Citationjet (C525/C526) - CJ I / II / III / IV
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Training / Qualification; Workload; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Airspace Structure; Chart Or Publication; Human Factors
We departed Runway 24 at TEB on the RUUDY 4 Departure. The First Officer briefed all the altitudes and course headings and planned to fly the departure with the autopilot engaged. On departure the First Officer called for the gear and flaps to come up. Then he said autopilot. I assumed he meant he had engaged the autopilot but he meant for me to engage the autopilot for him. We noticed that we needed to level off at 1;300. The First Officer was waiting for the autopilot which was not engaged at the time; we recognized the problem and the First Officer began the level off and we leveled off at approximately 1;580 and then returned to 1;500. We were slightly off course and corrected back on course. The Controller contacted us several times as we were sorting out the issue. We then changed over to New York Departure and at that time we were on course and altitude. We needed to be clear on who was going to engage the autopilot during the departure.
A communications breakdown on the TEB RUUDY 4 SID caused an altitude overshoot because takeoff brief did not clearly state that when the First Officer requested 'autopilot ON' the Captain was to complete the action.