Narrative:

Our flight had no problems; but we can see a real possiblity of issues with new climb via SID's relating to the houston RNAV departures. I had heard from another pilot that they had an issue; so we were ready for the inconsistency. Called him after our flight and found out he had not filed an event report or ASRS. We had a 'climb via' on the GUMBY1 departure from iah. It has a 5;000 foot level off and then says to maintain 4;000. (My first officer missed this on his departure preparation; but I had heard about it previously.) on the 'climb via' departures the crews are not supposed to give the altitude they are climbing to... Quite a chance for confusion and altitude busts in a congested terminal airspace!no event; but very high chance of confusion and possibly a major incident/accident. The problem is the confusing RNAV departure plates for houston - which includes the GUMBY1; but also the MMALT1; the MMUGS1; and the RITAA1 from what I could see. Rewrite the RNAV departures out of iah to get rid of the cleared altitude inconsistencies. And rethink the 'climb via' changes; especially in these terminal areas where they don't really save any time and can be confusing. When the crews just say 'climbing via the XXX SID' we are giving up a valuable barrier to miscommunication on altitude assignments. And the average pilot (and many controllers) seem to be finding the ensueing modifications on altitudes and speeds confusing.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: EMB-190 Captain believes the new RNAV departures out of IAH are an accident waiting to happen; due to the 4;000 foot altitude restriction hidden in the routing box.

Narrative: Our flight had no problems; but we can see a real possiblity of issues with new Climb Via SID's relating to the Houston RNAV departures. I had heard from another pilot that they had an issue; so we were ready for the inconsistency. Called him after our flight and found out he had not filed an event report or ASRS. We had a 'climb via' on the GUMBY1 Departure from IAH. It has a 5;000 foot level off and then says to maintain 4;000. (My First Officer missed this on his departure preparation; but I had heard about it previously.) On the 'Climb Via' departures the crews are not supposed to give the altitude they are climbing to... Quite a chance for confusion and altitude busts in a congested terminal airspace!No event; but very high chance of confusion and possibly a major incident/accident. The problem is the confusing RNAV departure plates for Houston - which includes the GUMBY1; but also the MMALT1; the MMUGS1; and the RITAA1 from what I could see. Rewrite the RNAV departures out of IAH to get rid of the cleared altitude inconsistencies. And rethink the 'Climb Via' changes; especially in these terminal areas where they don't really save any time and can be confusing. When the crews just say 'climbing via the XXX SID' we are giving up a valuable barrier to miscommunication on altitude assignments. And the average pilot (and many controllers) seem to be finding the ensueing modifications on altitudes and speeds confusing.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.