Man Made landmarks. /The Maximum Elevation Figure (MEF) is based on the highest point, natural or man made, within a given grid square.
If the highest obstruction is a man madefeature, the MEF is determined by adding a vertical accuracy factor (aprox 250 ft) to the highest point in the grid square, and then rounding up to the next 100 ft increment.
If it is natural terrain, an additional 200 ft is added to the accuracy factor (aprox 250 ft)and the height of the obstruction
Remember that these figures do not provide the 1000/2000 ft obstacle clearance and are invalid past the date of the original chart as soon as new CHUM is effective. /
Airfields with a hard surface greater than 3000 ft are depicted with a solid blue circle. The size of the circle is 8000 ft in diameter. Runway length can be estimated by comparing the size of the runway with the circle. If the runway is longer than 8000 ft it will extend past the circle.
Minor airfields are those that don’t have a hard surface greater than 3000 ft. For minor airfields, the absence of runway length indicates length < 3000 ft. No distinction is made for private or restricted fields.
Keep in mind that original airfield info in the chart may be outdated. Falconview lets you extract current airfield info if you set it to highlight runways greater than a certain length. /
For soft (sod) surface airfields, the “s” is specified after the runway length which in this case is 3800 ft. The number in bold below is the Field elevation.
The star above the runway symbol indicates a rotating beacon. /
Vertical man-made obstructions have to be updated monthly by CHUMing the chart.
Only obstructions taller than 200ft AGL will be depicted as ‘vertical obstructions’ /
A man made DAM. These may be dirt or concrete types. /
A road bridge can be expected anytime you see a road symbol crossing over water. Depending on it’s size it may or may not be explicitly depicted. /
A railroad bridge next to a road bridge. /
Numerous man made landmarks are indicated by squares and their description. It is important when building the chart to not obscure the descriptions. Here we can see a grain elevator, fish hatcheries and a pumping station. These make excellent course and timing updates so pay attention to them when reading the chart /
Another commonly found man-made feature: smokestacks. /
Underlined names of towns indicate VFR reporting points /
There are 3 types of populated areas: category 1, 2 and 3. The categories are determined not by population but by the density of the structures in the area. The closer they are, the lower category number.
Category 3 town is the less dense and is shown as a circle and the letters are Caps and lowercase as shown on the right. /
Category 1 and 2 are the more dense areas and are depicted in magenta. Category 2 towns are also in Caps and then lowercase. The more dense Category 1 towns names will be depicted all CAPS. /
Contour lines connect points of equal elevation. The steepness of the slopes is directly proportional to the proximity of the contour lines. TPC charts show contours in 500 ft increments and sometimes 250ft intermediate contour lines. The different colors correlate to terrain elevation. Spot elevations are also indicated /
Swamp /
Wet Sand area /
Land Subject to inundation /
References:
MIL-T-89101 and Appendix A Military Specification for Tactical Pilotage Charts
MIL-STD-2408 Glossary of Feature and Attribute Definitions
PS/1AA/100 Appendix I: Symbolization: DMA Product Specifications for Tactical Pilotage Charts