Systems and methods for improving sink rate alerting for rotary wing aircraft. In one example, the system includes a radio altimeter that produces an altitude value, a processor that is in signal communication with the user interface device and the radio altimeter. The processor receives an altitude value, a position value for the aircraft and landing zone (LZ) information. The processor determines if the aircraft is on an approach to land at an LZ that is raised above surrounding terrain based on the received position value and LZ information. The processor receives sink rate information for the aircraft and generates a sink rate alert based on the received sink rate information and the aircraft altitude value if the sink rate information is greater than a sink rate value adjusted according to the LZ information. An output device outputs the generated sink rate alert. The LZ information includes an altitude value.