Air carrier flight crew experienced a low altitude warning while on second visual approach into lga....

Attributes
ACN	1333863
Time
Date	201602
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	LGA.Airport
State Reference	NY
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach

Narrative:

We built 2 waypoints F160C and F131B in FMS as a reference point for express way visual 31 into lga which was the active runway and approach in use. The pilot flying was the first officer (first officer) and since he was not quite familiar with all the local landmarks so that he was still using autopilot with FMS with those 2 waypoints built in on FMS even after we passed dials.we configured the aircraft for landing at dials and I did not see any problem for altitude and speed control since then. But because we had over 20 knots northerly wind and aircraft did not line up with the runway 31 and were almost approaching taxiway B so we decided to go around. For the second try; we built dials on FMS but decided to hand fly with those 2 waypoints just as a reference. This time; the pilot flying; first officer; totally lost his orientation where the long island express way is and way off course to the east and since we were still descending; we had the low altitude warning from new york approach control. At that time; I took the flight control and climbed back up to 1;500 feet. I kept the flight control with me and landed normal in runway 31.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier flight crew experienced a low altitude warning while on second visual approach into LGA. Crew adjusted altitude and continued to a normal landing.

Narrative: We built 2 waypoints F160C and F131B in FMS as a reference point for Express Way Visual 31 into LGA which was the active runway and approach in use. The pilot flying was the First Officer (FO) and since he was not quite familiar with all the local landmarks so that he was still using autopilot with FMS with those 2 waypoints built in on FMS even after we passed DIALS.We configured the aircraft for landing at DIALS and I did not see any problem for altitude and speed control since then. But because we had over 20 knots northerly wind and aircraft did not line up with the runway 31 and were almost approaching taxiway B so we decided to go around. For the second try; we built DIALS on FMS but decided to hand fly with those 2 waypoints just as a reference. This time; the pilot flying; FO; totally lost his orientation where the Long Island Express way is and way off course to the east and since we were still descending; we had the low altitude warning from New York Approach Control. At that time; I took the flight control and climbed back up to 1;500 feet. I kept the flight control with me and landed normal in runway 31.

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.

Air carrier flight crew experienced a low altitude warning while on second visual approach into lga. Crew adjusted altitude and continued to a normal landing.