It was a moonless night in the valley, with a strong wind behind us from the north. I usually fly single-pilot, but that night I had a new hire, an old friend, with me. He was getting to know a new-to-him airplane. We talked about the terrain and the wind and the runway length, and that I had been to the destination airport recently. It was a good briefing. We decided to enter on the downwind for a visual approach.
On base leg, the runway was in sight. I was really surprised to hear an automated female voice saying “Terrain! Pull up!” But I could see the runway, so I hesitated. “You’d better climb,” my friend said, very calmly, and I realized he meant it, so I added a lot of power and pulled the nose up just short of stalling, just like I’d practiced in the simulator. They call it an escape maneuver. Now that was a climb.
