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Aircraft Handling & Instrument Flying

Runway Incursion & Taxi Trainer

Airport diagram with taxi clearances, hold-short lines, markings, signs, lighting, route compliance and incorrect entries.

  • Taxi clearance compliance
  • Hold-short lines and signs
  • Runway incursion avoidance
STAGEAirport diagram (Bowman Field unless you choose another airport), training copy: the cleared route, holding positions, hot spots, the airplane · the pilot's view of a runway holding position: marking, signs, lights

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CONTROLSairport · taxi · signs, markings and lights · spot the error · the clearance, your read back, the next point to taxi to · holding position and lighting choices
READOUTlive · position, clearance, next, the signs at the holding position, route and hold-short compliance, score; the exchange with ground control
HOW TO USEquick guide

Taxi: choose a clearance. Ground control speaks first, the way JO 7110.65 3-7-2 says it - the departure runway, then the route, then any hold short or crossing. Read it back: the runway assignment and every hold short or runway crossing (AIM 4-3-18). Then taxi: tap the next point (cyan) on the diagram, drag the airplane along a taxiway, or use the buttons. The cyan line is the route you were cleared on; the green ring is where it ends; a ring at a holding position is coral until you are cleared to cross that runway and green after.

Every runway crossing needs its own clearance (AIM 4-3-18: "A clearance must be obtained prior to crossing any runway"). When you are told to hold short, taxi to the holding position marking and wait: ground control clears you across once you hold. Passing a holding position marking toward a runway without a clearance is a runway incursion and ends the exercise. A clearance to taxi to your departure runway ends at its holding position - it never lets you enter that runway. Turning onto a taxiway that is not in your clearance is a deviation: go back to where you left the route.

Signs, markings & lights shows the view from the cockpit at a holding position of this airport: the four yellow lines (solid on your side), the red holding position sign with the runway numbers arranged by the thresholds ("15-33": Runway 15's threshold is to your left), the taxiway location sign beside it, the enhanced centerline, runway guard lights, and - for low visibility and runway status - stop bars, clearance bars and runway entrance lights. Spot the error shows a holding position with one thing wrong, or a situation at the hold line, and scores your answers.

Bowman Field - hot spots are circled on the diagram: HS 1 - the taxiways meet close to the crossing runways; HS 2 - Runway 6 at A⁠1, with direct access from the ramp (the FAA hot spot list). Brief them before you taxi.

Assumption and limits - TRAINING COPY — NOT CURRENT — NOT FOR NAVIGATION: Bowman Field (LOU), Louisville, Kentucky, from the FAA airport diagram AL-238 of cycle 2610 (01 OCT – 29 OCT 2026); the cycle has an end date and the airport changes - never use this to taxi. The pavement, buildings, labels, closed surfaces and hot spots are the diagram's; the runways come from the FAA's coded data of the same cycle. The holding position markings are not charted on this diagram: they are drawn 125 ft from the runway centerline, the FAA design standard for this size of runway (AC 150/5300-13B), and the real ones may differ. The taxi network is the trainer's model of the taxiway centerlines; connectors without a name on the diagram and closed surfaces are not used. The signs, markings and lights in the pilot's view are drawn to the FAA standards, not surveyed at this airport, as a schematic view with the distances compressed and in the site's palette (red drawn coral, yellow amber, blue sky blue). Ground control's timing (a crossing clearance a few seconds after you hold), the call sign (the AIM's example) and the scenarios are training conventions; the scoring is this trainer's (deviations and repeated read backs cost points; an incursion scores zero).

More airports: choose another airport in the Airport list. KJFK and KLAX use the FAA airport diagram data (public domain) and the FAA hot spots, with the FAA phraseology above. LTFM, EGLL and EDDF use OpenStreetMap data (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL) with ICAO phraseology: "Taxi to holding point runway two seven right via Alfa, Bravo, hold short of runway two seven left". Radiotelephony says holding point where ICAO documents say holding position, and every runway instruction, hold short and crossing is read back. At these airports the circles are typical confusion points in our own words, not the official hot spot list: check the current official chart. The data of an airport loads when you choose it. Signs, markings and lights and Spot the error follow the FAA standards, so only the FAA airports offer them.

Assumption and limits of the other airports - TRAINING COPY — NOT CURRENT — NOT FOR NAVIGATION: KJFK and KLAX show the FAA airport diagram data of the date on the drawing; LTFM, EGLL and EDDF show OpenStreetMap data of the date on the drawing, which may be incomplete or wrong (taxiway names, closed surfaces, holding positions). The taxiway centre lines are derived by computer from the FAA polygons or the OpenStreetMap lines. Holding positions come from OpenStreetMap where it records them; everywhere else they are placed by the design standard, 250 ft from the runway centerline at the FAA airports and 295 ft (90 m) at the ICAO airports, so they may differ from the real markings. Places are the named aprons and terminals of the data; where the FAA data has no name, an apron is named after the taxiways beside it. The scenarios were generated from the taxi network and checked by the trainer's own route engine: they are not real clearances of these airports, and the call sign and ground controller names are made up. The pilot's view of the signs, markings and lights is the FAA standard and is offered only at the FAA airports.

SOURCES & METHODformulas · references

Clearances follow FAA Order JO 7110.65BB (Change 3, 9 July 2026) 3-7-2: "When authorizing an aircraft to taxi to an assigned takeoff runway, state the departure runway followed by the specific taxi route"; a crossing clearance for each runway the route crosses, the next only after the previous runway has been crossed; a connector with the same letter at the approach end (A to A⁠1) may be left out of the clearance; without holding instructions the aircraft may cross the taxiways on its route. The pilot's side follows the AIM (effective 9 July 2026) 4-3-18: a clearance before crossing any runway, the read back of the runway assignment, any clearance to enter a runway and any hold short instruction, and no entry onto the assigned departure runway with a taxi clearance. A runway incursion is "any occurrence at an airport involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and take off of aircraft" (FAA Runway Safety); the protected area begins at the runway holding position marking (AIM 2-3-5; Pilot/Controller Glossary, clear of the runway). Taxiway letters are spoken with the phonetic alphabet of the AIM 4-2-7 and JO 7110.65 TBL 2-4-1, which spell A "Alfa"; some examples in JO 7110.65 3-7-2 print "Alpha" - the trainer uses "Alfa" throughout.

The diagram is the FAA d-TPP plate 00238AD.PDF (AIRPORT DIAGRAM AL-238 (FAA), revision 26134, cycle 2610), read as data: its pavement and building outlines, labels, closed-surface marks and hot spot circles, placed by the plate's own latitude and longitude grid; the runway thresholds, displaced thresholds, lengths and headings from the FAA CIFP of the same cycle. Checked: the plate's runway ends and displaced threshold symbols lie within 30 ft of the CIFP positions (the plate's stated accuracy is 600 ft); every taxiway segment lies on the plate's pavement and every taxiway label of the plate lies beside its own taxiway; the hot spot descriptions are those of the d-TPP hot spot list (SE-1). Hold lines at 125 ft from the runway centerline: AC 150/5300-13B (Change 1) Table G-3, the table whose 75-ft runway width and 240-ft parallel taxiway separation the plate shows. The sign inscriptions are computed from the geometry: the left number is the threshold to the left of a pilot facing the runway, and at a runway end only the takeoff runway (AC 150/5340-18H 1.5.3; the AIM says it "may" appear alone); the taxiway location sign stands outboard of the holding position sign (AC 150/5340-18H 1.13.4).

Markings: AC 150/5340-1M (Change 1) Pattern A for runway holding positions (two continuous and two dashed lines, the solid lines on the holding side) and Pattern B for ILS critical areas; the enhanced centerline is 12 sets of 9-ft dashes and 3-ft gaps followed by 6-ft dashes - 150 ft, the AIM's "maximum of 150 feet prior to a runway holding position marking". Signs: AC 150/5340-18H (30 September 2024) and AIM 2-3-8 to 2-3-13 - mandatory signs white on red, location signs yellow on black with a yellow border, direction and destination signs black on yellow, arranged clockwise from the pilot's left. Lights: AIM 2-1-10 (blue taxiway edge, green centerline, yellow clearance bars, flashing yellow runway guard lights, red stop bars - never cross a lit stop bar, even when cleared) and 2-1-6 (runway status lights: red entrance lights and takeoff hold lights mean the runway is unsafe; they never replace or convey a clearance). Wording differences recorded: the Glossary defines a hot spot by "a history of potential risk", the hot spot list and the FAA Runway Safety page by "a history or potential risk"; the AIM's ILS marking lines "spaced two feet apart" are the AC's reduced dimension for airports without a tower or Part 139 certificate (the standard is 4 ft).

More airports (pilot): the project's data pipeline turns the source data of an airport into one geometry file in a single schema and writes the scenarios from it. FAA airports (KJFK, KLAX): the FAA publishes taxiways as polygons with their designators (the junction of two taxiways as "A_EA"); the polygons are rasterised and thinned to centre lines, every line takes the designator of the polygon it lies in, a line end that points at a runway is extended to the runway, and the runway ends come from the runway polygons. OSM airports (LTFM, EGLL, EDDF): the taxiway ways are joined where they share a node; the ref tag is the name ("Taxiway F" becomes F; text that is no designator is dropped); an unnamed piece that continues a named taxiway in a straight line takes its name, flagged as inferred; runway holding positions are the OpenStreetMap holding_position nodes where they exist. At every runway, a taxiway that enters the runway strip gets a holding position and a point on the runway centre line; a taxiway that continues on the far side shares that point, which is what makes a runway crossing. The scenarios are routes that follow the taxiways in order with the fewest crossings and changes, kept when the trainer's route follower reproduces them; a route over a crossing is cleared as hold short, then cross (US airports sometimes cross in the taxi clearance). The ICAO wording follows the forms of ICAO PANS-ATM (Doc. 4444) chapter 12, Doc. 9432 and UK CAP 413 as SKYbrary describes them: taxi to holding point (runway), the route by taxiway designators, hold short of the runway, cross the runway, with the read back of every runway instruction (Annex 10 Volume II); the words are our own. The OpenStreetMap geometry files are published under the ODbL with the licence notice next to them, and the scenarios and texts are kept in separate files that name taxiways and runways, never OpenStreetMap elements or coordinates.

  1. FAA d-TPP, cycle 2610 (01 OCT 2026 - 29 OCT 2026), volume SE-1: AIRPORT DIAGRAM AL-238 (FAA), Bowman Fld (LOU), Louisville, Kentucky, revision 26134 - training copy, not current, not for navigation; the hot spot list of SE-1 (HS 1, HS 2); the Terminal Procedures legend for airport diagrams (displaced threshold, hot spot and holding position symbols; positional accuracy within 600 ft)
  2. FAA Coded Instrument Flight Procedures (CIFP), cycle 2610: Bowman Fld airport and runway records (thresholds, displaced thresholds, lengths, magnetic bearings, elevations, variation)
  3. Aeronautical Information Manual (effective 9 July 2026), para. 2-1-6 Runway Status Light (RWSL) System, 2-1-10 Taxiway Lights, 2-3-2 to 2-3-13 Airport Marking Aids and Signs, 4-3-18 Taxiing
  4. FAA Order JO 7110.65BB, Air Traffic Control (Change 3, 9 July 2026), para. 3-7-2 Taxi and Ground Movement Operations
  5. FAA Advisory Circular 150/5340-1M, Standards for Airport Markings (10 May 2019, consolidated with Change 1 of 23 December 2020, active): 3.3 runway holding position marking (Pattern A), 3.4 ILS holding position marking (Pattern B), 4.3.4 enhanced taxiway centerline
  6. FAA Advisory Circular 150/5340-18H, Standards for Airport Sign Systems (30 September 2024, active): 1.3.1, 1.5 mandatory instruction signs, 1.6 location signs, 1.7 boundary signs, 1.8 direction signs, 1.13.4 collocated location signs
  7. FAA Advisory Circular 150/5300-13B, Airport Design (Change 1, 16 August 2024): Appendix G, Table G-3 (runway centerline to holding position 125 ft; to parallel taxiway 240 ft; runway width 75 ft)
  8. Pilot/Controller Glossary (in the AIM of 9 July 2026): HOT SPOT, MOVEMENT AREA, CLEAR OF THE RUNWAY, RUNWAY ENTRANCE LIGHTS (REL), TAKEOFF HOLD LIGHTS (THL)
  9. FAA Runway Safety: What is a Runway Incursion? (definition, categories A to D, pilot deviations; updated 31 August 2026) and Hot Spots
  10. Model choices of this tool (stated on the page): hold lines placed by the design standard (not charted), the taxi network along the diagram taxiway centrelines, the controller issuing a crossing clearance 4 seconds after the airplane holds, the AIM example call sign, the scenarios and the scoring; signs, markings and lights drawn to the FAA standards in the site palette, not surveyed at the airport
  11. More airports (KJFK, KLAX): FAA Aeronautical Information Services airport diagram GIS feature classes (AM Taxiway, Runway, Apron, Building, Hotspot; ADDS open data portal), layers last edited 3 September 2026, public domain; the FAA hot spot list of the 3 September 2026 Chart Supplement edition (JFK HS 1; LAX HS 1 to HS 3) - training copies, not current, not for navigation
  12. More airports (LTFM, EGLL, EDDF): OpenStreetMap aeroway data (runway, taxiway, taxilane, holding_position, apron, terminal, building) extracted through the Overpass API on 24 October 2026, (c) OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License 1.0; the derived geometry files are published under the ODbL (with the licence notice next to them)
  13. Phraseology of the ICAO airports: ICAO PANS-ATM (Doc. 4444) chapter 12 and Doc. 9432 (Manual of Radiotelephony), UK CAA CAP 413 as described by SKYbrary Runway Holding Position (holding point in radiotelephony; taxi to holding point ... hold short of runway ...; a specific clearance to cross any runway) and ICAO Annex 10 Volume II read-back of runway instructions - own wording, no text copied; the ICAO documents were not read in full
  14. Model choices for the generated airports (stated on the page): taxiway centre lines derived by computer, holding positions placed 250 ft (FAA) or 295 ft (ICAO Annex 14 table 3-2, code 4 precision approach runway) from the runway centre line where the data has none, scenarios generated from the network and checked by the route engine, confusion points of the ICAO airports in our own words, fictitious call sign and controller names
Sources & accuracyAuthority: FAA / ICAO / UKLast checked: 2026-10-18Pilot-reviewed: yes, 2026-10-24Report an error