Loose Articles on Airbus (A320?) Pedestal
 

Many years ago at a previous airline, I remember reading a Safety Bulletin in the Flight Crew Manuals that outlined the importance of NOT having loose items on the flight deck, PARTICULARLY in relation to having them on the aircraft pedestal.

I have been searching for it but since the A320 manuals format has changed and at my airline our manuals are now digital I can't seem to find the darn thing. Is anyone familiar with what I'm talking about and if so does this bulletin still exists as a stand-alone or maybe has been incorporated somewhere in the Flight Crew Manuals?

Thanks

I don't remember seeing that in the manuals, but loose crap on the pedestal seems a bad idea just from the common sense perspective, does it not?

You're right AoG - that was in the days of the FCOM Bulletins (Blue pages in the paper FCOM).
I think they disappeared when most of the info in them was transferred to the new FCTM.
mcdhu

Seems like very good advice for any a/c. Common sense is not type rated

The Airbus safety magazine on the ipad had an article on unsecured items in the cockpit in general. Don't recall which edition though.

Hi Jasavir,

https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...t_2_Ex_Pub.pdf

FCTM: Clean Cockpit
"Objects not stored in their dedicated area in the cockpit may fall and cause hazards such as damage the equipment or accidentally operate controls or pushbuttons. Airbus highly recommends that the flight crews put and store all objects in their dedicated area in the cockpit:
Cups in the cup holders
Books and paper, if any, in the lateral stowage
Trash in the waste bin in the lateral console
Meal trays on the floor behind the flight crew. The flight attendants should collect the meal trays as soon as possible
Personal equipment properly secured in the various stowage area."

There was a story doing the rounds in the late 90s about a 747-400 crew doing the 'Annual Technical Questionnaire' whilst in the cruise. (Not the one that I helped to write, I'm happy to say.)

In the days before iPad 'search functions', the only recourse was to open the manuals and look up the answers. After several questions, there were five or six manuals open and lying around on the aft pedestal. A particularly obtuse question required the opening of yet another manual which was then balanced on the glareshield. Some unfortunate turbulence had the effect of tipping said manual and resulted in it falling onto the Fuel Control Switches. The sharp plastic edge of the manual's cover caught one of the switches and forced it over the safety and into the 'OFF' position! The story doesn't relate how they completed the subsequent ASR!

I think the title of the Blue Bulletin was "Maintaining an Orderly Cockpit." I very much remember, with a wry smile, our trainer freezing the simulator to let us both read it once we had run out of reasonably flat surfaces to put all the manuals on during some convoluted abnormal procedure.

True story of a 737 crew converting to the 320 and hadn't read the Bulletin. They perched the Panasonic Toughbook EFB on the coaming a la 73, unfortunately it fell off onto the centre pedestal and ruined an ACP. Ac AOG for a couple of days and £10K for a new ACP.
mcdhu

I tried to look into FCOM3 (the old setup) I have from 2010, but the blue FCOM bulletins are not there? Any suggestions?

It was a FCOM BULLETIN ...

Attachment 1632

FCTM: Clean Cockpit
"Objects not stored in their dedicated area in the cockpit may fall and cause hazards

There have been numerous debates & discussions on here over the years, and there are still some ongoing, about today's newbies being over dependant on automation and not being real pilots. And now there is an FCTM feeling the need to educate supposedly intelligent well trained adults that there s a place for everything and everything should be in its place otherwise things might get bent. What is world of aviation coming to? And we've even got guys debating where to find these instructions in FCOM's. Am I too much out of touch or just despairing for the future of my old profession. Or is there a joke in this thread which I'm missing?

Thanks guys for the prompt reply.

As far as those positing the notion of it being common sense, you are preaching to the choir but I recently had a discussion with a guy who didn't seem to believe it was an issue at all.

Apparently, we have a Captain who is big on not having paper clips lying around on the pedestal and this F/O was kinda ridiculing the guy's position.

I told the F/O that I share that captain's position but other than having a common sense opinion for it, I wanted to find something "published" as he didn't seem convinced of this hazard.

Thanks

A little of both, methinks...

Paper clips are banned from our flight decks completely as they tend to fall thru the panels and could cause a short circuit below.

A Royal Air Force (RAF) Airbus KC2 Voyager lost 4400 feet when a digital camera became wedged near the captain’s sidestick.

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...-february-2014