Frequent 'Hot air fault' on A320
 

My airline fleet is suffering with very frequent 'hot air fault' which goes off in the air.. it appears on the approach and also while during engine start for next takeoff..
Any techincal input, what could be reason for such a high frequency of the fault message?

the whole fleet or one particular airframe?

Firstly the message is inhibited during phases 3,4,5,7 +8 so i will be off during take off, reappear at cruise and then disappear again below 800ft approach until after roll-out.

The message is generated by a position to selected disagree of the Hot Air PRV. This will always endeavour to keep the pressure 4psi above the cabin px. I would start at the valve not keeping up with this demand during the cabin pressurisation cycles. But without seeing the PFR or TSM it could be anything.

Airbus's always catch the same diseases, we have a fleet of over 70 and they all seem to get a run of the same problems, we have a theory they are either networked or discuss each others ailments on stand.

Good Luck

almost all aircrafts in the fleet...

your explanation sounds plausible.. I am afraid I don't have the PFRs or TSMs to share.. A definite moment it occurs is - as I put the ENG IGNITION to START position to start the engines...
Any idea why?

I'd be interested to hear how your engineers reply to the tech log entries you make each time this happens.

Surely you have an Engineering technical services who meet regularly with flight ops to iron out exactly this sort of fleetwide problem?

Next time you fly, at the end of your sector after shutdown go to the MCDU press Menu > CFDS then bottom right LSK should be Print PFR.

Do that and post up any faults relating to the Hot Air Fault.

Or is it just that you're getting the ECAM message temporarily but no fault messages recorded?

Today I had this fault again and I found out that hot air valve is getting stuck in the open position irrespective of the switch position or various logics. I spoke to the AME. he guessed it is the summer season in India that is the culprit. In summers we have lot of dust in the air that settles down on this valve over a period of time and spoils its spring function. I am sceptic about this explanation. There are many other such valves in this aircraft. if a theory is applicable to one, it should be applicable to all.. isn't it?

The valve works with muscle pressure and have problems with muscle pressure filter pollution, BUT then it stays in the closed position. (see TFU 21.63.00.021)
Let this :mad: AME change the valve.

BTW: "There are many other such valves in this aircraft." :=

You know that every time you change the temperature controls on the flight deck, you have to call the cabin and tell the crew to reset the Flight Attendant Panel?