Flying over remote terrain can be exciting. The views are often breathtaking as you look down on pristine landscapes. But such areas can also be difficult for the VFR pilot to navigate. These areas may be out of reach of VORs and other ground-based navigation aids. And, with few landmarks as guides, it may be difficult to select checkpoints as you find your way by pilotage and dead reckoning.
Of course, very few places are truly untouched by the hand of man, and even in the most isolated areas you are likely to find something that marks a human presence. On aeronautical charts, that something may be a lookout tower. These towers, which are often used for fire watch, are shown on sectional charts as solid black triangles within the outline of a black circle. Although this symbol does not appear in the legends of sectional charts, it is explained in the Aeronautical Chart User's Guide, which is published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The lookout tower symbol is typically accompanied by a number, printed in bold black text, showing the elevation of the base of the tower. This is important to note as most other charted obstacles, such as radio towers and factory smoke stacks, give the elevation of the top of the obstacle as well as the base elevation in parenthesis beneath it. If you are flying low in the vicinity of a lookout tower, you must remember that the tower could extend another 100 feet or more above the elevation shown on the chart. Allow yourself plenty of vertical and horizontal clearance. In addition to the elevation figure, some charted lookout towers are labeled with a site number. When this information is available, it will appear in black type immediately above the elevation figure.
