While flying a left downwind visual to runway 34 at avl the flight crew of a commercial fixed wing a...

Narrative:

We were descending visually for our left downwind leg for runway 34 at avl. At about 10 miles northwest of the airport and at 5;000 ft we were issued a visual clearance for runway 34. I started a descent to 3;600 ft which was pattern altitude. I was planning to fly what I estimated to be about a mile left downwind. As we continued our descent to pattern altitude we heard the aural terrain warning. We were in visual conditions and we both knew terrain was not an issue; but I complied with the warning anyways. After the warning subsided; I decided to continue my visual descent as we were now approaching the abeam point to runway 34. Shortly thereafter we received a second aural terrain warning. Again; we were in visual conditions and both knew terrain was not going to be a factor. The warning subsided and we continued our visual descent. I believe the terrain to our west is what caused the aural terrain warnings to sound.next time I fly to avl I am going to increase the height of my visual pattern altitude by another 500 ft as I believe that will prevent the terrain warnings from sounding. As a result; I will have to plan on an increased final segment leg which should not result in any terrain issues.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: While flying a left downwind visual to Runway 34 at AVL the flight crew of a Commercial Fixed Wing aircraft received two GPWS Terrain warnings. Given VMC conditions they elected to continue their approach and landing exercising extra awareness of the terrain below.

Narrative: We were descending visually for our left downwind leg for Runway 34 at AVL. At about 10 miles northwest of the airport and at 5;000 FT we were issued a visual clearance for Runway 34. I started a descent to 3;600 FT which was pattern altitude. I was planning to fly what I estimated to be about a mile left downwind. As we continued our descent to pattern altitude we heard the aural terrain warning. We were in visual conditions and we both knew terrain was not an issue; but I complied with the warning anyways. After the warning subsided; I decided to continue my visual descent as we were now approaching the abeam point to Runway 34. Shortly thereafter we received a second aural terrain warning. Again; we were in visual conditions and both knew terrain was not going to be a factor. The warning subsided and we continued our visual descent. I believe the terrain to our west is what caused the aural terrain warnings to sound.Next time I fly to AVL I am going to increase the height of my visual pattern altitude by another 500 FT as I believe that will prevent the terrain warnings from sounding. As a result; I will have to plan on an increased final segment leg which should not result in any terrain issues.

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.

Attributes
ACN	987076
Time
Date	201201
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	AVL.Airport
State Reference	NC
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

While flying a left downwind visual to runway 34 at avl the flight crew of a commercial fixed wing aircraft received two GPWS terrain warnings. Given VMC conditions they elected to continue their approach and landing exercising extra awareness of the terrain below.