Updated October 2026
A sectional chart is the FAA's standard VFR map: 1:500,000 scale, about 6.86 nautical miles to the inch, revised every 56 days, showing terrain, landmarks, airports, airspace, navaids and obstructions. Van Nuys sits on the Los Angeles sectional, and for the busy middle of the basin the FAA also prints the Los Angeles Terminal Area Chart at twice the scale.
Reading one is a skill you use on every flight and the examiner tests on every checkride. Here is the legend in the order you need it, then the chart around Van Nuys, piece by piece.
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What A Sectional Is And How Often It Changes (56 Days)
The FAA calls sectionals the primary navigational reference for VFR pilots, built for slow and medium-speed aircraft, and AIM paragraph 9-1-5 sets the revision cycle at 56 days. The edition date is printed in the margin. An expired chart may be missing a new tower, a moved boundary or a new obstruction. Changes between editions come out as NOTAMs, so a current chart is the start of the briefing, not the end of it.
Three companions matter in Los Angeles. The Terminal Area Chart shows the Class B area at 1:250,000. On the back of the Los Angeles TAC is a VFR Flyway Planning Chart, which suggests routes and altitudes around the heaviest traffic and is marked not for navigation. The Chart Supplement holds what no chart has room for: runway details, frequencies and local procedures.
| Product | Scale | Revised | Use It For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sectional | 1:500,000, about 6.86 nm per inch | Every 56 days | Cross-country planning and navigation |
| Terminal Area Chart | 1:250,000, about 3.43 nm per inch | Every 56 days | Class B detail, the LAX Special Flight Rules Area, local checkpoints |
| VFR Flyway Planning Chart | Same area as the TAC | Printed on the TAC | Planning a route around busy airspace; not for navigation |
| Chart Supplement | Not a chart | Every 56 days | Runways, frequencies, tower hours and local notes |
Airport Symbols And Data Blocks
Color tells you the first thing. A blue airport symbol has a control tower and a magenta one does not. Van Nuys is blue, and so are Burbank and Camarillo. Hard-surfaced runways are drawn inside the symbol in their real layout, so Van Nuys shows two parallel lines running roughly north and south. Small ticks around the symbol mean fuel and other services are available during normal hours.
Beside the symbol sits the data block. Read it top to bottom:
| Element | What It Tells You | At Van Nuys |
|---|---|---|
| Name and identifier | The airport and its three- or four-character code | VAN NUYS (VNY) |
| CT and a frequency | Control tower frequency; a star means part-time | Tower open 6:00 AM to 10:45 PM |
| ATIS | The recorded weather and runway broadcast | Listen before calling ground |
| Elevation | Field elevation in feet MSL | About 802 feet |
| L | Runway lighting; a star beside it means a limitation listed in the Chart Supplement | Lit |
| Runway figure | Longest runway in hundreds of feet | 80, for the 8,001-foot 16R/34L |
| Circled C | The common traffic advisory frequency | Used after the tower closes |
We do not print the frequencies here on purpose. They change, and the current chart and Chart Supplement are the only sources to fly from.
Airspace Depiction: Blue, Magenta, Dashed, Vignette
Solid blue lines are Class B. Around LAX they draw the shelves, and each segment carries two numbers stacked like a fraction, ceiling over floor in hundreds of feet MSL: 100 over 50 is a shelf from 5,000 to 10,000 feet. Solid magenta is Class C, which is how Burbank's rings to the east of us appear. Dashed blue is Class D, with its ceiling in a small bracketed figure in hundreds of feet MSL. A minus sign in front of that figure means up to but not including that altitude.
Dashed magenta is a Class E surface area. A soft magenta band means Class E starts at 700 feet AGL on its shaded side, and a soft blue band means 1,200 feet AGL. Where nothing is drawn, Class E in most areas begins at 1,200 feet AGL with Class G beneath it. Class A is never drawn; it starts at 18,000 feet MSL everywhere over the lower 48. Our airspace classes guide covers what each class requires, and the Class E airspace page explains the floors.
The Van Nuys Class D runs from the surface to but not including 3,000 feet MSL within a 4.3-mile radius, with cut-outs for Burbank's Class C and for a small circle around Whiteman. A thin circle 30 nautical miles from LAX marks the Mode C veil. Inside it, Part 91 Appendix D, Section 1 applies the transponder and ADS-B Out rules from the surface to 10,000 feet MSL, so every flight from Van Nuys needs both.
Obstructions, Maximum Elevation Figures And Terrain Colors
Each quadrangle between the ticked lines of latitude and longitude carries a large number in thousands and hundreds of feet MSL: the Maximum Elevation Figure. The FAA Safety Team explains how it is found. Take the highest known feature in the quadrangle, terrain or obstruction, round it up to the next 100 feet, then add 100 to 300 feet. The result can leave as little as 101 feet of clearance. It is a planning number for the highest thing in the box, not a safe altitude.
Obstructions carry two numbers: the top in feet MSL in bold, and the height above the ground in parentheses beneath it. A cluster of towers gets a group symbol, and flash marks on a symbol mean high-intensity lights. Around the basin the antenna farms on the ridges, Mount Wilson above Pasadena among them, are the obstacles to know about.
Terrain is shaded in bands of color, from green on the lowest ground through tan to brown on the highest, with contour lines and spot elevations on top. On the Los Angeles sectional the San Gabriels to the north-east and the Santa Susanas to the north-west stand out clearly against the Valley floor. The tint shows you the shape of the ground. The MEF gives you the worst case.
Navaids, Airways And VFR Waypoints
VORs are drawn with a compass rose aligned to magnetic north, which makes the rose a quick tool for measuring a course, and a box nearby gives the name, frequency, identifier and Morse code. Victor airways run between them as light blue lines. One local procedure is tied to a VOR: the LAX Special Flight Rules Area is flown on the Santa Monica VOR's 132° radial under 14 CFR 93.95. Our VOR navigation guide covers tracking radials.
Visual checkpoints are small magenta flags with a name, usually a landmark that controllers use for position reports. VFR waypoints are named GPS points for VFR pilots, with five-letter identifiers beginning VP, so you can load them into a GPS. Both matter around Los Angeles, where reporting points tend to be lakes, passes and freeway interchanges rather than navaids.
Special Use Airspace And The LA TFR Hot Spots
Special use airspace is drawn with hatched borders: blue for prohibited, restricted and warning areas, magenta for military operations areas and alert areas. Each carries an identifier, and a table in the chart margin lists its altitudes, times of use and controlling agency. Offshore warning areas lie off the coast beyond Point Mugu, and a large block of restricted airspace over the Mojave, north of the San Gabriels, guards the military test ranges. A restricted area is not closed all the time, but you need to know it is inactive before you cross it, from the margin table, Flight Service or a NOTAM.
Most temporary flight restrictions never appear on a paper chart, because they come and go faster than a 56-day cycle. The ones you are most likely to meet here: 3-nautical-mile circles over Dodger Stadium, SoFi Stadium, the Coliseum, the Rose Bowl and Angel Stadium on game days, and the permanent circle over Disneyland. Add presidential visits and fire season over the hills. Our guide to NOTAMs and TFRs covers all of them.
The Los Angeles Sectional And Terminal Area Chart Around Van Nuys
Put a finger on Van Nuys and most of the system is within a few inches. The blue airport symbol with its two parallel runways. The dashed blue Class D ring with its bites taken out for Burbank and Whiteman. Burbank's solid magenta rings next door. The blue Class B shelves stepping down toward LAX to the south. The Santa Monica Mountains in brown between the Valley and the sea, and the Sepulveda Basin off the south end of the field. North-west, beyond the Santa Susanas, the open ground of the Simi Valley practice area, where our students fly their first lessons.
Switch to the TAC for anything inside the Class B. At twice the scale it shows the shelves clearly, the SFRA across LAX with its 1201 squawk and its 3,500- and 4,500-foot altitudes, the charted transition routes that need a clearance, and many more checkpoints. If you fly the SFRA, 93.95 says the pilot shall have a current Los Angeles Terminal Area Chart in the aircraft. We teach the chart first, then the radio, then the corridors, and our Los Angeles airspace guide walks through each route.
Paper Vs ForeFlight: What The Checkride Expects
Part 91 has no general rule that makes a VFR pilot carry a sectional. What 14 CFR 91.103 does require is that you become familiar with all available information concerning the flight before it starts. The one Los Angeles exception is the SFRA rule above.
The checkride is a different matter. The private pilot ACS expects you to plan a cross-country to the first fuel stop, explain it, and use an electronic flight bag properly if you use one, and it accepts a computer-generated plan. Expect the examiner to point at a symbol and ask what it means, and to ask you to find your position on the chart in flight. Our private pilot oral exam guide shows how those questions are built.
Our advice: learn on paper, fly with both, and keep a current paper chart or a second device in the bag. ForeFlight for student pilots covers the app settings that matter. A flat battery over the Santa Clara River valley is a poor moment to start learning the legend. The skills that use the chart in flight are on our page on pilotage and dead reckoning.
Related Reading
- Pilotage and dead reckoning: using the chart in flight, with a worked nav log.
- Airspace classes explained: what each color on the chart asks of you.
- Class E airspace: the 700-foot and 1,200-foot floors.
- Flying in Los Angeles airspace: the Class B, the corridors and Van Nuys.
- NOTAMs and TFRs explained: what the chart does not show.
Sectional Chart FAQ
How Often Are Sectional Charts Updated?
Every 56 days, under the schedule in AIM paragraph 9-1-5. Terminal Area Charts and the Chart Supplement run on the same 56-day cycle. Check the edition date in the margin before every cross-country, and check NOTAMs for changes issued between editions.
What Scale Is A Sectional Chart?
1:500,000, which is about 6.86 nautical miles to the inch. A Terminal Area Chart is 1:250,000, about 3.43 nautical miles to the inch, so the same distance takes up twice the paper and there is room for more detail.
What Does A Blue Or Magenta Airport Mean On A Sectional?
Blue means the airport has a control tower; magenta means it does not. Van Nuys, Burbank and Camarillo are blue. The data block beside the symbol then tells you whether the tower is part-time, which matters for a late return.
What Is A Maximum Elevation Figure?
The large number in each latitude and longitude quadrangle, in thousands and hundreds of feet MSL. It is the highest known terrain or obstruction in that box, rounded up to the next 100 feet with 100 to 300 feet added, so it can give as little as 101 feet of clearance.
How Do You Read Class B Altitudes On A Sectional?
Each Class B segment shows two numbers stacked like a fraction, ceiling over floor, in hundreds of feet MSL. 100 over 50 means the Class B in that segment runs from 5,000 to 10,000 feet, and you may fly beneath 5,000 without a clearance.
What Is The Difference Between A Sectional And A Terminal Area Chart?
Scale and coverage. The sectional covers a large region at 1:500,000. The TAC covers only the area around a Class B airport at 1:250,000, with more detail. The Los Angeles TAC also carries a VFR Flyway Planning Chart on its back, and it is the chart 14 CFR 93.95 requires aboard for the LAX Special Flight Rules Area.
Where Can I Get A Los Angeles Sectional Chart?
Printed charts are sold through FAA-approved print providers, including pilot shops, and the same chart is built into apps such as ForeFlight. Whichever you use, make sure it is the current 56-day edition.
See The Chart From The Left Seat
The chart makes sense the first time you hold it up against the real Valley. A discovery flight is $229 for 60 minutes from Van Nuys, flown from the left seat, and your instructor can trace the route on the chart as you go. To plan training, the private pilot license in Los Angeles starts at $10,400. You can also book a free consultation or call (818) 330-1318, any day from 9 AM to 9 PM.
Book A Discovery Flight — $229 Book A Free Consultation Call (818) 330-1318
