On a night VMC approach to cho from the east; an air carrier egpws alerted at 2;200 feet just as ATC...

Narrative:

Coming into cho at night we could never hear the ATIS until about 45 miles out due to the same ATIS frequency with chambers field so we planned on runway 21 straight in landing. Checked on and asked for runway 21 and then changed us to runway 3 because of the winds. I have been into this airport before many times but never from this direction from the north. I know significant terrain exists west of the airport but we were staying on the east side of the field on our right downwind at 3;000 feet on a clear night so terrain wasn't my immediate thought. We were cleared the visual approach runway 3 and the captain set in 2;200 feet which was about 1;500-1;600 feet AGL which is normal pattern altitude. At 2;200 feet we got a terrain egpws and climbed back up to our vectoring altitude of 3;000 feet and the egpws message cleared. At that time tower gave us a low altitude alert as we climbed. We proceeded to the airport and landed uneventfully.the chart pages mention terrain up to 4;000 feet 10 miles west of the airport but make no mention of any terrain to the east. Looking at the MSA on the ILS runway 3 shows an MSA of 2;000 feet in the east quadrant so I was confused but then realized it was referencing gve which is east of the field. So we were in the west quadrant which has a higher MSA so that was an error.definitely pay attention to the terrain more carefully. An airport doesn't have to be a designated mountainous airport to be a terrain threat.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: On a night VMC approach to CHO from the east; an air carrier EGPWS alerted at 2;200 feet just as ATC issued a low altitude alerted so the crew climbed to 3;000 feet then continued the approach to a normal landing.

Narrative: Coming into CHO at night we could never hear the ATIS until about 45 miles out due to the same ATIS frequency with Chambers Field so we planned on Runway 21 straight in landing. Checked on and asked for Runway 21 and then changed us to Runway 3 because of the winds. I have been into this airport before many times but never from this direction from the north. I know significant terrain exists west of the airport but we were staying on the east side of the field on our right downwind at 3;000 feet on a clear night so terrain wasn't my immediate thought. We were cleared the visual approach Runway 3 and the Captain set in 2;200 feet which was about 1;500-1;600 feet AGL which is normal pattern altitude. At 2;200 feet we got a terrain EGPWS and climbed back up to our vectoring altitude of 3;000 feet and the EGPWS message cleared. At that time Tower gave us a low altitude alert as we climbed. We proceeded to the airport and landed uneventfully.The chart pages mention terrain up to 4;000 feet 10 miles west of the airport but make no mention of any terrain to the east. Looking at the MSA on the ILS Runway 3 shows an MSA of 2;000 feet in the east quadrant so I was confused but then realized it was referencing GVE which is east of the field. So we were in the west quadrant which has a higher MSA so that was an error.Definitely pay attention to the terrain more carefully. An airport doesn't have to be a designated mountainous airport to be a terrain threat.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	1076381
Time
Date	201303
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	CHO.Airport
State Reference	VA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

On a night VMC approach to cho from the east; an air carrier egpws alerted at 2;200 feet just as ATC issued a low altitude alerted so the crew climbed to 3;000 feet then continued the approach to a normal landing.