Airbus Industrie Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Training / Qualification; Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory
Airspace Structure; Chart Or Publication; Company Policy; Human Factors; Manuals
This event occurred at ZZZ. I traded my original 3 day trip for this trip. After realizing that I traded into a trip which involved a landing at ZZZ; I began studying all the company pages; available approaches; NOTAMs to the runways. I also reviewed the landing distance for each runway. Having not served ZZZ since Year1/Year2; and only then I was a pilot monitoring; it also occurred to me this would be my 1st actual landing at this airport in my career. In addition; I was paired up with a new hire pilot; nearly off probation. Because of these factors. I elected to take the landing as pilot flying into ZZZ. Earlier in the day; while flying our 2nd leg from ZZZ1 to ZZZ2; I discussed the approach and landing to ZZZ with my First Officer while at cruise. I explained the terrain situation; ops advisory pages; required rwy was XX due to longer Runway distances; location of gates and our taxi after landing. I also advised him that I did not want RWXY (normal flow runway) due to winds favoring XX and shorter runway distance. When we flew the next leg to ZZZ; the FO (First Officer) advised approach control of our required runway; XX. The controller said they are landing XY and to say intentions. Since it's was still day VMC with winds favoring RWY XX; I told the FO; that we could accept a Visual to RWY XX. The controller then asked if we wanted a Visual or the Published RNAV Vis. I told the FO whatever is faster; the FO relayed my request to the controller; who then informed us that if we accepted the Visual; we would have to circle to the east; [in the] vicinity of [name removed] Park; over [a] mountain just east of field. Having read thru the ops advisory pages for this airport; I did not see anything prohibiting us from a circle on the east side. I accepted this clearance and we were cleared for the visual to RWY XX while on a left downwind. I dialed in appx 2000 ft. in altitude preselect window; and began a steep open descent with the speed brakes deployed to get down fast; as we were kept up at 4000 ft. abeam the runway. The plane came down nicely; however; as I crossed the ridge of the mountain just east of the field; we did get a 'Terrain-Terrain-Pull up-Pull up' warning. I immediately disconnected the AP; and AT (Autothrottles); began to level off while simultaneously adding power; as we cleared the ridge on the back side; I began a descending left turn over a canyon for a left base entry to runway XX. Once on the back side of ridge; the flight was uneventful and landing was on the numbers with plenty of runway to spare. I did brief the FO before we started down; we may get a terrain warning due to ATC vectors to MVA. To that extent; I feel we were both prepared for the terrain warning we experienced. We also both felt during the terrain warning that we had sufficient altitude to clear the ridge without putting the aircraft or passengers in danger.In looking back; I feel that having not landed at ZZZ before; not realizing that circling to the east is prohibited; and accepting the controller's clearance of a visual to RWY XX on a left downwind over mountainous terrain clearly contributed to this event. First Officer was outstanding during this whole event; as the pilot monitoring. Also; the controllers must be trained to refuse circle to the east ops for ALL IFR ops.I would change the 10-7 pages in Jepps; to include all circling to the east of airport prohibited; no exceptions. I would also add that the next day; I spoke with ground control about situation and they said we can accept a vector to runway XY; with a circle to land on XX with Tower. This allows us to circle NW of the runway; in the flat part of the valley; much safer. A week later; I performed this operation; as I had this exact same trip; and it worked flawlessly to runway XX. This should also be in our 10-7 pgs. One gotcha though; on the vector to visual RWY XY; we were told to cross ZZZZZ at or above 3000 ft. cleared for the visual. I wasn't planning onthis and disconnected the AP as a result. Tower gave us the clearance to circle NW to runway XX. Cross ZZZZZ at or above 3000 ft. should also be in our 10-7 pgs.
A GPWS event occurred in the Left downwind during a visual approach into ZZZ. Having flown into ZZZ a couple of times in [another aircraft]; I was familiar with the layout of the airport; terrain; and some of the unique threats that this airport presents. On the prior leg the CA (Captain) mentioned that he had not flown into ZZZ in many years and we began discussing some of the challenges and threats that the airport naturally presents. On arrival; the runway in use was XY however the CA wanted to land on XX due to favoring winds and runway length. With this in mind we set up for and briefed the RNAV Visual Rwy XX approach. As we approached ATC did not want to give us the RNAV Visual Rwy XX due to conflicting with his flow and arrivals into ZZZ XY. This was understandable due to our arrival coming from the East; South East and would cause us to swing south of the field out to the West; then North crossing the arrival corridor for XY. ATC then offered the left downwind for the visual to XX and called the airport at our 1 o clock position. At this point I asked the CA if he still wanted it and if he had the airport in sight. The CA said yes; and with the airport in sight; I called the airport in sight and we immediately began a turn and a descent to enter the left downwind for ZZZ XX. As we got closer to the field and entered the downwind we were fully configured and just managing our descent to make our base turn. The terrain immediately to the East has a finger that runs West and East and lies underneath the left downwind. This terrain is what caused the GPWS warning. At that point the CA disconnected the autopilot and auto throttles; and I was monitoring the vertical speed and visually monitoring the terrain outside. At no point did I see or feel any uncomfortable or unsafe energy trend toward the terrain. As we cleared that finger; we then made our left base turn and came around for a normal landing.I think the landing distance concern for XY might have caused us to favor XX more than needed. This in conjunction with the high level of traffic and the immediate nature of the decision to take the left downwind for the visual; caused myself to completely forget about the option of shooting the approach to XY and simply circling North to XX. This also interfered with my recall of 10-7 pages. Since we were planning the visual the entire time; although we reviewed the 10-7 pages before; I didn't have recall no circling east. I would just simplify the 10-7 And REF pages and make them more concise and directive. For example. 'This runway uses a right hand traffic pattern'. I have been to airports that have a right hand traffic pattern; however; the tower will tell you to use a left handed pattern. So for this note; in this case; a note like 'left hand traffic PROHIBITED' is much more clear and directive to me.
A319 flight crew reported Terrain Warning on approach.