Narrative:

[On the] teb runway 24 SID. [I] discussed with first officer that the initial altitude set would be 1;500 ft and to turn right 280 degrees reaching 1;500 ft but to not climb to 2;000 ft until 4.5 NM from the teb VOR. He said he understood. At 400 ft he called for climb power. I was setting climb power; calling departure control; and head down programming the flight guidance to 'climb'; 'heading'; and 'yaw dampner'. The first officer stated he was distracted by the aircraft instability in the yaw axis due to some turbulence and was looking down at the control panel to see if the yaw damper was on. It was at this time that he allowed the aircraft to climb above the 1;500 ft restriction. We were at 1;700 ft. When I realized the deviation and ATC called and reminded us we should be at 1;500 ft. I advised we were taking immediate action to return to 1;500 ft. Max altitude was 1;800 ft. Return to 1;500 ft was immediate. The total event lasted less than 30 seconds. There was no conflict. There was no other comment from the controller. In debriefing the first officer we discussed that had he been IFR on the instruments this probably would not have happened; and that he must in the future remember that the first order of priority is to 'fly the aircraft'; and to not let himself be distracted. He could have just waited until I got the programming done and/or inquired verbally if the yaw damper was on. In the future my briefing will be to absolutely stop at 1;500 ft; do not get distracted; and nearly everything else is secondary.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Taxi First Officer; distracted by turbulence; failed to level at 1;500 FT on the TEB Runway 23 SID but returned to 1;500 FT immediately after realizing his error.

Narrative: [On the] TEB Runway 24 SID. [I] discussed with First Officer that the initial altitude set would be 1;500 FT and to turn right 280 degrees reaching 1;500 FT but to not climb to 2;000 FT until 4.5 NM from the TEB VOR. He said he understood. At 400 FT he called for climb power. I was setting climb power; calling Departure Control; and head down programming the flight guidance to 'CLIMB'; 'HDG'; and 'YAW DAMPNER'. The First Officer stated he was distracted by the aircraft instability in the yaw axis due to some turbulence and was looking down at the control panel to see if the yaw damper was on. It was at this time that he allowed the aircraft to climb above the 1;500 FT restriction. We were at 1;700 FT. When I realized the deviation and ATC called and reminded us we should be at 1;500 FT. I advised we were taking immediate action to return to 1;500 FT. Max altitude was 1;800 FT. Return to 1;500 FT was immediate. The total event lasted less than 30 seconds. There was no conflict. There was no other comment from the Controller. In debriefing the First Officer we discussed that had he been IFR on the instruments this probably would not have happened; and that he must in the future remember that the first order of priority is to 'fly the aircraft'; and to not let himself be distracted. He could have just waited until I got the programming done and/or inquired verbally if the yaw damper was on. In the future my briefing will be to absolutely stop at 1;500 FT; do not get distracted; and nearly everything else is secondary.

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.