Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Communication Breakdown; Time Pressure; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft; Company Policy; Equipment / Tooling
We arrived at the airplane at and found that Maintenance was being performed on the hydraulic system 3B; and also found that the standby horizon would not erect. Both of these items were written up and eventually an MEL was effected for the hydraulic pump.  After all items were entered in logbook; I went out to inspect the area where repairs were made and found a fastener missing from the airframe. It was found lying on the ground underneath the airplane; and Maintenance was called to reinstall the fastener. I went back to the cockpit and was in the midst of preparing the airplane for departure when Maintenance came into the cockpit telling us that we needed to write up the missing fastener even though it was associated with the earlier hydraulic fix. We did so and this logbook entry. We were again getting things ready for the push with jet bridge disconnected now two hours late; when we were further interrupted by a ground crew asking us to take additional passengers from another delayed flight. They shortly changed their minds and we were again allowed to push. We had reached cruise altitude before either the First Officer or I realized that we had forgotten to download the newest release that included the newest MEL and sign it. Upon landing; we did download and sign. I attribute this failure to numerous interruptions before the push. We received no indication from Dispatch that the new release had been sent and did not remember to download ourselves.
CRJ-200 Captain reported not receiving the newest flight release from Dispatch until airborne.