A320 Smoke Drill Questions

[EZY Rider]

Hi there everyone,

I'm just playing around with some hypothetical 'Failure Management' scenarios & I have a question or two about the Smoke Drill on the A320.

I know certain aspects of this have been covered here before, but it's the Failure Management side that I'm particularly interested in.

The stuff beyond ANC, DODAR.

Assume you're in the cruise & a large amount of perceptible smoke is generated in the flight deck. No immediate ECAM generated.

Now I know it's masks on, establish comms, immediate actions from the QRH smoke drill & get yourself pointing towards an airport for an expeditious landing.
Communicating along the way where appropriate.

It's beyond this that it gets woolly.

As you proceed further into the drill, do you cross confirm push button selections, or do you just get the FO to press on to a pre-agreed point in the checklist to allow regular reviews & also to allow each pilot to work simultaneously towards the successful outcome?

Does the emergency descent checklist feature? Or is it just an expeditious descent towards your airfield of choice?
The smoke drill is written in BIG WRITING so as to be visible during a smoke event, the emergency descent checklist is not. Perhaps that's my answer?

I think having written this down that it's just the two queries above that are foxing me, ie emergency descent checklist? & the issue of cross confirmation.

Be gentle with me... ha ha.

But any gems of wisdom from you experienced A320 gurus would be very gratefully received.

[Amadis of Gaul]

I'm not an A320 guru, but I've been flying the airplane for almost three years now, and besides, I don't think your situation is necessarily A320-specific.

If we have a "large, perceptible amount of smoke" on the flight deck, getting the silly thing on the ground is Priority One and really Priority Only. Checklist compliance quickly becomes a moot point, if the airplane burns up around you while you're trying to run it.

So, my "gem of wisdom" would be to head for the nearest suitable runway, and do the best you can with the checklist. If there is enough smoke, I may not be able to cross-confirm anything anyway.

[EZY Rider]

Thanks for being my one and only response. :)

I agree & as I said in my post that's what I'd be doing, however I'm looking to add a bit of polish to this procedure for the sake of Sim checks & I was wondering how our more experienced guys attacked it.

As someone once said, "the only place that you should be conducting a Smoke Drill is enroute to a suitable airfield," wise words.

Thanks again for your response.

[Amadis of Gaul]

Glad to help.