Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Workload
Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors; Procedure
On the new RNAV SID RITAA1; the RNAV fixes have altitude crossing restrictions. The controller gave us a clearance 'Climb via the RITAA1 RNAV; except maintain 11;000 FT' as we were lining up on the take off runway. We set the altitude setting bug to 11;000 FT and we took off. During the initial climb; after the After Takeoff Checklist; I asked the Captain about the altitude restrictions because I was kind of confused whether we had to comply with them or not anymore based on the clearance given to us by ATC on take off. But in this busy phase of flight; he was already talking on the radio; monitoring the SID horizontal path; and watching for outside traffic because of our deferred TCAS. By the time he was able to respond to my concerns; we were already 300 FT above the first crossing restriction; with the second one just 6.7 miles after the first one we also crossed this second one 300 FT high. Then ATC notified us about our altitude deviation from the SID. There wasn't any confusion anymore. We did have to comply with the altitudes on the SID. We descended right back down to the altitude restriction and then complied with the rest of the SID. New procedures have been put in place for departures/arrivals at IAH since May 29; 2014. These new departures put altitude restrictions on the initial climb on the SID; which wasn't the case before as the assigned altitudes were given prior to that date by a 'climb and maintain xxx' or an initial climb altitude written on the SID. They also require a new phraseology which can lead to confusion because the clearances are close to one another: 'Climb and maintain' vs. 'except maintain'. It's this confusion in the clearance that led me to climb thinking that we didn't have to comply with the altitude restrictions anymore and that we were assigned to climb to 11;000 FT. We also had the altitude bug set for 11;000 FT as this was our final assigned altitude given by ATC for the climb clearance. This was also the first time I was flying this specific SID. The number of fixes and the fact that the distances between the different fixes of the RITAA1 SID are pretty close to each other (6.7 NM between TTAPS and BOTLL/5.5 NM between BOTLL and FLYZA with a mandatory altitude change of 2;000 FT) might have been a contributing factor too. At 250 KTS ground speed; there's only just above 1 minute of flight time to climb from a 'at or below 5;000 FT' to a 'at or above 7;000 FT'. [It was a] pretty steep climb to comply with these two restrictions not even considering any eventual tailwind factor. We discussed with the Captain about the new RNAV SID in place at IAH during the brief and considered it as a threat since this was the first time I was flying this SID and we also talked about the crossing restrictions. I think; what could be done on our level is to talk about the different phraseology that we could hear on a 'Climb via' clearance and the alterations we could encounter ('climb and maintain'; 'except maintain') in order to decide about the course of action to be taken regarding speed/altitude restrictions. We could also set the altitude 'bug' with every restrictions stepping up our way during the initial climb like we already do in a 'descent via' clearance but the initial climb is a much more critical and busy phase of flight and it would take more of the crew resources to step up the altitude settings in a very short amount of time with other things to be done (like checklists). On a more global level; in my opinion; these two clearances aren't different enough to be crystal clear on the radio (generally speaking; the 'climb/descend via' clearances are really confusing. Proof is we had a lot of informational bulletins dealing with these clearance phraseology problems and it still confuses people). Like it had been done before to emphasize the 'Take off' clearance ('Ready for departure' vs. 'Cleared for take off'); it would be wise; in a joint discussion with ATC; to find a way to differentiate these two 'Climb via' alterations to prevent any confusion on these complex departures during a critical (and busy) phase of flight. For example: 'Climb via the SID; comply with all altitudes/speeds; except maintain 11;000 FT' or 'Climb via the SID to 11;000 FT except comply with all altitudes/speeds'.
CRJ-200 First Officer experiences confusion attempting to 'climb via the RITAA 1 maintaain 11;000 FT' departing IAH. The first two crossing restrictions are overshoot which is noted by ATC.