Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Distraction; Training / Qualification; Confusion
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Chart Or Publication; Procedure
On our flight to Asheville we asked to fly the full GPS 34 Approach. I asked to do this because we were very early and the First Officer was scheduled to take his first PC. I asked if he felt comfortable with GPS approaches and he said that he hadn't really done any since initial simulator training. I felt this would be good experience for a new First Officer to see how to load a full GPS approach into the FMS and good training to remember all the procedures and callouts on a non precision approach. The weather was VFR. The only challenger was gusty surface winds. Asheville Approach was happy to allow us to fly the full GPS 34 APCH. We were cleared to the fix TUXDO at 6;000 FT and cleared for the full GPS APCH. We crossed TUXDO at 6;000 FT and did the published procedure turn and began our descent to 5;000 FT. Once inbound from TUXDO to UMUXE we began our descent to 4;000 FT. If I recall I dialed in a vertical speed down 1;000 FT to descend from 5;000 to 4;000 FT when crossing TUXDO. On our level off and 4;000 FT we got a GPWS Terrain Terrain Pull Up. The GPWS warned us once and then silenced. I did noticed my Radio Altimeter flash to about 900 FT. We were configured at flaps 20 at this point. I would estimate we were 6-8 miles from the UMUXE fix at the time. It was a VFR day and I could see there was no terrain to worry about and did not execute a GPWS escape maneuver. We continued to make a normal approach and landing. If the weather was IMC or in night conditions I would have had no choice but to execute a GPWS escape maneuver. This troubles me because we flew the published procedure.GPWS warning activated once. Looking outside I noticed terrain was close but not an issue. I inquired Asheville Approach Control on the ground in between flights to ask if this is a common occurrence. The Controller never heard of it before but did see an issue with the approach as well. With the altitude of 4;000 FT between TUXDO and UMUXE he said there is terrain around TUXDO at 3;200 FT which is what we must have been over when our GPWS went off. I want to stress that we followed the approach chart as published and were not low. I think the issue with the GPS 34 Approach is there needs to be another intermediate altitude between TUXDO and UMUXE. The chart shows there is 12.6 miles between the two fixes. We began our descent crossing TUXDO and were at 4;000 FT 8 miles away from UMUXE. The descent to 4;000 FT should begin closer to UMUXE to avoid that terrain. Like I said before if the conditions were not VMC we would have had to perform a GPWS escape maneuver. A pilot should not be put into a position where terrain clearance is an issue when they follow the published procedures.
An Air Carrier EGPWS alerted TERRAIN PULL UP near AVL GPS 34 TUXDO Intersection at 4;000 FT; an authorized altitude; but continued the approach noting in IMC or night conditions they would have executed the escape maneuver.