Pilotage simply means looking outside of the aircraft and confirming one’s position by sighting physical landmarks. Learning to do this by referencing a sectional aeronautical chart is a fundamental skill in navigation. Important features such as mountains, rivers, and lakes are depicted on charts and can usually be recognized with little difficulty. Manmade features such as airports, towns, dams, and freeways can also be spotted fairly easily. Other structures, such as antennas, may be difficult to see. Railroads may be hard to see in greener areas and it is difficult to distinguish them from roads. Identifying a particular road (other than a major freeway) may also prove difficult from the air. When planning the flight, pilots should draw a course line on a sectional chart between the departure airport and the destination airport. Checkpoints that can be readily identified from the air should then be circled on the chart. Sighting these checkpoints will confirm that the aircraft is flying along on the proper course.