B737-400 flight crew reports forgetting to reset altimeters to 29.92 passing 18;000 ft in the climb;...

Narrative:

I departed on day 4 of a 4 day trip. First flight of the day; [we had a] low altimeter setting; 28.59. On climb we did not get the altimeter set to 29.92 passing 18;000 ft. This resulted in us being 1;300 ft above our assigned altitude at level off. ATC informed us we were off altitude.I see 3 reasons why this happened. First when we were passing 18;000 ft we were working with ATC on a reroute. There was confusion on what our new route was. This confusion over the clearance distracted us at the time we should have set the altimeter to 29.92. Second; we have no climb check. Third; we were on the last day of a 4 day trip that we flew over 28 hours. The 4 day trip involved many weather issues; holding; and many operational irregularities. We were tired. Our trip had swapped early flying for late flying for early flying. We ended up overflying by 3.5 hrs. I don't think we realized just how fatigued we were.we corrected the altimeter setting and corrected the altitude. Trip parings should be built that try to avoid flipping the circadian clock; also two five leg days in a 4 day trip that also flies two transcontinental flights has a very high potential for fatigue to build up over the course of the trip. Any way you look at it flying over 28 hrs in four days is fatiguing.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-400 flight crew reports forgetting to reset altimeters to 29.92 passing 18;000 FT in the climb; resulting in a 1;300 FT overshoot due to very low altimeter setting. Crew cites fatigue and ATC distractions as contributing factors.

Narrative: I departed on day 4 of a 4 day trip. First flight of the day; [we had a] low altimeter setting; 28.59. On climb we did not get the altimeter set to 29.92 passing 18;000 FT. This resulted in us being 1;300 FT above our assigned altitude at level off. ATC informed us we were off altitude.I see 3 reasons why this happened. First when we were passing 18;000 FT we were working with ATC on a reroute. There was confusion on what our new route was. This confusion over the clearance distracted us at the time we should have set the altimeter to 29.92. Second; we have no climb check. Third; we were on the last day of a 4 day trip that we flew over 28 hours. The 4 day trip involved many weather issues; holding; and many operational irregularities. We were tired. Our trip had swapped early flying for late flying for early flying. We ended up overflying by 3.5 hrs. I don't think we realized just how fatigued we were.We corrected the altimeter setting and corrected the altitude. Trip parings should be built that try to avoid flipping the circadian clock; also two five leg days in a 4 day trip that also flies two transcontinental flights has a very high potential for fatigue to build up over the course of the trip. Any way you look at it flying over 28 hrs in four days is fatiguing.

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	880605
Time
Date	201003
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-400
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Overshoot Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural FAR

B737-400 flight crew reports forgetting to reset altimeters to 29.92 passing 18;000 ft in the climb; resulting in a 1;300 ft overshoot due to very low altimeter setting. Crew cites fatigue and ATC distractions as contributing factors.