Learjet 35
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 20; Flight Crew Total 35545; Flight Crew Type 3655
Human-Machine Interface; Distraction; Situational Awareness; Time Pressure
Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Aircraft; Human Factors
I am just getting back into flying after retiring from the airlines and I see a lot of new technology and toys; but one thing comes screaming back to me in my instructing and Charter flying. That is: even with the new technological advances we all need to teach 'fly the aircraft' first and foremost and double check each other on the ATC clearance; charts; and procedures.Two examples are: on departure we were rushed with delays and passengers showing up early; so I did not get a chance to review the departure with the First Officer and the departure stated runway heading for vectors; no turns [until] 6;500 feet. At 6;500 [FT] I started a turn with the First Officer's concurrence for the assigned departure fix and was greeted by '[Callsign]; what is your heading?'  There was no traffic conflict; but we were embarrassed and were told; 'No problem; cleared on course. But in the future...' You can hopefully learn from my mistake.Second mistake was on descent into ZZZZ. We were given a change in the arrival with a crossing of 15;000 [feet] at ZZZZZ; no speed assigned.  The First Officer told me it was 19 miles to ZZZZZ when actually it was only 14 miles. I had set in 15;000 [feet] / 250 at ZZZZZ in the VNAV but that failed to come up and my reliance on it and not double checking each other on the tiny new IPAD screens put me 300 to 500 FT high. We did alert ATC and were told to do our best which; embarrassingly again; we did do. With all the new toys I have learned again: not to rely solely on them and always double check each other. Hopefully my errors in the basics will help others.
LR35 Captain attributed a track deviation and missed crossing restriction to a failure to follow the basic tenets of 'flying the aircraft first' and 'double checking each other.'