Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine
Situational Awareness
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Human Factors
We received a vectoring delay arriving at ZZZ due to traffic. We arrived from the north then overhead the airport we were vectored back north for about 15 miles. When we were about eleven miles NW of the airport inbound; the Controller cleared us for a visual approach to Runway XX and asked that we track the centerline of the runway towards the airport. At that point I was tracking what looked like a proper and safe descent path to the runway and our speed was under control. Due to the extreme VFR conditions my sight picture for the descent looked safe and the PAPI was between white/white to white/red. As we approached the last mountain ridge; we received a CAUTION TERRAIN advisory. I still felt our glide path was going to clear the mountain ridge; however; due to the steep vertical slope of the mountain ridge the GPWS within seconds called out TERRAIN TERRAIN PULL UP. Again; I still felt we were okay; but the radar altimeter quickly showed a decreasing AGL from 1;500 - 700 feet. I shallowed the descent rate until we were past the mountain ridge. One factor was it had been over XX years since I last landed at ZZZ. We were vectored to the airport and were not on a published approach. I had previously landed at ZZZ about fifteen times many years ago and I remembered that it is easy to end up high and fast trying to land at ZZZ; which I was trying to avoid from happening. My over confidence that my sight picture and descent rate looked like we were going to clear the terrain safely. We had the LOC DME approach loaded in the FMS; but I never fully crossed referenced the charted crossing altitudes because we were vectored to the airport. The extreme VFR conditions and smooth air lulled me into thinking nothing could go wrong with this approach.Strictly adhere to charted altitudes on a published approach plate for the airport even though we are cleared for a visual approach and it will cause our descent angle to be between 6.49 to 9.61 degrees until short final.
CL-350 flight crew reported aircraft encountered terrain alert during approach.