The airport environment

Runway signs, markings, and lighting, read on the real Boston Logan airport diagram.

13 min read · Airport operations and procedures

After this lesson you can

  • Derive a runway number from its magnetic heading, and read a hold-short sign and marking correctly.
  • Locate frequencies, hot spots, and runway numbers directly on a real FAA airport diagram.
  • Identify the airport beacon colors and interpret a VASI or PAPI glidepath indication.
  • Explain what a segmented circle and its wind indicator tell a pilot with no radio.

Every flight begins and ends on the surface, and the surface has its own language: colors that mean stop, colors that mean go, lights that spell out a glidepath, and a beacon that identifies the airport type before the runway is even in sight.

This lesson reads that language on a real chart: the FAA airport diagram for General Edward Lawrence Logan International (KBOS) in Boston, as published in the FAA d-TPP cycle effective August 6 to September 3, 2026. Nothing here is simplified for teaching. The frequencies, the runway lengths, and the hot spots printed on it are the ones a pilot flying into Logan reads before taxiing.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.Where airport information comes from
  2. 2.Runway numbering and markings
  3. 3.Airport signs
  4. 4.Reading it on the chart: Boston Logan
  5. 5.The legend, decoded
  6. 6.Airport lighting
  7. 7.Wind indicators and the segmented circle

These 7 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the PPL track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.