What is AGL vs MSL?

Hello everyone, before we start talking about the different types of airspace you may encounter, I wanted to make sure you understand some of the critical information that commonly causes students to stumble and get confused when talking about airspace and looking at charts. sectionals they have. There are two different ways of referring to altitudes: the first is above ground level, AGL, and then the second is at mean sea level. MSL above ground level, physically refers to the distance at which something is off the ground, i.e. from the ground to any object. is the altitude above ground level, where mean sea level refers to something relative to how far it is above sea level, for example, the city of Denver is the mile-high city that is approximately at 5,000 feet from mean sea level, although If you are standing on the ground in Denver that is zero feet AGL above ground level, you are still approximately 5,000 feet from sea level.

Another useful example to think about is if you're climbing a mountain, let's say you and a friend climbed all the way up the side of a mountain that had a peak of 2,000 feet, well, 2000 feet, uh, 2,000 feet MSL, a Once you got to the top of a mountain, let's say you wanted a better view and you saw a tree that was 50 feet tall, you climbed all the way up. the way to the top of the 50 foot tree now if you are already on top of the mountain and standing on the ground you would be at 2000 feet MSL and 0 feet above ground level 0 feet AGL since you are literally standing off the ground you will be 0 feet above the ground, but once you climb to the top of that 50 foot tree, now 50 feet high, you will be at two thousand and fifty feet MSL, but for AGL you will be only 50 feet, since the The ground is literally 50 feet below you, so you would be 50 feet AGL 2050 feet MSL, well let's think about that distinction, one is how high you are above the physical ground below you and the other relative to the sea . level well for the rest of this course, you will hear us refer to MSL versus AGL and the FAA also refers to those two different things on the exam and that is

what

misleads a lot of people so make sure you understand the sky and I want you You understand

what

these terms mean and the difference between them, one important thing to remember is this and I will say it again in the course: on the sectional charts you will see the limits of the airspace, the upper and lower limits. of different airspaces marked on MSL mean sea level, not AGL, so you need to keep that in mind when reading the charts section and determining whether or not you can fly in a particular area and the FAA likes to ask questions that you They will You are confused between the difference between AGL Emma, ​​so they could present the answer and about ground level and are really asking something about mean sea level.

Now that you understand MSL versus AGL, we can move on to the next section and dive deeper. some airspace issues