Narrative:

Day 4 of a 4 day with a new first officer (first officer). The first officer mentioned before departure that he'd been off on vacation for a few weeks prior to this trip. We had two flights that day so I told him he could pick which one he wanted to fly or could fly both to get comfortable again. He elected to fly this leg and the flight was uneventful until we began to descend to den. Moderate turbulence in VMC for the last 10 min of the flight. As pilot monitoring (pm) I asked for lower and was given 8;000 feet abeam the airport where it finally became only light turbulence. We were given a base turn; called the airport in sight; and were cleared for the visual approach to runway 35L. The first officer lined up for the runway; asked for flaps 1 and began a slow descent while I contacted tower and obtained our landing clearance. I then noticed that we were approaching 1;200 feet AGL outside of the FAF and we were below the glideslope (in VMC). I alerted the first officer that we were low and to level off while we finished configuring the aircraft. He did so but the aircraft briefly descended to 1;000 feet AGL before he completely leveled off. We configured the aircraft and were stabilized and landed uneventfully. We briefed and successfully alerted the flight attendants (flight attendant) early coming into den due to it being a mountainous airport. However; we should have briefed the high airport elevation during the approach briefing so we would have paid extra attention to the RA which would have told us we were lower than we thought.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ERJ-170 flight crew reported descending below the glideslope to 1;000 feet AGL on a visual approach to DEN.

Narrative: Day 4 of a 4 day with a new First Officer (FO). The FO mentioned before departure that he'd been off on vacation for a few weeks prior to this trip. We had two flights that day so I told him he could pick which one he wanted to fly or could fly both to get comfortable again. He elected to fly this leg and the flight was uneventful until we began to descend to DEN. Moderate turbulence in VMC for the last 10 min of the flight. As Pilot Monitoring (PM) I asked for lower and was given 8;000 feet abeam the airport where it finally became only light turbulence. We were given a base turn; called the airport in sight; and were cleared for the visual approach to RWY 35L. The FO lined up for the runway; asked for flaps 1 and began a slow descent while I contacted tower and obtained our landing clearance. I then noticed that we were approaching 1;200 feet AGL outside of the FAF and we were below the glideslope (in VMC). I alerted the FO that we were low and to level off while we finished configuring the aircraft. He did so but the aircraft briefly descended to 1;000 feet AGL before he completely leveled off. We configured the aircraft and were stabilized and landed uneventfully. We briefed and successfully alerted the Flight Attendants (FA) early coming into DEN due to it being a mountainous airport. However; we should have briefed the high airport elevation during the approach briefing so we would have paid extra attention to the RA which would have told us we were lower than we thought.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.