Air carrier captain reported receiving a GPWS terrain alert on a visual approach into bdl.

Narrative:

Visual approaches were being conducted to runway 6 in bdl. The 06 glideslope was out of service and I briefed my first officer (first officer) that I wanted to practice a non-managed; non ILS approach since it had been quite a while since I had done one. Approaching the FAF; I pre-selected a 3 degree descent. Apparently I must have pulled the knob slightly and the aircraft began to descend. By the time I realized we were in a descent; the aircraft was crossing a ridge line located at the FAF; causing a single GPWS alert. I immediately disconnected the autopilot and autothrust and stopped the descent. We were already past the terrain; the runway was clearly in sight so I elected to continue. We almost immediately rejoined the correct path and continued a stabilized approach to a normal landing.this event reinforces my belief that it is important to regularly practice approaches that we rarely do for real. It was also a lesson learned for me to be much more vigilant when conducting this type of approach. The other lesson learned is how important it is for the pm (pilot monitoring) to challenge any deviations and not to assume the PF (pilot flying) is aware. After discussing the event after landing with my first officer; I think it was a positive learning experience for both of us.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier Captain reported receiving a GPWS terrain alert on a visual approach into BDL.

Narrative: Visual approaches were being conducted to Runway 6 in BDL. The 06 glideslope was out of service and I briefed my FO (First Officer) that I wanted to practice a non-managed; non ILS approach since it had been quite a while since I had done one. Approaching the FAF; I pre-selected a 3 degree descent. Apparently I must have pulled the knob slightly and the aircraft began to descend. By the time I realized we were in a descent; the aircraft was crossing a ridge line located at the FAF; causing a single GPWS alert. I immediately disconnected the autopilot and autothrust and stopped the descent. We were already past the terrain; the runway was clearly in sight so I elected to continue. We almost immediately rejoined the correct path and continued a stabilized approach to a normal landing.This event reinforces my belief that it is important to regularly practice approaches that we rarely do for real. It was also a lesson learned for me to be much more vigilant when conducting this type of approach. The other lesson learned is how important it is for the PM (Pilot Monitoring) to challenge any deviations and not to assume the PF (Pilot Flying) is aware. After discussing the event after landing with my FO; I think it was a positive learning experience for both of us.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1681566
Time
Date	201909
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	BDL.Airport
State Reference	CT
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT