A pilot; on his first IFR approach with his flight instructor; descended prematurely which led to a ...

Narrative:

Student was flying his third lesson [for the] instrument airplane rating. We were west of our airport and the weather went from broken to overcast. We were on top so we filed an IFR with flight service; called ATC and picked up the IFR code. I was giving the student headings and altitude for the GPS approach to our home base. ATC controller saw the present position to the inbound fix was perfect and cleared us for the approach. A few minutes later; the student allowed the airplane to descend and I told him to correct altitude but he was a bit slow flying the airplane. We became 200 feet low and climbing when a different ATC voice advised we had a low altitude alert. I told ATC we were correcting and we were very short time back at 2;200 feet. This was the student's first IFR approach to an airport. When the approach descent was started a few minutes later we were VFR and we canceled the IFR. The student then proceeded with the approach to a normal (but cross wind) landing. I should have taken the control away from the student and climbed the 200 feet but he already had the nose up; but he just didn't climb as fast as I wanted him to do. I briefed the incident after we landed and he is well aware of being low on an approach and now knows what a 'low altitude' alert is all about. Safety.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A pilot; on his first IFR approach with his Flight Instructor; descended prematurely which led to a low altitude alert call from ATC.

Narrative: Student was flying his third lesson [for the] Instrument Airplane rating. We were west of our airport and the weather went from broken to overcast. We were on top so we filed an IFR with flight service; called ATC and picked up the IFR code. I was giving the student headings and altitude for the GPS approach to our home base. ATC controller saw the present position to the inbound fix was perfect and cleared us for the approach. A few minutes later; the student allowed the airplane to descend and I told him to correct altitude but he was a bit slow flying the airplane. We became 200 feet low and climbing when a different ATC voice advised we had a low altitude alert. I told ATC we were correcting and we were very short time back at 2;200 feet. This was the student's first IFR approach to an airport. When the approach descent was started a few minutes later we were VFR and we canceled the IFR. The student then proceeded with the approach to a normal (but cross wind) landing. I should have taken the control away from the student and climbed the 200 feet but he already had the nose up; but he just didn't climb as fast as I wanted him to do. I briefed the incident after we landed and he is well aware of being low on an approach and now knows what a 'low altitude' alert is all about. SAFETY.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1299087
Time
Date	201509
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Other GPS Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Instructor
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150 Flight Crew Total 18900 Flight Crew Type 2500
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

A pilot; on his first IFR approach with his flight instructor; descended prematurely which led to a low altitude alert call from ATC.