Medium Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 87; Flight Crew Total 8807; Flight Crew Type 4360
Fatigue; Communication Breakdown; Distraction; Workload
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Airspace Structure; Chart Or Publication; Procedure; Weather; Human Factors
During initial departure and climb-out on the cleared RUUDY4.RUUDY SID from TEB airport; the initial level off altitude of 1;500 FT MSL at WENTZ Intersection was inadvertently climbed through and exceeded by 150 FT; in which case I; the pilot flying; took immediate and evasive action to manually return the aircraft via a descent to the appropriate altitude. I would attribute 2 major factors toward this minor and fortunately corrected deviation: 1) Upon initial contact with the Controller of 'New York Departure'; the Controller's response to the pilot not flying's checking in was 'N_____ you need to cross WENTZ Intersection at 1;500 FT'. The resultant response in management of the aircraft was to increase climb rate with pitch. The presumption with regard to this challenge from the New York Departure Controller was that the climb rate was not sufficient; and having knowledge that the RUUDY4 departure procedure requires a minimum climb gradient pertaining to the next subsequent waypoint I felt that this performance issue was what was implied by the controller. 2) After having already had a reasonably long duty day; combined with near record delays due to convective weather in and around the NY TRACON and Center air spaces areas; fatigue and stressors of our environment played a contributing factor. In addition; by this point our 'time since awake' would have been approximately 13 hours. Our 'gate hold' delay on the ground in TEB was 3+ hours.
A fatigued First Officer flying the TEB RUUDY4 exceeded the 1;500 FT altitude constraint by 150 FT when ATC questioned his low climb rate and after thirteen hours awake with a three hour gate weather hold.