Sectional-chart questions do not reward memorizing every airport in the supplement. They reward reading one symbol, one data block, and one altitude the way the legend defines them. The FAA Chart Users' Guide and FAA-CT-8080-2H Legend 1 are the keys. Starting October 26, 2026, the UAG test also uses current chart images that are not in the printed supplement, so the skill is the legend, not a memorized figure number.
Airport symbols: color, then the star
On a VFR sectional, a blue airport symbol means the airport has a control tower. A magenta airport symbol means it does not. That is the color rule in Legend 1 and in the Chart Users' Guide airport key. A star beside the tower information means the tower operates part time. The hours live in the Chart Supplement, not in the color of the ink.
Two traps show up constantly. First, magenta does not mean "tower closed right now," and blue does not mean "tower open right now." The symbol describes whether a tower exists. Part-time status is the star plus the directory. Second, color is not a runway-length code. Runway length is a number in the data block, printed in hundreds of feet.
FAA-CT-8080-2H Figure 26 is a clean practice picture. Jamestown Regional's data block is magenta, so there is no tower. The block shows ASOS 118.425, then 1500 *L 65, then 123.0 with a circled C. Read that bottom line as field elevation 1,500 feet MSL, lighting limitations (*L, so check the Chart Supplement), longest runway 6,500 feet, and CTAF 123.0. The ASOS frequency is weather, not the CTAF.
The data block, left to right
Airport data blocks are small, and the test asks you to pick one fact out of them. The usual bottom line is elevation in feet MSL, then lighting, then the longest runway in hundreds of feet. A star or *L on the lighting means the lighting has limitations. The Chart Supplement has the detail. Do not turn 65 into 65 feet. Multiply by 100.
Frequencies sit above or beside that line, and the label matters more than the digits. ATIS, ASOS, and AWOS are weather broadcasts. CT is a control tower. A C inside a circle is the CTAF, the frequency pilots use to announce themselves at a non-towered airport or when the tower is closed. Field elevation is a number of feet, not a frequency. If a choice calls the circled C an ATIS, it is swapping two different services that often sit in the same block.
A boxed navaid near the airport is a third thing. A VORTAC or VOR/DME frequency is not the tower and not the CTAF. On Figure 20 the Norfolk VORTAC is 116.9, while the airport block separately prints CT 120.8 and ATIS 127.15. Read the box you were asked about.
Obstructions
Obstruction symbols print two heights. The bold top number is the top of the obstruction in feet above mean sea level. The number in parentheses is the height above ground. A symbol that reads 2,049 over (1,149) is 2,049 feet MSL and 1,149 feet AGL. Adding the two numbers, or treating the parenthetical as MSL, is the usual miss. The Chart Users' Guide also notes that UC means under construction or unverified, and that the symbol shape distinguishes shorter towers from towers 1,000 feet AGL and higher.
Those heights matter twice. They tell you the obstacle. They also feed the structure exception in §107.51(b): within 400 feet horizontally of a structure, you may fly up to 400 feet above the structure's immediate uppermost limit. The AGL figure in parentheses is the one you add to, not the MSL figure.
Maximum Elevation Figure, briefly
Each quadrant of latitude and longitude carries a Maximum Elevation Figure. It is the highest terrain or obstruction in that quadrant, rounded up as the charting rules specify, plus a buffer. It is not a regulatory altitude and it is not permission to fly there. For Part 107 it is a planning clue: if the MEF is high, obstacles in that box are high, and your 400-foot AGL cap still applies unless the structure exception applies to one specific structure.
How to practice a figure question
When a stem says "refer to Figure 26" or "Legend 1," open that page and read the printed label before you look at the choices. The FAA's September 2026 testing advisory says that from October 26, 2026, some UAG chart questions use current sectional images that are not in the supplement, and that active test images are not released for preview. The legend skills above still transfer: tower color, circled C, elevation, runway in hundreds of feet, and MSL versus AGL.
Pair this page with airspace classes and with latitude and longitude, which is how you state where on the chart the symbol sits.
