Understanding Airport Hot Spots
What is a Hot Spot?? A Hot Spot is a location on an airport movement area with a serious high potential risk of collision. Typically, it is a complex or confusing taxiway/runway intersection. If not carefully understood during the pre-flight process this can lead to what we know as a “Runway Incursion”.
Where can we find Hot Spots?
Hot Spot locations are shown on Airport Diagrams within the Airport/Flight Directory, now known as the Chart Supplement. On Foreflight you may find published Hot Spots under Airport Procedures. At our Training Center Location (KLUK) we have Two Hot Spot locations that we need to pay close attention to. Hot Spots are depicted as open circles or polygons designated as “HS 1” etc. HS 1: The first Hot Spot location describes when aircraft are departing on RWY 21 you can expect to hold short of RWY 25 on TWY A. HS 2: The second Hot Spot location describes aircraft located on the terminal ramp and RWY 7, you need ATC authorization to depart the terminal ramp area.
Assessing Hot Spots during Taxi:
When it comes to getting our taxi clearance to taxi to the active runway, we need to make sure we perceive the information/route we receive from ATC. While taxiing we need to stress the importance of visually scanning outside the cockpit. Our SR20s provide many features we can use to help supplement visual scanning such as the MFD moving map to see ADS-B traffic/Published Hot Spot locations, and the Surface Watch feature to help mitigate the risks of encountering Runway/Taxiway Incursions.
Takeaway:
Hot Spots are not to be overlooked during pre-flight planning/taxi operations. Knowing where they are located and having a good sense of situational awareness you can prevent having an Incursion.
