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Airspace: entry, equipment, minimums

What it takes to get in, what has to be installed, how fast you may go, and the weather you need — quoted from 14 CFR rather than summarised. Three things here are printed differently from most cards, because the regulation reads differently from the shorthand: Class G at night is not the reduced-minimums case, the two 10,000-foot equipment rules cover different airspace, and Special VFR is a clearance you request, not a lower-minimums default.

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1 · What it takes to enter

clearance · communication · nothing

REGULATION

Class	To enter
Class A	“Operations may be conducted only under an ATC clearance received prior to entering the airspace.” IFR only.§ 91.135(a)
Class B	“The operator must receive an ATC clearance from the ATC facility having jurisdiction for that area before operating an aircraft in that area.” A clearance — not just contact.§ 91.131(a)(1)Pilot: At least a private pilot certificate — or a recreational or sport certificate holder who has met the applicable additional requirements, or a student pilot who has met § 61.95. The endorsement is airport-specific, and some airports bar student solo entirely (appendix D, section 4).§ 91.131(b); § 61.95
Class C	“Each person must establish two-way radio communications with the ATC facility … providing air traffic services prior to entering that airspace”. Established communications, not a clearance — and the sentence continues: communications must be maintained while within it.§ 91.130(c)(1)
Class D	“Each person must establish two-way radio communications with the ATC facility … providing air traffic services prior to entering that airspace”. Same standard as Class C — and the same maintain-while-within continuation.§ 91.129(c)(1)
Class E	No clearance and no communication required for VFR. The weather minimums are the gate.§ 91.155
Class G	Uncontrolled. No clearance, no communication. The minimums — which change at night — are the whole rule.§ 91.155

2 · Transponder and ADS-B Out are different rules

§ 91.215 · § 91.225

REGULATION

Transponder + Mode C § 91.215(b)

Class A, B and C(b)(1)“In Class A, Class B, and Class C airspace areas;”
The Mode C veil(b)(2)“In all airspace within 30 nautical miles of an airport listed in appendix D, section 1 of this part from the surface upward to 10,000 feet MSL;”
Above a B or C shelf(b)(4)“All aircraft in all airspace above the ceiling and within the lateral boundaries of a Class B or Class C airspace area designated for an airport upward to 10,000 feet MSL; and”
At and above 10,000 MSL(b)(5)(i)“In all airspace of the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia at and above 10,000 feet MSL, excluding the airspace at and below 2,500 feet above the surface; and”

ADS-B Out § 91.225

Class A(a)“no person may operate an aircraft in Class A airspace unless the aircraft has equipment installed that—”
Class B and C(d)(1)“Class B and Class C airspace areas;”
The Mode C veil(d)(2)“within 30 nautical miles of an airport listed in appendix D, section 1 to this part from the surface upward to 10,000 feet MSL;”
Above a B or C shelf(d)(3)“Above the ceiling and within the lateral boundaries of a Class B or Class C airspace area designated for an airport upward to 10,000 feet MSL;”
At and above 10,000 MSL(d)(4)“Class E airspace within the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia at and above 10,000 feet MSL, excluding the airspace at and below 2,500 feet above the surface; and”

CHECKRIDE TRAPTECHNIQUERead this before you merge them. At and above 10,000 MSL the two rules do not cover the same airspace. The transponder rule says “all airspace”; the ADS-B rule says “Class E airspace”. Both exclude the airspace at and below 2,500 feet above the surface. A card that merges them into one line is wrong about one of them.

3 · Speed limits

§ 91.117

REGULATION

250 knots — below 10,000 feet MSL§ 91.117(a)“Unless otherwise authorized by the Administrator, no person may operate an aircraft below 10,000 feet MSL at an indicated airspeed of more than 250 knots (288 m.p.h.).”
200 knots — at or below 2,500 AGL within 4 NM of a Class C or D primary airport§ 91.117(b)“Unless otherwise authorized or required by ATC, no person may operate an aircraft at or below 2,500 feet above the surface within 4 nautical miles of the primary airport of a Class C or Class D airspace area at an indicated airspeed of more than 200 knots (230 mph.).”
200 knots — beneath a Class B shelf, or in a VFR corridor through Class B§ 91.117(c)“No person may operate an aircraft in the airspace underlying a Class B airspace area designated for an airport or in a VFR corridor designated through such a Class B airspace area, at an indicated airspeed of more than 200 knots (230 mph).”

4 · VFR weather minimums — the whole table

§ 91.155 · every cell, verbatim

REGULATION

“Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section and § 91.157, no person may operate an aircraft under VFR when the flight visibility is less, or at a distance from clouds that is less, than that prescribed for the corresponding altitude and class of airspace in the following table:”

Airspace	Flight visibility	Distance from clouds
Class A	Not Applicable	Not Applicable.
Class B	3 statute miles	Clear of Clouds.
Class C	3 statute miles= C/D/E	500 feet below.1,000 feet above.2,000 feet horizontal.
Class D	3 statute miles= C/D/E	500 feet below.1,000 feet above.2,000 feet horizontal.
Class E:
Less than 10,000 feet MSL	3 statute miles= C/D/E	500 feet below.1,000 feet above.2,000 feet horizontal.
At or above 10,000 feet MSL	5 statute miles	1,000 feet below.1,000 feet above.1 statute mile horizontal.
Class G:
1,200 feet or less above the surface (regardless of MSL altitude)
For aircraft other than helicopters:
Day, except as provided in § 91.155(b)	1 statute mile	Clear of clouds.
Night, except as provided in § 91.155(b)	3 statute miles= C/D/E	500 feet below.1,000 feet above.2,000 feet horizontal.
For helicopters:
Day	½ statute mile	Clear of clouds
Night, except as provided in § 91.155(b)	1 statute mile	Clear of clouds.
More than 1,200 feet above the surface but less than 10,000 feet MSL
Day	1 statute mile	500 feet below.1,000 feet above.2,000 feet horizontal.
Night	3 statute miles= C/D/E	500 feet below.1,000 feet above.2,000 feet horizontal.
More than 1,200 feet above the surface and at or above 10,000 feet MSL	5 statute miles	1,000 feet below.1,000 feet above.1 statute mile horizontal.

CHECKRIDE TRAPTECHNIQUEThe rows marked = C/D/E are the ones people get backwards. Class G at night below 10,000 MSL is 3 statute miles and 500/1,000/2,000 — the same as Class C, D and E. The reduced numbers are the daytime cases. “Class G means lower minimums” is true by day and false by night.

5 · Special VFR — a clearance, not a default

§ 91.157

REGULATION

“Except as provided in appendix D, section 3, of this part, special VFR operations may be conducted under the weather minimums and requirements of this section, instead of those contained in § 91.155, below 10,000 feet MSL within the airspace contained by the upward extension of the lateral boundaries of the controlled airspace designated to the surface for an airport.”§ 91.157(a)

“Special VFR operations may only be conducted—”§ 91.157(b)

“With an ATC clearance;”§ 91.157(b)(1)
“Clear of clouds;”§ 91.157(b)(2)
“Except for helicopters, when flight visibility is at least 1 statute mile; and”§ 91.157(b)(3)

“Except for helicopters, between sunrise and sunset (or in Alaska, when the sun is 6 degrees or less below the horizon) unless—”§ 91.157(b)(4)

Pilot — “The person being granted the ATC clearance meets the applicable requirements for instrument flight under part 61 of this chapter; and”§ 91.157(b)(4)(i)
Aircraft — “The aircraft is equipped as required in § 91.205(d).”§ 91.157(b)(4)(ii)

CHECKRIDE TRAPTECHNIQUEA clearance, not a default. Special VFR is a clearance you request from ATC — not a fallback for when the § 91.155 minimums above are out of reach, and not guaranteed: a controller may deny it for traffic or workload, appendix D, section 3 bars it outright at some airports, and at night it takes a pilot who meets part 61’s applicable requirements for instrument flight, in an aircraft equipped as § 91.205(d) requires — not just a request.

CHECKRIDE TRAPTECHNIQUE

The traffic-pattern rule changed in October 2025

§ 91.126(b) — most printed material still has the old text

MOSAIC rewrote § 91.126(b) effective 22 October 2025. It used to say “Each pilot of an airplane must make all turns of that airplane to the left” and put helicopters and powered parachutes in a second category. It now reads:

“Each pilot of a powered fixed-wing aircraft must make all turns to the left unless the airport displays approved light signals or visual markings indicating that turns should be made to the right, in which case the pilot must make all turns to the right; and”
§ 91.126(b)(1)

Any FAR/AIM, handbook or kneeboard card printed before October 2025 carries the old wording. And because § 91.127(a) and § 91.129(a) incorporate § 91.126, the amended rule reaches Class E and Class D airports too — not just Class G.

Amdt. 91-381, 90 FR 35220 (July 24, 2025), effective 2025-10-22. The former wording is quoted from 14 CFR § 91.126(b)(1) as in force through 2025-10-21 (eCFR point-in-time text, frozen).

Find it on a real chart

A table tells you what a class requires. It cannot tell you which class you are actually in over a given point — that is what the explorer is for.

Charlotte Sectional Explorer — click a real charted point and see which class actually supplies the operating rules there
Sectional reading quiz — practise finding the class from the chart rather than from a table
Class B entry, answered — the clearance rule and the student-pilot exception in full
Class G at night — the row on this table that catches people out

Badges.REGULATION quoted from 14 or 49 CFR.FAA GUIDANCE quoted from the AIM, an AC, or an FAA handbook — advice, not law.POH/AFM your aircraft’s own records govern.TECHNIQUE our voice — how to think about it.Text outside quotation marks is ours, whatever badge sits nearby.

Source. 14 CFR, quoted verbatim from the electronic Code of Federal Regulations, Title 14, issue date 2026-08-24 (up to date as of 2026-08-27), retrieved 2026-08-30 (§ 91.157, quoted in the Special VFR band, frozen 2026-08-31 at the same issue date). The § 91.155 table was additionally cell-diffed against the GPO/govinfo annual CFR edition, revised as of 2025-01-01 — 0 cell mismatches. SHA-256 of the retrieved § 91.155 XML b2409301a44b957d… One typography note: the ½-statute-mile cell renders U+00BD for the source XML's superscript-1 / fraction-slash / subscript-2 markup; nothing else is normalized.

This is a study aid, not a clearance. Airspace is charted, and the chart for your area on the day you fly outranks any table. Verify against the current sectional, the Chart Supplement, and the regulation itself before you rely on anything here.

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