The first officer of a B757; performing a special departure procedure from runway 1 at dca; experien...

Narrative:

Departure from dca; weather was 500 ovc. We briefed the special critical performance procedure for runway 1. I was set up on my side with the 343 radial and VOR. We were very light for take-off. We had to re align the irus at the gate because our position was offset on the depiction. A quick alignment looked ok. The take-off events happened very rapidly. Once airborne the deck angle was approaching 20 degrees; initial VOR needle indications were sporadic due to the position of the VOR and probably our altitude by the end of the runway. We were IMC very quickly and I initiated a left turn; even with the initial VOR needle indication showing I needed to come right. I rolled out of some bank; the CDI was very jumpy; I came back left ahead of the needle. When it stabilized it was maybe 1/2 dot deflection to the left. I continued left bank and tried to stabilize an unstable CDI. The cockpit was extremely busy. The takeoff procedure happened very rapidly; deck angle was high; CDI was all over; flaps were being retracted; climb power selected; pitch angle decreased; radio change to departure; flaps retracted and ATC assigned 11;000 ft. Then we heard our call sign 'climb maintain 5;000' which caused confusion since I believe we were already passing 5;500 at the time. I believe the call was actually for the aircraft behind us. Now it was about 2.7 DME and I initiated a left turn to intercept the 328 radial when ATC called us with a 300 degree heading. I didn't feel I could connect the autopilot until I was stable on the heading. I didn't need any autopilot issues. Once stable on the 300 heading I engaged the autopilot. Once on the 300 heading we received a TA; then ATC assigned us a 320 heading. Things then calmed down. All these events happened within about three miles of the dca VOR. I did not expect this departure to be so challenging; I should have anticipated our increase in performance with such a light load; and been more aggressive to correct to the CDI; or even flown a heading until the CDI stabilized. I will not use raw data again for a departure. It would have been more accurate to build the departure and back it up with raw data.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The First Officer of a B757; performing a special departure procedure from Runway 1 at DCA; experienced work overload and got behind the aircraft. Vectoring was received from ATC to re-establish situational awareness and to avoid the restricted areas to the North of the airport.

Narrative: Departure from DCA; weather was 500 OVC. We briefed the Special Critical Performance Procedure for Runway 1. I was set up on my side with the 343 radial and VOR. We were very light for take-off. We had to re align the IRUs at the gate because our position was offset on the depiction. A quick alignment looked OK. The take-off events happened very rapidly. Once airborne the deck angle was approaching 20 degrees; initial VOR needle indications were sporadic due to the position of the VOR and probably our altitude by the end of the runway. We were IMC very quickly and I initiated a left turn; even with the initial VOR needle indication showing I needed to come right. I rolled out of some bank; the CDI was very jumpy; I came back left ahead of the needle. When it stabilized it was maybe 1/2 dot deflection to the left. I continued left bank and tried to stabilize an unstable CDI. The cockpit was extremely busy. The takeoff procedure happened very rapidly; deck angle was high; CDI was all over; flaps were being retracted; climb power selected; pitch angle decreased; radio change to departure; flaps retracted and ATC assigned 11;000 FT. Then we heard our call sign 'climb maintain 5;000' which caused confusion since I believe we were already passing 5;500 at the time. I believe the call was actually for the aircraft behind us. Now it was about 2.7 DME and I initiated a left turn to intercept the 328 radial when ATC called us with a 300 degree heading. I didn't feel I could connect the autopilot until I was stable on the heading. I didn't need any autopilot issues. Once stable on the 300 heading I engaged the autopilot. Once on the 300 heading we received a TA; then ATC assigned us a 320 heading. Things then calmed down. All these events happened within about three miles of the DCA VOR. I did not expect this departure to be so challenging; I should have anticipated our increase in performance with such a light load; and been more aggressive to correct to the CDI; or even flown a heading until the CDI stabilized. I will not use raw data again for a departure. It would have been more accurate to build the departure and back it up with RAW data.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	988393
Time
Date	201201
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	PCT.TRACON
State Reference	VA
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Climb
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 137 Flight Crew Total 9713 Flight Crew Type 1723
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Altitude Overshoot Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

The first officer of a B757; performing a special departure procedure from runway 1 at dca; experienced work overload and got behind the aircraft. Vectoring was received from ATC to re-establish situational awareness and to avoid the restricted areas to the north of the airport.