Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 26; Flight Crew Total 105; Flight Crew Type 105
Confusion; Situational Awareness; Distraction
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Procedure; Human Factors; Airport
After receiving a clearance from Ground Control to taxi via taxiways C; B; and A; I began to taxi. While on taxiway C; I heard ground clear another Skyhawk to taxi to the runway via taxiways E and A. I continued to taxi while looking for the other traffic. There is a downgrade on taxiway B that takes it below a hill between taxiways B and A as you near the intersection of B and A. Taxiway B clears that hill just before the intersection. After looking to my right towards taxiway A and seeing no one; I continued to taxi towards the intersection and looked left in the direction I was to turn. As I was turning onto taxiway A; I saw the other Skyhawk in my peripheral vision and hit the brakes to stop at the same time as the other pilot. Both planes were in the intersection stopped a few feet away from each other. The other pilot called Ground to advise of the near collision and the controller apologized stating that they had lost sight of us. I radioed the other pilot and asked if everyone was okay. After determining that no collision had occurred and there were no injuries; I agreed to continue my turn as I was in front of the other plane. We both continued to the runup area without incident and continued with our flights. While the terrain and darkness were contributing factors; I believe that the primary cause was a failure to approach a known hotspot with due caution. In the future I will pause as I approach this intersection and use an extra second to check for traffic before continuing.
A General Aviation aircraft following taxi instructions from ATC had to suddenly brake to avoid another aircraft taxiing into the same intersection.