Lesson D15 1:36 15 of 26
Learn what a hot spot is, how the diagram shows it, and how to read its Chart Supplement description.
The video plays from YouTube. FAA airport diagrams, d-TPP cycle 2611, effective 29 OCT 2026. Not for navigation.
Some places on an airport are easy to get wrong. The FAA calls them hot spots. A hot spot has a history or risk of collisions or runway incursions. Pilots must pay extra attention there. A runway incursion is an airplane, a vehicle, or a person on a runway by mistake.
The diagram draws a hot spot as an open circle. A label such as HS 1 names it. Salinas has no hot spots. The Salinas diagram shows none, and the Chart Supplement lists none. Oakland has three: HS 1, HS 2, and HS 3.
The diagram shows where each one is. The Chart Supplement tells you why, in its hot spot table. At Oakland HS 1, taxiways Alfa and Bravo both cross Runway 28R. Pilots sometimes mistake one for the other. The table says to verify the correct taxi route.
At HS 2, airplanes that leave the ramp sometimes miss their turn onto taxiway Charlie or Delta, and keep going. They end up on taxiway Hotel or Golf, and then on Runway 10L-28R. HS 3 is a runway incursion risk. It covers taxiway Charlie between Charlie One and Juliett, near the Runway 33 end.
Before you taxi at a new airport, find the hot spots on your route. The ACS lists this in its taxi task. Then read each description, so you know which mistake to avoid. Next, land and hold short operations.
Before you fly, check the current airport diagram, the Chart Supplement and NOTAMs.
A discovery flight is actual flight training with a certified flight instructor at the Salinas Airport. Your hands on the controls, with the airport diagram on your knee.
