or to a place where repairs can be made — the request may be made at any time (91.225(g)(1))
• Aircraft not equipped with ADS-B Out — request must be made at least 1 hour before the proposed operation (91.225(g)(2))

Separately, 91.225(f) requires that an aircraft equipped with ADS-B Out operate it in the transmit mode at all times, unless authorized by the FAA for a sensitive government mission or directed otherwise by ATC. Practically: a transponder deviation you were granted does not automatically cover ADS-B — request both — and an inoperative ADS-B system still runs through the 91.213 inoperative-equipment ladder in Task I.B.

• Military Training Routes — IR routes are flown IFR, VR routes VFR (and only with 5 SM visibility and ceilings of at least 3,000 ft). A four-digit designator means no segment above 1,500 ft AGL; a three-digit designator means at least one segment goes above 1,500 ft AGL. Expect traffic faster than 250 kt.
• TFRs (91.137) — issued as FDC NOTAMs; disaster areas, VIP movement, sporting events, space operations.
• TRSA — charted with a solid gray band; radar service is voluntary for VFR but participation is encouraged.
• Published VFR routes — transition, flyway, corridor, and Class B VFR routes that move VFR traffic around or through complex airspace; depicted on TACs.
• Parachute jump areas, national security areas, and ADIZ boundaries.
• Wildlife refuges and noise-sensitive areas — charted with a request to remain at least 2,000 ft above the surface. Not a rule, but flying commercially over one repeatedly is how an operator loses its access.

No — 800 ft AGL over a suburb almost certainly fails 91.119, regardless of the customer's expectation.

• Over a congested area the floor is 1,000 ft above the highest obstacle within a 2,000 ft radius, and "the subject building is short" does not help if a tower is inside the radius.
• Even outside congested areas, 91.119(a) requires an altitude permitting an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface, and orbiting is exactly where that judgment gets tested.
• Aerial photography or survey is a 119.1(e)(4)(iii) exception to Part 119 — but 119.1 says nothing about 91.119. The Part 119 exception makes the operation permissible; it does not lower the altitude floor.
• The legitimate paths are a higher altitude with a longer lens, a different aircraft, or a waiver. Not a lower orbit.

Three patterns, all schedule-driven:

1. The Class B or C shelf on a departure that ran late. A climb begun without checking the floor above you. Mitigation: brief the shelf altitudes as part of the takeoff briefing, and set an altitude alert or bug.
2. The TFR that appeared after the briefing. Mitigation: TFR check is the last item before engine start, every flight, no exceptions — and it is on the checklist so it survives being rushed.
3. The surface-area transit accepted on a frequency you never actually got a reply on. Two-way communications established means ATC used your call sign. "Aircraft calling, stand by" is not establishment, and entering on it is a violation.

The general mitigation is the one that generalizes: airspace boundaries are planned on the ground, briefed before takeoff, and confirmed by a chart in the air — never reconstructed from memory under time pressure.