An aircraft on a visual approach circling to land ase runway 33 in gusty conditions and high on appr...

Attributes
ACN	1288424
Time
Date	201508
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ASE.Airport
State Reference	CO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Transport High Wing 2 Turboprop Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Overshoot Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

We were set up to do the visual approach and circle to runway 33; as aspen was reporting gusty winds out of the north. I descended through 15000 feet and fully configured the plane for the approach. We were still a bit high on the crossing altitudes on the localizer app that we had up for guidance. I did some maneuvering in an effort to get down. I had the terrain in sight the whole way down. As we neared the fix raftr; the terrain GPWS warning went off. We immediately went missed approach and the tower told us to track the loc 15 missed approach course. We climbed out of the valley and away from the terrain. We ended up getting vectored around for another visual approach and circle to runway 33. We completed the second approach and landing without further incident. I think my descent rate (closure rate) towards the terrain is what set off the warning. I thought I was going to be further south of the terrain that raftr is on top of. In the future; I will be more mindful of my descent rates around terrain. This was a good reminder of how a day vmc approach can go wrong. The go around was the correct course of action.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An aircraft on a visual approach circling to land ASE Runway 33 in gusty conditions and high on approach developed an excessive rate of descent which triggered the EGPWS TERRAIN PULL UP alert. A go-around was executed followed by a second successful visual circle to land Runway 33.

Narrative: We were set up to do the visual approach and circle to runway 33; as Aspen was reporting gusty winds out of the north. I descended through 15000 feet and fully configured the plane for the approach. We were still a bit high on the crossing altitudes on the LOC app that we had up for guidance. I did some maneuvering in an effort to get down. I had the terrain in sight the whole way down. As we neared the fix RAFTR; the terrain GPWS warning went off. We immediately went missed approach and the tower told us to track the Loc 15 missed approach course. We climbed out of the valley and away from the terrain. We ended up getting vectored around for another visual approach and circle to runway 33. We completed the second approach and landing without further incident. I think my descent rate (closure rate) towards the terrain is what set off the warning. I thought I was going to be further south of the terrain that RAFTR is on top of. In the future; I will be more mindful of my descent rates around terrain. This was a good reminder of how a day vmc approach can go wrong. The go around was the correct course of action.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.

An aircraft on a visual approach circling to land ase runway 33 in gusty conditions and high on approach developed an excessive rate of descent which triggered the egpws terrain pull up alert. A go-around was executed followed by a second successful visual circle to land runway 33.