A320 SEC's, FAC's & ELAC's

[regor]

A320 SEC, FAC & ELAC FAULTS

Can anyone confirm, or deny, that SEC, FAC and ELAC fault indications are fairly common on the A320.

Is it standard practice to just cycle the relevant switches which then clears the fault, or is this a QRH actionable event?

Does this happen primarily when the flight deck is powered from cold, or at any stage of the flight?

Any details of experience with these type of faults would be useful.

R.

[Hand Solo]

Relatively common on the ground, never experienced one in the air. Usually associated with powering the aircraft from cold or power changes from GPU to APU or vice versa. A quick reset usually does the trick, as with most faults on the Airbus. Failures generally bring up an ECAM drill which usually calls for..... a reset of the computer!

[320DRIVER]

If you look up in FCOM 3 there are some good poitns/notes in the ABNORM section for ELAC 1(2) FAULT if you are unable to clear it by a simple p/b reset (on ground).

As a rule, follow the new QRH computer reset guidelines which have been introduced not too long ago.

[mono]

Of course it's a QRH action and the ECAM QRH Tells you to.......

Cycle the relevant switch!

In my (engineering) experience a fairly common fault. We will change the offending item if there have been several occurances, but one every once in a while will require no action other that to bite check the computer to check it is functioning correctly.

Cheers.

[A4]

One ELAC fault whilst airborne in nearly 5 years on the Bus. Very reliable. As stated earlier, faults usually occur when cold or on power transient (GPU to APU) but again this is VERY rare.

A4

[Tree]

Very common on the ground.
Rare in flight (thankfully).

[regor]

Thanks for all the replies.

It makes useful ammunition for instructors who believe that these types of faults do not occur!

R.