Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Situational Awareness; Human-Machine Interface; Fatigue
Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Human Factors
During the pre-start check; the crew confirmed that all three altimeters were set properly.  I have a clear memory of personally checking all 3 altimeters.  As Pilot Flying I was hand flying a vectored departure and given a clearance to climb and maintain 10;000 ft.  Approximately 200 ft prior; as I was leveling off; I was given a new clearance to climb and maintain 16;000 ft.  I continued to hand fly and completed a smooth level off at 16;000.  As I was doing so; ATC gave us a notification of opposite direction traffic 1;000 feet above us which we had on TCAS and immediately saw visually.  All appeared normal and I believed ATC was simply letting us know why we had not been cleared higher and was giving a normal notification of traffic.  The transmission was partially garbled; and the Pilot Monitoring (PM) requested that ATC repeat it.  ATC simply responded with 'maintain 16;000' which the PM acknowledged.  The PM then noticed that our altimeters did not agree and informed me that my altimeter was set at 29.92 instead of the local altimeter setting.  I reset the altimeter and discovered that I was actually at 16;180 ft; which likely had prompted the call from ATC.  We were just short of 200 ft high.  I descended and was at 16;000 before passing under the opposite direction traffic.  We did not receive a TCAS TA or RA.  I have no memory of resetting my altimeter to 29.92 but surmise that I must have done so as it would be very difficult to have hit the button accidentally.  While allowed to set 29.92 once assigned a climb above 18;000 ft; my normal practice is to wait until the altimeter setting flashes approaching 18;000 ft to reset it.  Normal practice meaning I don't recall ever doing it differently.  I cannot explain when I reset it to standard; except that it was after the pre-start check and prior to leveling at 16;000.  My best guess is that I did so at 10;000 for some reason; as that was the only altitude I passed that I would have considered significant; although I was on profile in a 250 knot climb both before and after 10;000 ft.  In this case; the local altimeter setting was close enough to standard that I did not exceed the 300 feet limit for a flight violation or cause a traffic conflict.  This was just luck however.  Had the altimeter been significantly different from standard; I don't believe I would have been more likely to notice the error and could have been responsible for a conflict.I'm not sure what the cause was except that I simply made an error.  Why; how; or when escapes me.  However; I did have to call in fatigued that morning as we were on a late in the day pairing but had been delayed overnight to a morning departure two time zones to the east.  When I called in fatigued unable to fall asleep early; I was given my 10 hours and a later show time; though to make the later show time I still needed to get out of bed two hours prior to when I was accustomed.  After I woke up to my alarm; I was notified that the aircraft was still in maintenance and was given an even later show time; and I took a short nap.  In the end; the error happened during a time I'd normally be awake; but I did not get my normal sleep routine.  I had legal rest and did not feel particularly fatigued; but I can't discount that fatigue very well could have contributed to such an unusual error.  I utilized the Fatigue Risk Management Plan (FRMP) to the extent I felt necessary and neither Crew Scheduling nor the company pressured me in any way to fly fatigued.  Perhaps I should have insisted on an even later show time.  My feeling of responsibility to our customers who had already been delayed over 12 hours was a factor in making a show time that was earlier than normal for me; considering time zones; but again; I didn't feel overly tired at the time. Obviously; having made this error for the first time; I'll be more cognizant of when I hit the button to bring the altimeter to standard going forward.  As far as the possible fatigueaspect; our promise to our customers to transport them to their destination at the time we say can sometimes conflicts with our promise to transport them as safely as possible.  I have availed myself of the risk management plan several times in the last year and have never received any negative feedback or pressure to fly fatigued.  There are times when I feel the probability of losing pay has pressured other pilots to fly with less rest than they needed; but in this case pay was not a factor as I was the only pilot available to fly this leg to an outstation serviced only once per day.  So; I was going to be paid for the leg no matter when I flew it.  Therefore; I can't recommend any changes to the risk management plan.  I simply need to do a better job of anticipating and assessing my own fatigue level.
Climbing out we were assigned to maintain 16;000 ft. First Officer (FO) was pilot flying. Altitude was verified at '1;000 to go' call. As we went through 15;000 feet; I said 15;000 climbing 16;000. FO was hand flying; as we near 16;000 (about 100ft to go) I noticed he wasn't slowing down the climb rate. I looked over and his altimeter was set to 29.92 instead of the altimeter we've gotten when I checked in of 30.16. As I looked over ATC asked if we had the 16;000 ft altitude assigned which I replied affirmatively. As I was done talking to ATC I told the FO he had the wrong altimeter setting; and that our Altimeter was 30.16. FO did level off at 16;000 ft but he had a wrong altimeter setting. FO may have pushed the standard 29.92 altimeter inadvertently at some point after initial departure. As the altimeter were set and cross checked for departure on the ground. We had checked our level off altitude on the 1;000 to go call. But I didn't notice at that time he had a wrong altimeter setting. I think on the 1;000 feet to go call we should have notice this discrepancy; but I was looking at my PFD and not his. FO should have mentioned that his altitude did not match with mine at the 1;000 to go call.
CRJ-200 flight crew reported failing to have the correct altimeter setting in both altimeters during initial climb and cited fatigue as a possible contributing factor.