Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30; Flight Crew Total 317.3; Flight Crew Type 317.3
Situational Awareness
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Ground Incursion Runway
General None Reported / Taken
Human Factors
[We] departed HNL for a training flight. This was both a biannual flight review and a night currency flight to be shared between us. It was an uneventful flight with training completed as needed. Upon returning to HNL and accordance with the Approach Controllers; we held over Ford Island for sequencing. We were then given clearance to land on Runway 8L. The landing was uneventful.Taxi instructions were then given to us - turn right on taxiway G; left on B; right on E; and hold short of Runway 4L; the left seat pilot read back the instructions verbatim and confirmed the hold short instructions. We began to taxi; and then I took the the flight controls midway down Bravo. The intersection of taxiway B and E is listed as Hotspot 3 on the HNL Airport Diagram. Before we arrived at E; Tower made another call to confirm the hold short instructions and they were read back correctly; again from the left seat pilot. As we made the turn from B to E; we did not see the Runway 4L hold short lines and unknowingly taxied onto an active runway.This near 30 feet horizontal runway incursion put us directly in front of a departing [aircraft]. The [aircraft] was at rotation speed when they spotted us in front of them and [they] were able to lift off and bank the airplane to the right; overflying us.I had control of the aircraft from the right seat at the time; but the responsibilities between the two of us were unclear and controls were exchanged on the ground; but radio were handled from the other pilot. Also adding to the confusion was a lack of experience and recency with night operations in general; night operations at HNL; never having landed on runway 8L or taxied from 8L - I only had one other night flight at HNL X months prior. All of these factors contributed significantly to this inadvertent runway incursion and near miss.
Light aircraft pilot reported a runway incursion at HNL that resulted in a conflict with a departing aircraft that was able to climb safely above them.