1800WXBrief Map - Yellow Sections

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mustangs6551@reddit

I am a CFI, part 107 licensed and have instructed at a very big part 107 delivery operation. You can fly here so long as you comply with part 107. The yellow markings are for manned aircraft to debate populated areas. They're whole cities. 107 has rules etc about operating over people abd vehicles. You'd find both of those in the yellow, but that doesnt mean you can't fly there. Effectively, the yellow means nothing for you as a part 107 operator. Side not, r/drones is going to be a better resource for you than this one.

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Neither-Way-4889@reddit

They are what the FAA defines as "congested areas"

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Copperneck911@reddit (OP)

Thanks! So there would be no issue with flying a drone in that area as long as I follow the part 107 rules?

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stewabm@reddit

I’m not sure, I’m not a drone pilot but I am a cfii. Just be careful with the class Charlie airspace going to the surface of the ground, as far as I know you would need clearance to fly your drone in there airspace and I’m sure it would come with some sort of stipulations

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Copperneck911@reddit (OP)

Thanks!

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mustangs6551@reddit

I am a CFI, part 107 licensed and have instructed at a very big part 107 delivery operation. You can fly here so long as you comply with part 107. The yellow markings are for manned aircraft to debate populated areas. They're whole cities. 107 has rules etc about operating over people abd vehicles. You'd find both of those in the yellow, but that doesnt mean you can't fly there.

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pronghornpilot@reddit

Do you have a part 107 license?

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jaylw314@reddit

AFAIK "congested areas" applies to pilots, not drone operators. Drone operators are under the more strict requirement of not flying over ANYONE. IOW, you cannot fly in the yellow city area or anywhere if you cannot avoid flying over people at all, unless under more specific circumstances in part 107

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CharlieFoxtrot000@reddit

That’s likely true in most cases, but it’s not clearly defined as such. In fact, it’s not clearly defined as anything. See the following FAA memo, which states that “Aeronautical charts would not be expected to reflect all required local information” with respect to using the yellow as an indication.

https://www.faa.gov/media/13061

IANAL, but my interpretation is that yellow could probably be interpreted as congested and used against you in most cases, but not always (a pilot could do due diligence to ensure it is not in some cases), but inversely, a lack of yellow doesn’t mean an area isn’t “congested.”

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randombrain@reddit

Written source for this claim?

To the best of my knowledge, the de facto definition of a congested area is "Anything the FAA can convince an NTSB administrative judge is a congested area."

The Office of the Chief Counsel has been very careful to not give any kind of a concrete definition, but notes that examples of judicially-determined congested area include "a beach with sunbathers," "a busy intersection," and "a subdivision with a density of one house per ten acres."

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Tony_Three_Pies@reddit

Be careful with the phrase “congested area” because that’s pretty specific to minimum altitude rules and that’s not what the yellow is depicting. Minimum altitude “congested areas” aren’t explicitly charted. The FAA calls the yellow area a “Populated Place” and while ifs probably a safe bet that most “Populated Places” are also “congested areas”, it doesn’t necessarily mean that areas outside of the yellow aren’t also “congested”.

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LiveFreeFinn@reddit

Population, do not do maneuvers over it

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Copperneck911@reddit (OP)

Are you saying no flight when you say maneuvers? I only have a DJI mini 5 that does aerial photography.

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Vindicated0721@reddit

My guy. You are in the wrong sub for drone advice. Also just use something like Autopylot to check airspace’s before you fly.

Take your FAA trust exam. Weigh your mini 5 pro because it’s probably over 250g. Study for part 107 cert even if you don’t get it. It will help you learn a lot of this stuff.

The chart area with yellow you have shown just means densely populated area. Which for drones doesn’t mean much. But a lot of that densely populated area shown here is in class C air space. Which you can’t fly in without FAA approval.

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rmscomm@reddit

I believe he is referencing maneuvers as it relates to most general aviation aircraft (slow flight, steep turns, etc.). Part of the training for operating most aircraft requires a demonstration of these ‘maneuvers’ in order to get proficient and thus licensed. I hope that helps.

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LiveFreeFinn@reddit

Yes this is what I was talking about. Sorry late to respond.

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Bluevette1437@reddit

The maneuvers thing is more for airplanes and obstacle clearance. I’m not sure about drone specifics, but look in the regulations for anything that mentions populous/populated areas

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aviatortrevor@reddit

I was originally taught it meant "populated area", meaning it's where you would apply different minimum altitudes rules (91.119), but it's actually just a rough outline of what the city lights shape/border looks like at night. It's horribly out-of-date in some areas though.

What counts as "populated areas" per 91.119 minimum altitude regs is purposely kept vague and not well defined, so that the FAA can sort of pick-and-choose how/when to enforce 91.119 violations.

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pilotjlr@reddit

Save this: https://aeronav.faa.gov/user_guide/cug-complete_20260122.pdf

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Superninjahype@reddit

The good ole weekly intro to aeronautical chart user guide post.

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voretaq7@reddit

^ What They Said. ^

The FAA helpfully provides a legend on their charts too but I don't actually think the yellow is described there. The user guide is more complete.

TL;DR: Yellow is built-up/populated areas. A crude shorthand is "Places you can reasonably expect to see lights if you're flying at night."

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BrettBerger3@reddit

If you’re over that area at night, city lights will closely resemble the yellow shape. In short, as stated, populated areas. As most cities are.

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Longjumping-Tour-350@reddit

It’s the rough outline of highly populated lit areas, basically the area where city lights are widely seen.

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pilotshashi@reddit

Too much inflation

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HighVelocitySloth@reddit

You have a 107 certificate? You should know this or how to find it

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blueBaggins1@reddit

Populated areas

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Crackingtheceiling@reddit

What app are you using?

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Copperneck911@reddit (OP)

It is the 1800WXBrief website

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qzy123@reddit

City lights visible at night.

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randombrain@reddit

Any written source for that claim?

Honest question. If you have a written source that says "yellow areas = visible at night" I would love to see it.

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cephalopod11@reddit

Pretty sure that is something people have made up after the fact. the Chart User's Guide simply refers to the yellow areas as "Populated".

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qzy123@reddit

I guess I was going off the “old lore” referred to by Charlie Foxtrot, which I heard from my first flight instructor. I’ll amend that to “populated place,” which, speaking as someone who flies around populated places, are typically pretty well lit at night.

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CharlieFoxtrot000@reddit

“Populated Places”

The city light thing is some old lore and lights may reflect what the chart shows, but not always, especially if a city is experiencing rapid growth. In my experience, those tinted areas don’t get updated very often.

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Foreign_Box5998@reddit

WGS-84

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stewabm@reddit

Not sure about drones, but inside the magenta line is class Charlie airspace which is controlled from the surface up to 4,700 feet. So no drones are allowed to fly in that as far as I know. Yellow is indicating that it is a populated area

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Low_Sky_49@reddit

The resource for this is Aeronautical Chart Users Guide. It’s available for free in pdf format from the FAA.

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blizzue@reddit

https://aeronav.faa.gov/user_guide/cug-complete_20260122.pdf

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

I am new in this field and seem to have trouble finding information on what these yellow sections represent on the maps? Can anyone help me understand? They seem to be located around city limits but idk if that’s what it is or not. What does that mean for someone trying to operate a SUAS under part 107?

Thanks!

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