Narrative:

This was my first time into this airport with very high terrain. We had a very nice arrival coming in and I was in the pilot not flying position. We stayed on the ground for approximately one hour after our arrival. I contacted the tower to obtain our ATC clearance. The controller spoke very quickly and I had a difficult time understanding his accent. I asked him to standby. I looked over our electronic charts to see it I might find the procedure that he had asked me if I could do. I could not find it so I asked him if he was giving me the runway xx special performance departure. He said no. He said that it would be a runway yy departure and I would have no difficulty with the performance of this departure. While I was speaking with him; my colleague was not present. I carefully studied the initial departure procedure for runway yy. When my colleague came to the cockpit; I discussed the procedure with him as well. To make certain that there was no misunderstandings; I asked the tower controller if this was the procedure that he wanted me to do and he said yes. I asked him this with my colleague present. My colleague had observed that many aircraft were taking off and proceeding up the valley straight ahead. My procedure dictated a steep climb with a left turn. My colleague was convinced that at some point during the initial climb; I would get a clearance to proceed up the valley as well. As I started my climb out; it became obvious to me that I was not going to get such a clearance. I then started my steep left turn as prescribed in the procedure. As soon as I was halfway through the turn with high terrain visible in front of me and in the turn; the tower asked us what procedure are we flying? This really distracted me and I continued my steep climb and turn. He said that there was no problem and cleared us to a point along our route. We were only cleared to 12;000 ft but the performance on my CL30 was so great that when the altitude alert sounded at 11;000; I had such a high rate of climb that I was not able to arrest the climb in a timely enough manner without busting my altitude by 400 ft. I went back down as quickly as I could but even this caused a slight dip below 12;000 by about 200 ft. I was very upset and distracted by the whole event of the takeoff procedure and was happy that there were no passengers on board. The rest of the flight went without incident. I think there are several things that could have help avoid this misunderstanding and altitude bust. The controller was very relaxed in his clearance. Once when I asked him about the continuation of the departure procedure after the initial part; he said to just pull up as hard as I can and the radar controller will give me further clearance. Maybe a callout from the non flying pilot during high performance departure procedures such as 2 ft to level would have been useful as well. This takeoff upset me so much because I did so much to briefing on it; yet it was not what the controller intended for me to do. There were also several crew coordination issues and poor CRM in the cockpit which I discussed with my colleague during our debriefing.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A CL30 departed a foreign high altitude mountainous airport and because of language difficulties departed on an incorrect SID which required such a high rate of climb that he overshot his altitude.

Narrative: This was my first time into this airport with very high terrain. We had a very nice arrival coming in and I was in the pilot not flying position. We stayed on the ground for approximately one hour after our arrival. I contacted the Tower to obtain our ATC clearance. The Controller spoke very quickly and I had a difficult time understanding his accent. I asked him to standby. I looked over our electronic charts to see it I might find the procedure that he had asked me if I could do. I could not find it so I asked him if he was giving me the Runway XX special performance departure. He said no. He said that it would be a Runway YY departure and I would have no difficulty with the performance of this departure. While I was speaking with him; my colleague was not present. I carefully studied the initial departure procedure for Runway YY. When my colleague came to the cockpit; I discussed the procedure with him as well. To make certain that there was no misunderstandings; I asked the Tower Controller if this was the procedure that he wanted me to do and he said yes. I asked him this with my colleague present. My colleague had observed that many aircraft were taking off and proceeding up the valley straight ahead. My procedure dictated a steep climb with a left turn. My colleague was convinced that at some point during the initial climb; I would get a clearance to proceed up the valley as well. As I started my climb out; it became obvious to me that I was not going to get such a clearance. I then started my steep left turn as prescribed in the procedure. As soon as I was halfway through the turn with high terrain visible in front of me and in the turn; the Tower asked us what procedure are we flying? This really distracted me and I continued my steep climb and turn. He said that there was no problem and cleared us to a point along our route. We were only cleared to 12;000 FT but the performance on my CL30 was so great that when the altitude alert sounded at 11;000; I had such a high rate of climb that I was not able to arrest the climb in a timely enough manner without busting my altitude by 400 FT. I went back down as quickly as I could but even this caused a slight dip below 12;000 by about 200 FT. I was very upset and distracted by the whole event of the takeoff procedure and was happy that there were no passengers on board. The rest of the flight went without incident. I think there are several things that could have help avoid this misunderstanding and altitude bust. The Controller was very relaxed in his clearance. Once when I asked him about the continuation of the departure procedure after the initial part; he said to just pull up as hard as I can and the Radar Controller will give me further clearance. Maybe a callout from the non flying pilot during high performance departure procedures such as 2 FT to level would have been useful as well. This takeoff upset me so much because I did so much to briefing on it; yet it was not what the Controller intended for me to do. There were also several crew coordination issues and poor CRM in the cockpit which I discussed with my colleague during our debriefing.

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.