Narrative:

After I had leveled off at 1;500 MSL prior to wentz intersection I noticed the CDI cycle from the 240 degree heading to the 260 degree track to wentz intersection. I mistakenly thought that this change in track indicated I was over head wentz. I began to climb to the next altitude per the SID which is 2;000 ft MSL. I realized my early climb at 1;700 ft MSL and immediately returned to 1;500 ft. The pilot not flying reported our actual altitude to ATC and told them that we were immediately correcting. We do not feel traffic separation was violated. Prior to departure we followed all standard operation procedures including the briefing of the departure with altitudes. I feel several factors led to my deviation: because of the VMC conditions and the amount of traffic in the area I was diligently searching for traffic with my 'head outside' the cockpit rather than 'head inside' monitoring the instruments. This led to my loss of situational awareness. Due to noise issues at the teb airport the recommended runway for departure is runway 24. On this particular day and because of the time of day I was more diligent in my noise reduction departure procedure. This added to my already increased work load as this particular flight required the aircraft to be near maximum gross weight which due to the short length of the runway requiring close to balanced field length for takeoff performance. Additionally; the low altitude level off with rapid changes in aircraft configuration while complying with speed restrictions below class B airspace; and radio frequency changes all added up to a huge cockpit work load for both pilots. I also feel fatigue was a factor as this was the last day of a 9 day trip with operations over multiple time zones and performance challenging airports through out the trip. My day started at well before sunrise which equates to even earlier in home time zone. In the future I will ask the pilot not flying to concentrate their attention inside the cockpit with call outs indicating when over fixes. Perhaps; a direct track to the first fix on the departure could help in avoiding the mistake I made.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A high performance aircraft Captain flying the TEB RUUDY 4 Departure started the climb early from 1;500 FT because a CDI heading change made him think he was at WENTZ.

Narrative: After I had leveled off at 1;500 MSL prior to WENTZ Intersection I noticed the CDI cycle from the 240 degree heading to the 260 degree track to WENTZ Intersection. I mistakenly thought that this change in track indicated I was over head WENTZ. I began to climb to the next altitude per the SID which is 2;000 FT MSL. I realized my early climb at 1;700 FT MSL and immediately returned to 1;500 FT. The pilot not flying reported our actual altitude to ATC and told them that we were immediately correcting. We do not feel traffic separation was violated. Prior to departure we followed all standard operation procedures including the briefing of the departure with altitudes. I feel several factors led to my deviation: Because of the VMC conditions and the amount of traffic in the area I was diligently searching for traffic with my 'head outside' the cockpit rather than 'head inside' monitoring the instruments. This led to my loss of situational awareness. Due to noise issues at the TEB airport the recommended runway for departure is Runway 24. On this particular day and because of the time of day I was more diligent in my noise reduction departure procedure. This added to my already increased work load as this particular flight required the aircraft to be near maximum gross weight which due to the short length of the runway requiring close to balanced field length for takeoff performance. Additionally; the low altitude level off with rapid changes in aircraft configuration while complying with speed restrictions below Class B airspace; and radio frequency changes all added up to a huge cockpit work load for both pilots. I also feel fatigue was a factor as this was the last day of a 9 day trip with operations over multiple time zones and performance challenging airports through out the trip. My day started at well before sunrise which equates to even earlier in home time zone. In the future I will ask the pilot not flying to concentrate their attention inside the cockpit with call outs indicating when over fixes. Perhaps; a direct track to the first fix on the departure could help in avoiding the mistake I made.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.