Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 125; Flight Crew Type 10500
Communication Breakdown
Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation - Altitude Overshoot; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented
Human Factors; Aircraft
While departing DEN on the EEONS4; ATC cleared us out of our PDC limit of 10;000 to 'climb via SID to FL230.' As the pilot not flying (PNF); I was errantly thinking 'maintain FL230;' which would have been an unrestricted climb. The pilot flying (PF) was hand flying the departure; so I dialed 230 in the MCP and perceived I coordinated with the PF to delete the intermediate altitudes; thinking they were no longer necessary. The PF apparently wasn't really hearing what I was saying because he verified the steps before I executed them. He was busy hand flying and watching the altitudes on the departure and attempting to comply with them. Because I had deleted the 12;000B restriction at SHOBO; the flight director was climbing steeply toward that restriction. The PF attempted to level off there; still (correctly) believing we needed to comply; but the climb rate exceeded his ability to smoothly level off at 12;000 and we overshot the level off at SHOBO by 300- 400 feet before correcting down. The Controller seemingly did not believe we were leveling off; so he issued a vector away from the fix and asserted we had been cleared to 'climb via' and not an unrestricted climb. After I acknowledged the vector; he cleared us to climb unrestricted to FL230.I made errant entries to the FMC because I mixed up the definitions of climb clearances. Ironically; I had just reviewed the study guide regarding the 'climb via' preceding a 'climb and maintain' altitude earlier in the day. Perhaps my mind had locked on the answer to that question and thought this was the same situation. In the future; I will need to double-check my thinking of such clearances. I will also reconsider the PF's task loading in coordination events where I want him/her to verify something while they are hand flying. Looking back at the climb definitions I certainly knew what each meant; and have periodically reviewed them; yet I still misapplied them in this circumstance.
On takeoff roll; I lost my navigation and heading display. After takeoff; my navigation display returned and continued the departure. After flap retraction; I tried to engage the autopilot and was unable to do so on the First Officer's side. Was able to engage to Captain's side and while troubleshooting ATC gave us a heading of 100. We misunderstood while troubleshooting and the Captain selected a heading of 010. ATC prompted us on our heading and told us that was incorrect. ATC then gave us a turn back to heading 010 and assigned us a lower altitude of 13;000 for traffic on the arrival. We continued on the EEONS 4 RNAV; in LNAV/VNAV with the autopilot off. Just prior to ROYYL; ATC instructed us to climb to FL230 via the SID. The instruction was misunderstood; and the pilot monitoring deleted the altitudes in the FMS. I noticed there may have been an error in the climb instructions so I referred to the SID on my Electronic Flight Bag to comply with the altitude restrictions. As I was checking to see what altitudes I needed to comply with next; I overshot the altitude at SHOBO (at or below 12;000) by approximately 350 feet.When having an issue with the PF's instruments; next time I will hand the controls to the non-flying Pilot prior to troubleshooting. No loss of separation and we continued the climb out.
B737-700 First Officer (FO) experiences a navigation display failure during takeoff which quickly corrects itself once airborne. ATC assigns a heading of 100 but the Captain sets 010 in the MCP which the FO does not detect due to troubleshooting the navigation display problem. Later in the EEONS4 departure; ATC assigns a climb via to FL230 which the Captain interprets as a climb to FL230. An overshoot occurs at SHOBO.