A corporate aircraft departing teb on the ruudy departure leveled at 1000 ft MSL instead of climbing...

Narrative:

Taking off from teterboro; new jersey airport on the ruudy 1 departure; we leveled at 1000 ft MSL instead of the required 1500 ft MSL. This was due to improperly setting the altimeters. The pressure had dropped significantly since arriving at teb. The crew failed to reset the altimeters properly. The error was noticed on initial level off when ATC mentioned a discrepancy in altitude and we immediately corrected. There are three areas that should have caught this error - pre-flight; after start; and taxi checks. Generally on taxi; the call is read altimeter checks with field elevation. How we missed this was not paying full attention to what we were doing at hand. There was some preoccupation with an RNAV departure; which really isn't much different than the teterboro 5; but; was the first time we had used this particular departure. Other than that there were no real distractions; even that was negligible. Complacency would be a causal factor. To correct the situation; the crew needs to stay in sync with what they are doing and not just saying a check list. A basic check from the first day of flying; 'altimeter checks with field elevation' should be looked at and stated. Set at least the standby altimeter when getting the ATIS; that way at least one altimeter will be wrong if you forget to set the meter on power-up.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A corporate aircraft departing TEB on the RUUDY departure leveled at 1000 FT MSL instead of climbing to the charted 1500 FT. Complacency and mis set altimeters were cited as factors.

Narrative: Taking off from Teterboro; New Jersey airport on the RUUDY 1 Departure; we leveled at 1000 FT MSL instead of the required 1500 FT MSL. This was due to improperly setting the altimeters. The pressure had dropped significantly since arriving at TEB. The crew failed to reset the altimeters properly. The error was noticed on initial level off when ATC mentioned a discrepancy in altitude and we immediately corrected. There are three areas that should have caught this error - pre-flight; after start; and taxi checks. Generally on taxi; the call is read altimeter checks with field elevation. How we missed this was not paying full attention to what we were doing at hand. There was some preoccupation with an RNAV departure; which really isn't much different than the Teterboro 5; but; was the first time we had used this particular departure. Other than that there were no real distractions; even that was negligible. Complacency would be a causal factor. To correct the situation; the crew needs to stay in sync with what they are doing and not just saying a check list. A basic check from the first day of flying; 'altimeter checks with field elevation' should be looked at and stated. Set at least the standby altimeter when getting the ATIS; that way at least one altimeter will be wrong if you forget to set the meter on power-up.

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	863436
Time
Date	200912
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
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 RUUDY1
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 60 Flight Crew Total 7000 Flight Crew Type 400
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Undershoot Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

A corporate aircraft departing teb on the ruudy departure leveled at 1000 ft MSL instead of climbing to the charted 1500 ft. Complacency and mis set altimeters were cited as factors.