A330/40 RTO and Evacuation

[vilas]

Hello everybody
I couldn't agree more with NFZ in general. Airbus industry has a website airbus world only available to it's customers. It is password protected and airlines are supposed to give access to their pilots. This has nice pictorial presentations and discussions on many issues that go beyond FCOMS. I was surprised that many operators keep this as a secret or are simply not interested. If line pilots had access to it you wouldn't find any airbus pilot asking at least the theoretical questions on this forum. The airline Ops division should write to airbusFBW STDs and seek clarifications before changing any procedures but many rarely do it.
In 2008 the reason for the change in ENG FIRE and EVAC procedure was nicely explained. The difference in A320 and A330/340 procedure comes from the fact that on the A330/340 after all engines are shut all DUs remain supplied through batteries while on A320 they are not. The old procedure for both was similar till All engine masters Off. At this point A320 ECAM disappeared and you had to switch to EVAC paper procedure in the dark or dim light. So they modified both A330/A340 and A320 procedures so that they are similar to a point. Previously ATC(VHF) Notify came after the second engine was shut down when A320 went blank. New procedure is based on following logic:
Stop the aircraft: Thrust levers idle, when A/C stopped Parking brakes ON
Communicate: ATC(VHF1)..Notify, Cabin crew(PA)..Alert
Manage the fire: Engine master Off(Affected), Fire PB..Push(Affected), Agents 1+2 Discharge.
Secure the aircraft for evacuation: Delta pressure..Check zero, Engine masters.. all off, Fire PB Engine and APU..Push, Agents Eng and APU..As reqd.
Then comes Evac required/not required.
For A320, after Agent 1+2 discharge they added EMER EVAC PROC Apply so you move to paper procedure first in good light and do everything from it as shut down the other engine etc.
Since captain may need to communicate with fire services/ATC to build his decision the CM2 does everything on his own till he reads EVAC required?
At this point the get together again.
Waiting to check whether fire is out is a debatable point because how long to wait is not specified and it may aggravate and valuable time may be lost.