LAHSO: land and hold short, and how to read it back
LAHSO is one of the few clearances you are allowed to turn down, and one where reading it back correctly genuinely matters. Here is how it works.
What LAHSO is
Land And Hold Short Operations: the tower clears you to land but you must stop before an intersecting runway or a marked point on the runway, to stay clear of crossing traffic on another runway.
You can decline it
If you are not comfortable with the available landing distance, or anything else, you may say “unable LAHSO” and the tower will sequence you another way. Student pilots are often advised to decline as a matter of course.
Check the available distance
The tower gives you the available landing distance — “hold short of runway three zero, four thousand five hundred feet available.” Make sure that is comfortably enough for your airplane before you accept.
The readback
Read back the hold-short point: “Cleared to land runway two six, hold short of runway three zero, Cessna One Two Three Four Five.” The hold-short is the part you must say.
If you accept, you must comply
Once you accept LAHSO you are committed to stopping short. Plan the approach and touchdown so the hold-short point is comfortable, not a scramble at the end.
When in doubt, decline
There is no penalty for “unable.” A normal landing on the full runway, or a go-around, is always safer than scraping to a stop to make a hold-short you were not sure about.
Drill it
The hold-short read-back is the most-failed call on a checkride and the most drillable. Practice LAHSO and hold-short read-backs on Clearspar — free, no mic.
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