Narrative:

Flying in night VMC; I failed to fully familiarize myself with the surrounding terrain; and common procedures. The weather was reporting VFR with the winds favoring runway xx. I briefed the approach as a visual; backed up with the FMS. The briefed highest threat was situational awareness due to the fact that it was night time. We were cleared direct to the airport. Approximately 20 NM away from the airport; we called the airport in sight and upon being cleared for the visual approach; I started proceeding directly to the 5 NM fix. I was looking out the window at the airport as terrain started to come in as patchy green on the GPWS. The first officer mentioned that there was terrain in the area; but I did not grasp the severity of his comment as I was looking at the airport and trying to lose altitude due the fact that I now believed we were high. Approximately 10 seconds after the first officer's comment; we received an aural 'caution; terrain. Caution; terrain.' I immediately advance the thrust levers; retracted the spoilers; and turned left towards the airport. As the surrounding terrain layout became more apparent; the first officer mentioned that most other captains he had flown with always landed on runway Y at night. As I could now see why this would be prudent; I agreed with the idea and changed our approach to a left pattern for runway Y. In my approach briefing; I had said that situational awareness would be the biggest threat. When I said this; my thinking was about situational awareness in regards to the airport and the runways. The first officer; who was more familiar with the airport; understood the situational awareness briefing as being more towards that of the surrounding terrain. As the first officer now believed that I was more familiar with the surrounding terrain than I actually was; it did not occur to him to immediately question my briefed approach. Thus we continued as briefed until the GPWS warning caused us to change plans.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ-200 flight crew experienced a GPWS warning on a visual approach to an airport with rising terrain to the north. On advice of the First Officer who was familiar with the airport; the Captain altered the approach to the north runway.

Narrative: Flying in night VMC; I failed to fully familiarize myself with the surrounding terrain; and common procedures. The weather was reporting VFR with the winds favoring Runway XX. I briefed the approach as a visual; backed up with the FMS. The briefed highest threat was situational awareness due to the fact that it was night time. We were cleared direct to the airport. Approximately 20 NM away from the airport; we called the airport in sight and upon being cleared for the visual approach; I started proceeding directly to the 5 NM fix. I was looking out the window at the airport as terrain started to come in as patchy green on the GPWS. The First Officer mentioned that there was terrain in the area; but I did not grasp the severity of his comment as I was looking at the airport and trying to lose altitude due the fact that I now believed we were high. Approximately 10 seconds after the First Officer's comment; we received an aural 'Caution; terrain. Caution; terrain.' I immediately advance the thrust levers; retracted the spoilers; and turned left towards the airport. As the surrounding terrain layout became more apparent; the First Officer mentioned that most other Captains he had flown with always landed on Runway Y at night. As I could now see why this would be prudent; I agreed with the idea and changed our approach to a left pattern for Runway Y. In my approach briefing; I had said that situational awareness would be the biggest threat. When I said this; my thinking was about situational awareness in regards to the airport and the runways. The First Officer; who was more familiar with the airport; understood the situational awareness briefing as being more towards that of the surrounding terrain. As the First Officer now believed that I was more familiar with the surrounding terrain than I actually was; it did not occur to him to immediately question my briefed approach. Thus we continued as briefed until the GPWS warning caused us to change plans.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.