A foreign corporate pilot reported exceeding the teb RUDDY2 1;500 ft altitude constraint by 200 ft. ...

Narrative:

We busted our level by 200 ft before correcting. This was our first visit to teb for several years. We had noted the NOTAM change of altitude to the RUDDY2 departure off runway 24 and had discussed how to achieve this without FMS and hand flying. We had become slightly over-occupied with noise abatement achievement. We failed to note that there is a level off at 1500 ft on the commercial SID plate. Given the emphasis at teb on noise abatement; I believe we had expected it to be a 'be at or above by this point'. Europe commercial SID's illustrate such step climbs in thick highlighted boxes or with an overline feature. Here it was a simple box. There is also nothing of note in the written SID briefing above leveling off at 1500 ft. A minor point but in certain instance in the uk (eg eggw) there is one last verbal reminder by ATC of the step climb. We accept responsibility; and apologize for not assimilating the plate fully; but wish to point out how flawed the plate design is; we believe we had been drawn into expecting it an 'at or above' note and not a level off.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A foreign corporate pilot reported exceeding the TEB RUDDY2 1;500 FT altitude constraint by 200 FT. The usual European altitude constraint symbology is slightly different from the US and the reporter expected to be at or above 1;500'.

Narrative: We busted our level by 200 FT before correcting. This was our first visit to TEB for several years. We had noted the NOTAM change of altitude to the RUDDY2 departure off Runway 24 and had discussed how to achieve this without FMS and hand flying. We had become slightly over-occupied with noise abatement achievement. We failed to note that there is a level off at 1500 FT on the commercial SID plate. Given the emphasis at TEB on noise abatement; I believe we had expected it to be a 'be at or above by this point'. Europe Commercial SID's illustrate such step climbs in thick highlighted boxes or with an overline feature. Here it was a simple box. There is also nothing of note in the written SID briefing above leveling off at 1500 FT. A minor point but in certain instance in the UK (eg EGGW) there is one last verbal reminder by ATC of the step climb. We accept responsibility; and apologize for not assimilating the plate fully; but wish to point out how flawed the plate design is; we believe we had been drawn into expecting it an 'at or above' note and not a level off.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	849705
Time
Date	200908
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	TEB.Airport
State Reference	NJ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Route In Use	SID RUDY2
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 2500 Flight Crew Type 250
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Overshoot Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A foreign corporate pilot reported exceeding the teb RUDDY2 1;500 ft altitude constraint by 200 ft. The usual european altitude constraint symbology is slightly different from the us and the reporter expected to be at or above 1;500'.