AIRSPACE ATLASA LIVING SECTIONAL
FAA CHART + ILLUSTRATED 3D MODEL
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · EXPLORER 01

From chart
to coast.

A real sectional. A little coastal world.
The same places, two perspectives.

MEADOW FIELD

Class D

FLOOR CEILING MSL unless AGL or FL · simplified model geometry
ON YOUR SECTIONAL

↑N
✈

Growing a little world…

Preparing your airspace explorer

YOUR FIELD GUIDE

A real chart. A recognizable world.

The sectional view uses an original FAA Los Angeles Sectional excerpt. The 3D world follows the same coastline, islands, and airport locations, with an illustrated landscape and simplified teaching volumes.

Keep the map clear

Every panel can be minimized without losing its information or your settings. Use Layers, Aircraft, or Info in the bottom dock to reopen it. Clear map minimizes all panels; Restore panels brings back your previous choices. On phones, panels start closed and only one opens at a time. In sectional view, Source shows the chart edition. Drag with one finger and pinch with two fingers to zoom.

Explore the FAA chart

Drag to pan and scroll to zoom into the original chart detail. Choose a place from the left panel, then select Locate on FAA chart. Expand chart hides the panels for a clear view; select Show panels to restore them.

The FAA artwork is not redrawn. The 12 detail tiles preserve the pixels of the original chart excerpt. Airspace visibility switches apply to the 3D teaching volumes, not the printed chart.

Explore the illustrated world

Drag to orbit, right-drag to pan, and scroll to zoom. Place or drag the aircraft; arrow keys move it and Q / E change altitude. Switching views keeps the aircraft over the same approximate place.

Airport locations and the coastline are registered to the chart image. Terrain heights, shelf outlines, and distances are simplified. The right panel reports the 3D model’s class and AGL height, not an authoritative classification of a real flight position.

Day, night and tower status

Use the moon/sun map button or the controls in Aircraft to change the illustrated lighting. A separate Van Nuys tower Open / Closed control in Aircraft changes Van Nuys only from Class D to Class E at the surface. Lighting and tower status are independent: it can be dark while the tower is open. Tower operating status—not darkness—controls the designation. Other airport operating states are not simulated. This is not a live tower-status or airspace service.

Places to compare

LAX supplies Class B shelves; John Wayne and Ontario supply Class C examples. Long Beach, Torrance, and Fullerton show Class D boundaries. Van Nuys adds a verified tower-open D / off-hours E2 comparison. Catalina shows a magenta Class E vignette. Camp Pendleton supplies restricted airspace, and W-291E lies offshore.

Only selected airspace volumes are modeled. The FAA chart also shows other airports, overlapping sectors, routes, obstacles, notes, and restrictions. R-2503 subdivisions have different vertical limits. W-291E’s 3D top is a visual cutaway at 10,000 ft; the chart margin lists its ceiling as FL 800. No special-use activity or TFR status is live.

Van Nuys source: the FAA Southwest Chart Supplement (3 September 2026), printed page 313, lists Class D 1400–0645Z‡ and Class E at other times; this is 06:00–22:45 local. The ‡ shifts UTC one hour earlier during daylight saving time. Current NOTAMs may change operating status. FAA JO 7400.11M has matching D and E2 lateral areas; the separate H24 E4 extension and overlying sectors are omitted here. The unchanged chart clips a small north cap. D ends below 3,000 MSL; the E2 model top at 3,000 is a visual cutaway, not its ceiling. At/above that altitude the added footprint reads unmodeled.

Chart source and edition

Publisher: Federal Aviation Administration.
Chart: Los Angeles Sectional, effective September 3, 2026; next edition October 29, 2026.
Excerpt: an unaltered 4,800 × 3,600 pixel crop of the FAA GeoTIFF, encoded as lossless WebP tiles. This is a fixed study edition, not an automatically updated chart service.

This is an educational chart viewer and illustrative 3D model. It is not a navigation system, live airspace service, operational clearance, or statement of Coast Guard / UAS authority. Use current official charts, NOTAMs, and applicable authorizations for real operations.