Starting October 27, 2026, the FAA Part 107 (UAG) and Instrument Rating Airplane (IRA) written exams will include questions with embedded images that are not in the official Testing Supplement. No more flipping to the supplement to study a chart you've already memorized. The new figures are visible only during the test — and they're sourced from a wider pool of FAA charts. Here's what's changing, why it matters, and how to study for the new format.
For years, every Part 107 test taker has done the same thing: study the FAA's free Airman Knowledge Testing Supplement (FAA-CT-8080-2H) until you can recognize every figure in it from a mile away. On exam day, you'd open the same printed supplement at the testing center, find the figure the question referenced, and answer.
That workflow ends in October 2026.
The FAA's update, announced through PSI (the testing vendor), changes three things:
The change affects both the UAG (Unmanned Aircraft General — Small) test, which is Part 107, and the IRA (Instrument Rating Airplane) test.
The Part 107 pass rate is already tougher than most candidates expect. Industry data and PSI testing center reports suggest the first-time pass rate hovers around 70–72%, which means roughly 3 out of every 10 applicants fail their first attempt — at $175 a pop.
The new format raises the difficulty in three ways:
Under the old system, savvy test takers would essentially memorize the Testing Supplement. If a question referenced "Figure 21," you knew exactly what you were looking at before you even opened the booklet. With novel embedded figures, raw memorization stops working. You have to actually understand how to read sectional charts, METARs, and airspace symbology.
FAA charts cover the entire National Airspace System — that's hundreds of sectional charts, dozens of TACs, thousands of approach plates. The Testing Supplement only sampled a handful. Now your prep needs to cover the underlying skill, not just the specific images.
You still get 2 hours for 60 questions. But if you're spending an extra 30 seconds per question trying to parse an unfamiliar chart, you'll run out of time on the 5–10 questions you'd have aced under the old format.
Key insight: Memorization-based study strategies that used to coast people to a 75% will now produce more failures. Skill-based study — actually learning chart symbology, METAR decoding, and airspace logic — is no longer optional.
If you're scheduled to test before October 27, 2026, your existing study materials are fine. Focus on the current Testing Supplement, memorize the figures, take your test, get your certificate.
If you're testing on or after October 27, 2026 — or you're a CFI prepping students who will test in 2027 — your study approach needs to shift. Here's what to prioritize:
Stop treating chart reading as a memorization task. Start treating it as a skill. That means:
This is the single biggest change in study strategy. Where you used to drill the same 20 supplement figures over and over, you now need volume and variety. Pull random sectional charts from the FAA's chart download page. Look at sections you've never studied. Ask yourself: "If a question asked me about the airspace at 5,000 feet over this airport, what class is it?" Practice until you can answer that for any airport on any chart.
This is where having current study material matters. Tools that only quiz you on the old Testing Supplement figures will leave you unprepared. Look for a tool that:
Most Part 107 study courses front-load airspace and chart reading because those are the hardest topics. The new exam format makes them even more important — but don't neglect the other 60% of the test. Weather, regulations (FAR Part 107 itself), aeronautical decision-making, crew resource management, and aircraft loading/performance are all still on there. A 70% passing score means you can miss up to 18 questions, but you can't afford to give away easy points in the topics you didn't study.
Worth noting what stays the same:
A simple check: open whatever Part 107 prep tool you're using and look at the chart-reading questions.
The October 2026 changes don't reinvent the Part 107 test, but they make it harder to fake. If you're testing in late 2026 or 2027, your prep needs to be skill-based, not figure-based.
If you've been putting off scheduling your Part 107, you have two options:
Either way, get your prep volume up. The single biggest predictor of passing the Part 107 — under any format — is still the number of practice questions you've done. Aim for 500+ before walking into the testing center.
GetDroneReady includes 420+ rotating questions with chart-reading drills built around real FAA sectional charts — designed for the new embedded-figure format. $47 one-time. Free to start.
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