(Aircraft engine starting and fading into the distance)
Hello, and welcome to our fifth video tutorial on how to read and use VFR
sectional charts as unmanned aerial system, or UAS, operators.
This series of videos is brought to you by AmericaView 
in partnership with the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech, 
the Virginia cooperative extension, and GeoTED UAS.
My name is Daniel Cross and I'll be your guide for this video.
Each of these different types of special use airspace will affect how we fly in those areas, or even if we can fly in those areas.
Also, there is a good chance you will see at least one question involving each of these on your Part 107 exam.
Let's start with prohibited areas.  Prohibited areas are just like they sound.  Unless you have a very specific
permission from the controlling agency and a waiver from the FAA no one is allowed to fly in a prohibited area.
On the map prohibited areas are marked by a blue line with blue hash marks pointed inward.
These will be differentiated from other types of airspace by the area ID, which will start with a "P".
To find the vertical extent of a prohibited area, check the table on the edge of the sectional, just like we did in the first video of the series.
Next are restricted areas, which are also marked with the same symbology as prohibited areas. 
Restricted areas are differentiated by the "R" at the beginning of their area ID.
Restricted areas, are similar to prohibited areas with the exception that they have an active and inactive periods. 
When a restricted area is inactive it is perfectly legal to fly in it.
To find the times and altitudes the restricted areas are effective for, check the special use airspace table.
The next area that uses this same symbology is the warning area.
Just like the last two areas, warning areas are denoted by "W" at the beginning of their ID.
Warning areas will be over either domestic or international waters and are intended to warn other aircraft of potential hazards.
These hazards can include military training maneuvers,
air-to-surface as well as surface-to-surface weapons training or testing, 
artillery fire, and electronic warfare equipment testing, which may affect your UAS.
When warning areas are active, you should keep a well away from them.
Now let's finally move on to a different type of symbol.  This magenta line with magenta inward pointing hash marks 
denotes the location of a military operations area, or MOA.
Unlike the other areas, MOA's have a name instead of an ID number.
Within a MOA, military aircraft often perform training maneuvers
but unlike warning or restricted areas, we are allowed to fly inside a MOA without permission. 
That said, you must exercise extreme caution when doing so.
Technically, military activity should cease when a civilian aircraft enters the area. 
But this really only applies to civilian manned aircraft,
since a small UAS is not going to be visible to any military operations going on.
If you do fly in a MOA, try to fly when it's not active or if possible, contact the controlling agency to make them aware of your presence. 
As usual, check the special use airspace table to find this information.
Continuing the trend of reusing symbology, the next area is also marked on the map by a magenta line with inward facing marks.
This is the alert area and differentiates itself from the MOA by using an ID that starts with an "A".
Alert areas are where unusual civilian flight activities regularly occur.
The most common are probably flight training areas where student pilots will learn the limits of themselves and their aircraft.
Often there will be an informational box in the alert area giving you some basic information about what's going on.
In this example, A-293 contains a large number of training aircraft from the surface to 4,000 feet.
For more information such as active times, again check the special use airspace table.
If you are flying in an alert area while it's active, be especially vigilant for whatever activity occurs within it.
The next special use air space is the military training route, or MTR.  These are kind of like the MOA's
but they follow routes which are marked on the map with a light gray line and extend from two to eight miles on either side of the line.
Normally, manned aircraft are not permitted to fly lower than 500 feet AGL and faster than 250 knots, when below 10,000 feet MSL.
However, MTR's permit military aircraft to operate exempt from these rules. 
Some MTR's even permit aircraft to fly as low as 100 feet above ground level, well into the air space we fly in.
MTR's are all marked with an ID number.  These will start with a "VR" for visual routes 
or "IR" for instrument routes.  That will then be followed by the ID number.
Routes with at least one segment above 1,500 feet AGL will have a four digit ID. 
Routes with no segment above 1,500 feet  AGL will have a three digit ID.
Route numbers below 100 will drop the first zero, like VR 96, which is a three digit route.
The last special use air space we will cover is the vector airway. 
These are blue lines that crisscross the map and are identified by "V" followed by the ID number.
For the most part, UAS operators don't need to worry about these since they are
highways in the sky and most air traffic on them will be well above where we fly.
That's it for special use airspace.  Please join us for our last video in the series, where we will take a look at topographic information,
then we'll put everything together, by running through an example of a flight plan.
Thank you for joining us, and fly safe.
(Aircraft engine sputtering to a stop as it gets closer)
