Notice  Pilot Briefing · 4 min read · Updated October 2026

Part 107 Test Change: Chart Images Move Into the Questions on October 26, 2026

Who this affects

Anyone sitting the Part 107 knowledge test on or after October 26, 2026. It does not affect certificated remote pilots, recurrent training, or anyone flying today. The FAA announced it in its Airman Testing Community Advisory, the bulletin it uses to give notice of test changes before they happen; see FAA Airman Testing Community Advisory, September 2026 (PDF).

What the advisory says

Beginning October 26, 2026 the Instrument Rating Airplane and Unmanned Aircraft General - Small tests will include image-based questions that are not found in the test supplements. The FAA says the images are clearer and up to date, cut from current VFR sectional charts for the drone test, and from IFR low altitude charts for the instrument test. The date is itself a correction: the previous edition of the advisory gave a different one.

This is part of a longer project. The FAA and PSI, the testing vendor, have been embedding images directly into questions on several tests, the drone test among them, so that a question carries its own picture. Once an image is embedded it is part of that question, so the FAA will not publish the images used on the live test.

What changes in practice

A chart question will put the chart on the screen in front of you instead of sending you to a figure number in a booklet. The chart excerpt may be from a sectional you have never seen in a practice set, because it is cut from a current chart rather than from the supplement.

That rewards a skill rather than a memory. Knowing which figure shows which airport is worth nothing; being able to look at any sectional and read the airport data block, the airspace boundary and the altitude figures is worth everything.

What it does not change

Not the rules: this is a change to how the test presents questions, not a change to Part 107, and no operating rule moved. Not the test: 60 scored questions, plus 5 unscored validation questions the FAA uses to trial new items, 120 minutes, and 70 percent to pass, as set out in the UAG Applicant Information Bulletin (PDF) published by PSI, the FAA's testing provider. The FAA's testing matrix lists the test as 60 questions because it counts only the scored ones. Not the subject mix either, which stays weighted towards regulations and operations; the percentages are in the same bulletin.

The supplement has not been withdrawn either. The FAA says the date for removing testing supplements from test centres has not been set, that the public will get ample notice, and that until then candidates still receive the supplement for their exam.

The two sample questions the FAA published

The advisory includes two drone-test samples in the new style, both reading a sectional chart excerpt. One shows an airport and asks what class of airspace is associated with it and whether ATC authorization is needed to fly a small unmanned aircraft there; the answer is Class E associated with an airport surface area, and authorization is required. The other asks which frequency to use as the common traffic advisory frequency when that airport's control tower is not in operation; the answer is the tower's own frequency, which becomes the advisory frequency when the tower is closed.

Both are questions this site already drills. The samples themselves, with the chart excerpts, are in the advisory PDF: FAA Airman Testing Community Advisory, September 2026 (PDF).

How to study for it

Work chart questions with the chart beside the question, which is how the test will now show them, and practise on more than one sectional. Learn the symbols and the data blocks rather than figure numbers: the dashed magenta line that means Class E to the surface, the segmented blue and magenta vignettes and what lies under them, the frequency with a C in a solid circle, airport elevation and pattern altitude, and the Class D and Class C ceiling figures. The legend you are used to in the supplement is the same legend used on the sectional the question is cut from.

Does this affect the Part 107 exam?

Yes. This one is about the exam itself, and it is the reason to practise chart reading on real charts rather than on a fixed set of figures.

Common questions

Will I still get the testing supplement booklet?

Yes. The FAA has not set a date for removing the supplements from test centres and says the public will get ample notice first. Until then you are handed the supplement, and some questions will still use it. The change is that other questions carry their own image.

Does the test get harder on October 26, 2026?

The FAA says the knowledge required, the standards, the number of questions, the time and the passing score are unchanged. What changes is that a chart question may show a chart you have not seen before, which is harder if you memorised figures and no harder if you learned to read a sectional.

Can I see the images used on the test?

No. The FAA says that once an image is embedded in a live test question it is part of that question, so the images cannot be previewed. The two samples published in the advisory are examples of the format, not questions from the test.

Reviewed and updated October 2026.

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