Ambiguous Phraseology
 

I’m noticing a lot more of the following type of taxi instruction:

”BigJet123 Taxi Alpha Bravo Hold short Charlie”.

Charlie is a taxiway connected to Bravo.

Does this mean hold short ON Charlie or Hold Short OF Charlie?
I’ve recently been chastised for both interpretations when I did the alternative.
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CAA RT Manual doesn’t offer any meaningful guidance. Clearly if in doubt ask but sometimes this leads to further chastisement! 🙃

From CAP413:

HOLD SHORT - Stop before reaching the specified location. NOTE: Only used in limited circumstances where no defined point exists (e.g. where there is no suitably located holding point), or to reinforce a clearance limit.

Any controller chastising a query from a pilot deserves everything coming to them. Unfortunately one day I may suffer a pilot having previously been chastised too many times to ask me for clarification when I am inadvertently ambiguous. PLEASE ask if you're not sure :D

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It means hold short of Charlie.

Thinking one step further, if the instruction was "hold short RWY 26", I'd certainly hope nobody decides to hold on the runway :)

GMC at Manchester does the 'hold short of' thing when passing instructions to aircraft needing to cross 23R in order to reach 23L. I gather it's done for extra safety but I don't know if it's in response to previous incident(s).